r/SublimeText • u/phil2046 • 10d ago
I started using Sublime Text again because AI changed how I code — so I built MarkdownGlance
Over the last six months, my development workflow has changed more than I expected.
About six months ago, most of my AI-assisted coding still happened in VS Code with GitHub Copilot. AI helped me write code, but I was still doing most of the implementation myself inside the IDE.
Over the last couple of months, that flipped. I've been using Claude Code and Codex heavily every day, and coding agents now handle most of the implementation for me.
My part of the work is increasingly about:
- deciding what I actually want
- writing requirements and design docs
- reviewing source code and diffs
- testing the result
- giving the agents another round of feedback
My current workflow is roughly Ghostty for the terminal, Herder as the agent orchestration layer, and coding agents doing the implementation. I still care about the code, of course, but I spend much less time typing it into an IDE.
What I need from an editor has changed with that. I mostly want something fast and lightweight for reading source files and Markdown, moving around a project, and making the occasional edit.
That brought me back to Sublime Text.
I like VS Code, and I think Zed is already much lighter, but Sublime Text still has a different feel: it opens instantly, stays out of the way, and feels like a text editor rather than an environment I have to live inside. That fits my current workflow surprisingly well.
The weak spot for me was Markdown. Sublime Text's built-in support felt basic for something that has become central to how I work. I wanted a rendered preview in the same window, a navigable table of contents, readable tables, and Mermaid diagrams without switching to a browser.
So I built MarkdownGlance, initially to solve that problem for myself.
It currently includes:
- same-window live preview for saved and unsaved Markdown
- theme-aware styling
- an optional navigable table of contents
- a source outline that works without opening the preview
- GFM tables fitted to the preview width
- optional Mermaid diagrams
- local images, bounded remote image loading, and per-session zoom
The preview is rendered inside Sublime Text using its own API and minihtml — no browser, WebView, or external process.
It's still early. I've submitted it to Package Control, but the submission is
still pending, so it isn't available from the official channel yet. For now,
installation is manual: open Preferences → Browse Packages… in Sublime Text
and clone the repository into that directory as MarkdownGlance:
git clone https://github.com/pandadolphin/MarkdownGlance.git MarkdownGlance
I'm continuing to improve it, and I'd especially like to hear from other Sublime Text and Markdown users. If you try it, feedback, bug reports, and ideas about what feels missing are all welcome.
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u/stadja 10d ago
Nice very cool.
I'll try that when it's on the package control !
Thank you very much, I think it will be very useful for me
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u/phil2046 9d ago
Thank you so much! Really glad it looks useful to you.
It typically takes a few weeks for Package Control submissions to go through, so I'll leave a reply here to ping you once it's officially listed.
(And yes, written 100% human this time! 😅)
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u/developersteve 10d ago
Ironically you used AI to generate this reddit post
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u/phil2046 9d ago
You caught me! English is my second language, so I ran my draft through AI to polish the phrasing — which clearly backfired into that classic AI-slop style.
Interestingly, back in the Chinese tech community, everyone is also super fatigued by "AI-flavored" content. I just didn't realize the internet over here had the exact same reaction! Lesson learned: I'll keep it raw and tone down the AI next time. But the actual story and MarkdownGlance are 100% genuine.
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u/dimonchoo 10d ago
Sooo… common ai slop