QuickEdit

Why QuickEdit

For the post-IDE era: when agents write most of the code, what's left to do by hand is opening a file, reading it and changing a line or two. An IDE is too much for that, and TextEdit too little: no highlighting, curly quotes in your code, and Finder can't even preview a .ts file.

I wanted a simple code editor with good defaults and Quick Look support, without the bloat. QuickEdit opens fast, highlights all the modern languages, previews Markdown and HTML, edits CSV like a spreadsheet, and saves every file byte for byte as it came in, except what you changed. There's nothing to configure and no extensions to install.

Features

• Files as tabs. Every file opens as a native window tab (⌘T for a new one), and a dot marks the tabs with unsaved changes. Autosave and version history like TextEdit, or explicit ⌘S saving if you prefer (Settings).
• Folders. File › Open Folder… (⇧⌘O), or drop a folder on QuickEdit: a file tree sidebar (dotfiles and .gitignored files hidden until you show them), the folder's files as tabs of one window, ⌘P to open any file by name, and New File, New Folder, Rename, Move (drag) and Move to Trash in the tree. Open files follow renames and moves. Files and folders get Material Icon Theme icons, in light and dark variants (or Finder's icons, in Settings).
• Syntax highlighting with tree-sitter for JavaScript/JSX, TypeScript/TSX, Lumiose components (.stsx/.sjsx, with their <style> blocks as CSS), CSS, SCSS/Sass/Less, HTML, Vue, Svelte, Markdown, CSV/TSV (rainbow columns), JSON/JSONC/JSON Lines, YAML, TOML, GraphQL, Protocol Buffers, Terraform/HCL, Nix, SpiceDB schemas, C, C++, Objective-C (.h by content), C#, Java, Kotlin, Swift, Go (+ go.mod), Rust, Zig, Dart, Python, Ruby, PHP, Lua, PowerShell, Metal and GLSL shaders, GDScript and Godot resources and shaders, Dockerfile, CMake, XML (plists, SVG, Xcode files), Xcode .xcconfig, .strings and .pbxproj, INI and config files, shell scripts, Makefiles, SQL, .env, ignore files and diffs. Logs and .txt open as plain text.
• Safe edits. Files are saved byte for byte as they came in, except what you changed:
  • the encoding (UTF-8/16/32 with or without BOM, Windows/ISO Latin, Mac Roman, Shift JIS, …) and line endings (LF, CRLF, CR, even mixed) are kept; the status bar shows them and converts them only when you ask;
  • new lines and pasted text use the file's own line ending, and indentation is detected per file and follows .editorconfig (indent style and size, line endings, trimming, final newline);
  • invisible and look-alike characters (zero-width, bidirectional controls, unusual spaces, stray BOMs) are always marked in orange and counted in the status bar; Show Invisible Characters (⌥⌘I) draws spaces, tabs and line endings;
  • a file another app changes reloads by itself when you have no unsaved edits, and ⌘Z brings back what was showing; with unsaved edits a bar above the text offers Reload or Keep My Edits, and nothing is replaced until you choose;
  • smart quotes, dashes, autocorrect and spell checking are off;
  • files that can't be decoded exactly open read-only, binary property lists open read-only as XML with a Convert to XML button, and binary files are refused.
• Markdown and HTML preview. Editor, split or preview (⌘1 / ⌘2 / ⌘3), live from unsaved edits. Markdown renders like GitHub (tables, task lists, alerts). HTML previews never run scripts; local CSS and images load, remote content only when you allow it for that window.
• CSV and TSV as a table. Switch a CSV/TSV file to Table (⌥⌘T or the status bar) to edit it like a spreadsheet: edit cells, add or delete rows and columns, use the first row as headers. Every change rewrites only the cells it touches, so quoting, the delimiter and line endings stay as they were, and ⌘Z undoes it. Files over 25 MB open as text only.
• Lines. Line numbers, current-line highlight, Go to Line (⌘L), move lines (⌃⌘↑/↓), duplicate (⇧⌘D), delete (⌃⇧K), join (⌃J), sort, indent/outdent (⌘] / ⌘[) and toggle comment (⌘/). Soft wrap on or off, and the status bar can be hidden (View › Show Status Bar).
• Code folding for every language with a tree-sitter grammar (JSON, YAML, CSS, JS/TS, C/C++, Swift, Python, Markdown, HTML, XML…), from the gutter or View › Folding (⌥⌘← / ⌥⌘→, all with ⇧). Folding never changes the file; editing inside a fold, finding text in it or going to one of its lines opens it.
• Voice notes in Markdown. Record from the status bar or ⌃⌘R: the clip goes to <file>.md.assets/ next to the file, is linked at the caret, plays in the preview and can be transcribed on your Mac.
• Finder and Quick Look. TypeScript .ts files (which macOS thinks are videos), YAML, TOML, CSS and Lumiose files get a plain-text Quick Look preview, and Finder's icons and preview pane show their first lines; real .ts videos still play. Settings › File Types makes QuickEdit the default editor for the types you check, and gives a type back to its previous app when you uncheck it.
• Light and dark. Follow the system or pick Light or Dark (View › Appearance).

Requirements

• macOS 26 or later on Apple silicon
• Xcode 26 or later to build

Install

Download the DMG from the latest release and drag QuickEdit to Applications. It's signed and notarized, and updates itself (QuickEdit › Check for Updates…).

Building

git clone https://github.com/itsjavi/quickedit.git
cd quickedit
make install  # builds build/QuickEdit.app and copies it to /Applications

Other targets: make app (release build only), make run (debug build), make test and make test-syntax (unit tests), make grammars (re-vendors the pinned tree-sitter grammars), make icon (redraws the app icon) and make build-notarized (signed and notarized app, zip and DMG in build/release; needs a Developer ID Application identity and a notarytool Keychain profile). make bump V=minor PUSH=1 tags a release for GitHub Actions to build and publish; see docs/releasing.md.

AppKit, Swift 6 and SwiftPM, with no Xcode project. See AGENTS.md for the project layout, build variants and test hooks. The website lives in web/ and is deployed to GitHub Pages on every push to main that touches it.

Credits

Syntax highlighting uses tree-sitter through SwiftTreeSitter and the grammars listed in NOTICES.md. File and folder icons are a subset of the Material Icon Theme (MIT, license). Markdown rendering uses cmark-gfm, and updates use Sparkle.

License

MIT