How to watch a Markdown file update live while it is edited

Short answer: if you edit in VS Code, its side-by-side preview updates as you type. If something else writes the file, such as a script, a coding agent or a different editor, use a preview that watches the file on disk: a live-reload tool, or a viewer that follows the file.

Updated 15 October 2026. Quire behaviour comes from its source code; other tools follow their documentation.

Editing in VS Code: the side-by-side preview

Press Ctrl+K then V (⌘K V on a Mac). VS Code’s Markdown preview updates as you type and scrolls with the editor. It follows the active Markdown file by default, so switching files switches the preview.

Editing anywhere: follow the file in Chrome

Quire Markdown is our extension, free on the Chrome Web Store. Its Follow file reads the file from disk, so it doesn’t matter which program makes the change.

Open the file with Open file
In Quire Markdown choose Open file and pick the .md file. Dragging the file in gives a snapshot that can’t be refreshed.
Turn on Follow file
Click Follow file. The button changes to Following.
Edit anywhere
Keep editing in your editor, or let your script or coding agent write the file. While the viewer tab is visible, it checks every two seconds and re-renders when the text has changed.
Pause or refresh
Click Following to pause, or Refresh to reload once.

Quire Markdown in the dark theme with the rendered page and Markdown source side by side — Split view in the dark theme: the rendered page beside the Markdown source.

Some details worth knowing:

Checks pause while the tab is hidden, so put the viewer in its own window beside your editor or terminal.
When the file changes, the page re-renders and keeps your place, so you aren’t thrown back to the top.
Chrome’s access to the file lasts for that viewer session. After closing or reloading the viewer, choose the file again with Open file.
It never writes to the file. It opens UTF-8 files up to 2 MB; images appear as blocked references, and diagrams and math aren’t drawn.

Command-line live reload

These start a small local web server and refresh the browser when you save:

gh markdown-preview, an extension for the GitHub CLI. Live reload is on by default. It renders through GitHub’s Markdown API, so the file’s text is sent to GitHub.
Grip, a Python tool that also uses GitHub’s API and reflects changes without a manual refresh.

Both are good for a README you will publish on GitHub. For private notes or plans you may prefer something that renders locally.

Editors that are their own preview

Typora and Obsidian show Markdown formatted while you type in them, so there is nothing separate to keep in sync. They are a different tool from a preview: you work inside them. See viewer or editor for the trade-offs.

Questions

Why didn’t my preview update when an AI agent changed the file?

Some editor previews follow the editor’s copy of the document rather than the file on disk, and may not notice a change made by another program until the file is reloaded. A tool that reads the file from disk avoids that.

Does following a file use much battery?

Quire reads the file every two seconds only while its tab is visible, and redraws only when the text has changed.

More guides

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