Marpidian

Native Marp integration for Obsidian. Write Marp presentations in your vault, preview them live, and export to PDF or PNG — without leaving your editor.

Desktop only · Requires Obsidian 1.4.0+

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What it does

Add marp: true to any note's frontmatter. Marpidian automatically opens a live preview panel beside your editor and keeps it in sync as you type.

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marp: true
theme: default
paginate: true
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# My Presentation

Content here.

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# Slide 2

More content.

That's it. No configuration required to get started.

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Features

• Live preview — split-pane preview updates as you type (300ms debounce)
• Auto open/close — preview opens when you switch to a Marp note, closes when you leave
• Custom themes — import your own CSS themes, with hot-reload on file change
• PDF export — one-click export via Marp CLI
• PNG export — export each slide as a numbered PNG (1.png, 2.png, …)
• Theme manager — install, preview, and delete themes from Settings

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Requirements

• Obsidian 1.4.0 or later (desktop only)
• Marp CLI — optional, required for PDF/PNG export

Installing Marp CLI

Marpidian detects Marp CLI automatically if it's in your system PATH. The plugin works without it — you just won't have export buttons.

Install options:

# npm (global)
npm install -g @marp-team/marp-cli

# Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
brew install marp-cli

See the official Marp CLI site for all options.

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Installation

Community plugins (recommended)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins
2. Search for Marpidian
3. Click Install, then Enable

BRAT (beta)

Install BRAT, then add:

https://github.com/haroldparis/marpidian

Manual

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release
2. Copy them to <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/marpidian/
3. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

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Usage

Live preview

Open any Markdown note with marp: true in its frontmatter. The preview panel opens automatically on the right. Navigate away and it closes.

To toggle the preview manually: Command palette → Toggle Marp preview

Exporting

When Marp CLI is installed, two buttons appear in the preview panel header:

Button	Output
PDF	<exportDir>/<filename>/<filename>.pdf
PNG	<exportDir>/<filename>/1.png, 2.png, …

The export directory defaults to .marpidian-exports at the vault root. You can change it in Settings.

Custom themes

1. Open Settings → Marpidian → Import a theme
2. Select a .css file — it must contain a /* @theme your-theme-name */ directive
3. Use it in your notes with theme: your-theme-name in the frontmatter

Themes are stored in .marpidian/ (configurable) and hot-reload on file change: edit your CSS and the preview updates instantly.

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Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Themes folder	.marpidian	Where imported theme CSS files are stored
Export directory	.marpidian-exports	Root directory for PDF and PNG exports
Debug logging	Off	Writes export events to /tmp/marpidian.log

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue before submitting a PR for anything beyond a bug fix.

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/haroldparis/marpidian
cd marpidian
npm install
npm run dev   # watch mode — builds to VAULT_PLUGIN_PATH

Set VAULT_PLUGIN_PATH to your plugin directory, or edit esbuild.config.js directly.

npm test      # unit tests (Vitest)
npm run build # production build

Project structure

src/
  main.ts            # Plugin lifecycle, file detection, orchestration
  MarpPreviewView.ts # Live preview panel, PDF/PNG export
  Themes.ts          # CSS theme registry with caching and hot-reload
  settings.ts        # Settings types
  SettingTab.ts      # Settings UI
  utils.ts           # Pure helpers

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License

ISC · Built with Marp Core