BusyMark – Free & Open-Source Markdown & Writerside Editor for Linux

Source code

Markdown

BusyMark Editor mode showing formatted runbook text, a nested list and checked and unchecked task items. — Formatting and task lists

Writerside documentation

BusyMark Editor mode showing a Relay incident-response procedure and the open Admonition menu. — Admonition controls

Writerside Markdown supports visual and source editing. XML topics use source editing.

Diagrams, API references and mathematics

BusyMark Reading view showing a rendered Mermaid diagram of delivery worker states. — Rendered Mermaid diagram

Editing modes

Markdown can be edited as formatted content or as source. Reading and Split provide two ways to inspect the rendered result.

Editor

Visual Markdown editing

Text is edited in its formatted document. The toolbar applies headings, emphasis, lists and other formatting while diagrams remain visible.

Source

Direct access to the markup

Markdown and Writerside markup remain directly editable, with line numbers, highlighting and folding. Source mode shows this editor without the preview pane.

Reading

The rendered document

The formatting toolbar is absent. Headings, diagrams and other document content are displayed without the Markdown markers.

Split

Source beside its rendered result

The source and rendered document are visible together. Diagram definitions can be inspected alongside the diagrams they produce.

Visual editing is available for Markdown and Writerside Markdown. XML .topic files use source editing.

Git integration

Repository changes and document history within the editing workspace.

BusyMark uses the installed Git command-line tools and the repository’s existing workflow.

Change review

File inspection, staging, unstaging and commits.

File History and Project History

Separate history views, comparisons with the working document, and restoration of earlier file versions.

Branches and remotes

Branch creation and switching, fetch, fast-forward pull, and push.

PDF and HTML export

From a Markdown document or a selected Writerside instance.

PDF

Page layout and typography, independent of the editor’s appearance.

Layout: Page size, orientation and margins.
Typography: Body and code sizes, and accent color.
Navigation: Table of contents, headers, footers and page numbers.

HTML

Portable documents and linked topic pages, readable without BusyMark.

Appearance: Theme, typography, content width and accent color.
Resources: Embedded resources or an assets directory.
Styles: An optional custom stylesheet.

Writerside HTML output retains linked topic pages and an index, including when resources are embedded.

BusyMark provides native exports; it does not run the JetBrains publication builder.

AI assistance

Ollama · OpenAI · Gemini

Document editing

An explicit instruction, change target and document context, with a diff reviewed before application.

Commit-message drafting

A proposed commit message based on the staged Git diff.

Disabled by default. Ollama runs locally; cloud requests use the selected provider.

Text formatting and lists Heading levels, bold, italic and blockquotes are available through formatting controls. Bulleted and numbered lists support nesting, and task checkboxes can be toggled directly in the document.

Tables Table cells are edited in place. Rows and columns can be inserted or deleted, with left, centre and right alignment available for each column.

Code blocks Inline code and fenced code blocks are editable within the document. A code block’s language can be assigned or changed.

Links and images Link destinations and image alternative text can be edited. Local images can be selected from disk, pasted from the clipboard or added by drag and drop.

Procedures and callouts Procedures, interactive tabs and collapsible sections render in the preview. Writerside Markdown includes toolbar controls for Tip, Note, Warning and Quote.

Reusable content and variables Includes and snippets reuse content between topics. Project and local variables are resolved in the preview.

Projects and topic structure Writerside projects and Markdown or XML topics can be created in BusyMark. Topic branches can be reordered or nested within the table of contents using cut and paste.

Instances and conditional content Documentation instances have separate tables of contents and settings. New instances can import Markdown files, and the preview applies the selected instance’s content conditions.