What's new in MDHero.

🚀 MDHero now updates itself

When a new version is out, click Update now in the update banner — MDHero downloads it, verifies the signature, installs, and relaunches. No more hunting for a download link (macOS + Windows).

This is the last update you'll need to install by hand. From 0.2.6 onward, updates are in-app.

✨ Also in this release

• In-app About dialog — cross-platform, replaces the native macOS-only one (#18, thanks @pushkarchoudhari)
• Fix: Settings dialog no longer scrolls the page behind it (#16, thanks @tejasnilangekar111-maker)

Install

• macOS (Apple Silicon): download MDHero_0.2.6_aarch64.dmg
• Windows: download MDHero_0.2.6_x64_en-US.msi or MDHero_0.2.6_x64-setup.exe

What's new in v0.2.5

🤖 Right-click AI Lookup

Select any text in a Markdown article and right-click → send it to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google, or Wikipedia with one click. Each provider can hold any number of saved prompt templates ("Explain this clearly:", "Summarize:", whatever you write) — define once, reuse forever. There's also a Custom prompt option for ad-hoc one-off use.

URL-based integration only — no API keys, no MDHero-side telemetry. The selection opens in your default browser; MDHero never sees what you sent or what came back.

• Provider and prompt management lives in a new "AI Lookup" section of the Settings dialog (gear icon / Cmd+,)
• Ships with sensible defaults: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google Search, Wikipedia
• Custom prompt works even with nothing selected (just type your prompt)
• Originally requested by @ixuzhe in Discussion #3
• Implemented in #13

📖 Save and restore reading progress per file

Long Markdown files now remember where you stopped. Close a file, come back days later, and MDHero smooth-scrolls to your last position. Anchored on Markdown source lines (not raw scroll position), so it survives font size, window width, and content reflow changes between sessions.

• Silent — no toast, no indicator (the smooth-scroll animation is the feedback)
• Skips short files that fit in viewport entirely
• Survives external file edits (saved line falls back to closest available)
• Originally requested by @ixuzhe in Discussion #6
• Implemented by @pushkarchoudhari in #10

🙏 Thanks to this release's contributors

Huge thanks to @ixuzhe — both of this release's headline features came directly from his thoughtful feature requests in MDHero's Discussions. And to @pushkarchoudhari for shipping the reading-progress implementation, his second contribution to MDHero.

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Downloads

Platform	File	Size
macOS (Apple Silicon)	MDHero_0.2.5_aarch64.dmg	7.5 MB
Windows (installer)	MDHero_0.2.5_x64-setup.exe	4.0 MB
Windows (MSI)	MDHero_0.2.5_x64_en-US.msi	5.1 MB

Requires macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon) or Windows 10+. Intel Mac and Linux builds are not yet shipped — track progress in the Issues tab.

What's new in v0.2.4

🍎 Notarized macOS builds — no more Gatekeeper friction

MDHero is now signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple. On first launch, macOS shows only the standard "This app was downloaded from the Internet" prompt — no more "cannot be verified" warning, no more xattr -cr workaround, no trip through System Settings → Privacy & Security.

If you've been running an older version, the upgrade just works — drag the new app to Applications and double-click.

🎉 New contributor: @vpndev18

A big thank you to @vpndev18 for their first contribution to MDHero — the cleaner inline code rendering below (#9). Welcome!

Press ESC to close — like every other reader

A new Close on Escape setting (on by default) closes the current tab when you press ESC. If it was the last tab, the app fully quits — so MDHero is now usable as the default .md viewer in file managers: right-click → Open With → MDHero → read → ESC.

The toggle lives in a new Settings dialog (gear icon in the toolbar, or Cmd+,). If you'd rather have your old ESC behavior back, flip it off there.

• Reported by @neoarc in #4
• Shipped in #8

Cleaner inline code rendering

Inline code spans like Cmd+O or pnpm install no longer render with literal backtick characters around them. This brings MDHero in line with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and every other Markdown viewer.

• Reported by @neoarc in #5
• Fixed by @vpndev18 in #9

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Downloads

Platform	File	Size
macOS (Apple Silicon)	MDHero_0.2.4_aarch64.dmg	7.5 MB
Windows (installer)	MDHero_0.2.4_x64-setup.exe	3.9 MB
Windows (MSI)	MDHero_0.2.4_x64_en-US.msi	5.1 MB

Requires macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon) or Windows 10+. Intel Mac and Linux builds are not yet shipped — track progress in the Issues tab.

What's new in v0.2.3

🎉 First external contribution

A huge thank you to @pushkarchoudhari for PR #2, the first contribution to MDHero from someone outside the maintainer team. Welcome!

Wider content area for high-DPI displays

The Content Width slider in the reader controls now reaches up to 3840px (full 4K width), up from the previous 1200px cap. Combined with the slider's smoother stepping (80px per stop), MDHero now feels right on ultrawide and 4K monitors.

• Reported by @Gh61 in #1 — thanks for the report 🙏
• Implemented by @pushkarchoudhari in #2

The default content width (720px) is unchanged. Existing readers won't see any visual difference on upgrade — only users who actively pull the slider past 1200px will notice the new range.

