Automatically open Markdown files with a live preview in a horizontal split.

No more pressing Ctrl+K V every time you open a Markdown document.

Features

Automatically opens Markdown Preview when a .md file is opened.
Places the preview below the source editor.
Keeps the source editor focused after opening the preview.
Adds a manual command: Auto Markdown Preview: Open Preview Down.
Includes basic settings for enabling/disabling and preview delay.
Does not modify global VS Code split-view settings.
Lightweight and dependency-free.

Usage

Open any Markdown file.

Instead of only seeing this:

README.md

You automatically get:

┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ README.md                    │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│ Markdown Preview             │
└──────────────────────────────┘

The preview updates live as you edit.

Commands

Open the Command Palette and run:

Auto Markdown Preview: Open Preview Down

This manually opens the Markdown preview below the active Markdown editor.

Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following settings:

{
  "autoMarkdownPreview.enabled": true,
  "autoMarkdownPreview.delayMs": 100
}

`autoMarkdownPreview.enabled`

Enable or disable automatic preview opening.

`autoMarkdownPreview.delayMs`

Delay, in milliseconds, before opening the Markdown preview.

Useful if your workspace or remote environment needs a slightly longer activation delay.

Motivation

VS Code includes an excellent Markdown preview, but opening it requires manually invoking:

Ctrl+K V

If you spend your day writing README files, ADRs, documentation, design notes, wikis, and knowledge-base pages, this quickly becomes repetitive.

This extension makes the preview appear automatically, giving you a documentation-friendly editing flow while staying entirely inside VS Code.

Installation

Install from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace.

Or install manually from a .vsix file:

code --install-extension auto-markdown-preview-*.vsix

Known Limitations

Complex multi-editor layouts may still require manual adjustment.
Preview reuse is intentionally conservative in the first release.
This extension targets local Markdown files with the file URI scheme.

Roadmap

Stronger preview reuse across complex layouts
Horizontal / vertical layout setting
Auto-close preview option
Workspace-specific ignore patterns
Optional status bar toggle
Better remote-workspace behavior

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

Repository: https://github.com/yoava/auto-markdown-preview

License

MIT

Auto Markdown Preview