Carried over from v0.2.2

• Properly sealed macOS code signature (friendlier Gatekeeper dialog on first launch — see v0.2.2 release notes for the install workaround)

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Downloads

Platform	File	Size
macOS (Apple Silicon)	MDHero_0.2.3_aarch64.dmg	7.4 MB
Windows (installer)	MDHero_0.2.3_x64-setup.exe	4.0 MB
Windows (MSI)	MDHero_0.2.3_x64_en-US.msi	5.1 MB

Requires macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon) or Windows 10+. Intel Mac and Linux builds are not yet shipped — track progress in the Issues tab.

macOS install note

On first launch macOS shows "Apple could not verify…" (we're not enrolled in the Apple Developer Program yet). To bypass:

xattr -cr /Applications/MDHero.app

Or: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. One-time only.

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Full changelog

• feat: increase content width slider max to 3840px for 4K displays (#2 by @pushkarchoudhari) — closes #1
• chore: release v0.2.3 (f6966ba)

Compare v0.2.2…v0.2.3

New Contributors

• @pushkarchoudhari made their first contribution in #2 🎉

What's new in v0.2.2

One thing: a macOS install fix. No new features. If you're on Windows, nothing changes for you — feel free to skip the upgrade.

The bug

Every macOS DMG MDHero has shipped (v0.1.0 through v0.2.1) had a subtly malformed ad-hoc code signature: the linker signed the binary, but the bundle's Resources/ and Info.plist were never sealed by codesign. Mac users who downloaded the DMG saw the harshest possible Gatekeeper dialog:

"MDHero" is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Bin.

That dialog is special — it gives only Cancel and Move to Bin, with no workaround. Right-click → Open doesn't work. The xattr trick partially works but is hostile.

The fix

Set bundle.macOS.signingIdentity = "-" in tauri.conf.json so Tauri runs codesign --force --deep after assembling the bundle, properly sealing Resources/ and Info.plist. Verified locally and against the CI-built DMG:

	v0.2.1	v0.2.2
Signature flags	adhoc, linker-signed	adhoc, runtime
Sealed Resources	none	version=2 rules=13 files=1
codesign --verify --deep	fails	passes

What you'll see now

Mac users will still get a Gatekeeper dialog on first launch (no Apple Developer ID = no notarization). But the dialog now reads:

"MDHero" Not Opened. Apple could not verify "MDHero" is free of malware...

Crucially, this dialog has a workaround.

How to install on macOS

1. Download MDHero_0.2.2_aarch64.dmg
2. Drag MDHero to Applications
3. Try to open it once — you'll see the Gatekeeper dialog above. Click Done
4. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, click Open Anyway next to MDHero, enter your password
5. Done — MDHero opens normally from now on

Faster workaround (Terminal):

xattr -cr /Applications/MDHero.app

Then double-click MDHero — launches with no further prompts.

Both methods are one-time only.

The longer-term plan

A proper Apple Developer ID + notarization (Apple Developer Program, $99/yr) would eliminate the Gatekeeper dialog entirely. That's on the roadmap but not yet justified by Mac install volume. v0.2.2 is the best the free-tier path can do.

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Downloads

Platform	File	Size
macOS (Apple Silicon)	MDHero_0.2.2_aarch64.dmg	7.4 MB
Windows (installer)	MDHero_0.2.2_x64-setup.exe	~4 MB
Windows (MSI)	MDHero_0.2.2_x64_en-US.msi	~5 MB

Requires macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon only) or Windows 10+. Intel Mac support is not yet built — coming in a later release.

Full changelog

Single commit: 2d1c295 — v0.2.2: fix malformed ad-hoc signature on macOS DMG

What's new in v0.2.1

A small but meaningful release focused on how MDHero tells you about updates — and giving you ways to find out yourself.

Update notifications

• Home tab banner — when a new version is out, you'll see an inline banner above your recents/pinned folders. Cleaner than waiting for the floating toast to catch your eye.
• "Check for Updates…" menu item — under the MDHero menu. Bypasses the 24h throttle, useful when you want to see if there's something new right now.
• Smarter dismissal — clicking "Later" now hides only that specific version. When the next release ships, you'll see the new banner again. No more "Later" forever.

Update infrastructure

• MDHero now checks mdhero.app/api/version (with api.github.com as a fallback). This lets us see aggregate update-check counts for sizing the project without storing any user data.
• The request sends only your current version and OS family (darwin/win32/linux). No device IDs, no IPs in storage, no telemetry. SECURITY.md has the full disclosure.

Carried over from v0.2.0

The lightweight in-app editor (Cmd+E to edit, Cmd+S to save) and source-line scroll sync.

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Downloads

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon)	MDHero_0.2.1_aarch64.dmg
Windows (installer)	MDHero_0.2.1_x64-setup.exe
Windows (MSI)	MDHero_0.2.1_x64_en-US.msi

Requires macOS 12+ or Windows 10+.

Existing v0.2.0 users: the update banner will appear automatically the next time the app checks (within 24h of opening). Or trigger it now via MDHero → Check for Updates… once you upgrade.

See the full changelog in the commit history.

Install

• macOS: Download the .dmg file
• Windows: Download the .msi installer or .exe (NSIS)

See the full changelog in the commit history.

Install

• macOS: Download the .dmg file
• Windows: Download the .msi installer or .exe (NSIS)