CLI Reference

marknative ships with a command-line interface that renders Markdown files (or stdin) to PNG or SVG pages without writing any Node.js code.

Installation

npm install -g marknative

Or run without installing:

npx marknative README.md

Synopsis

marknative [options] [input.md]
cat notes.md | marknative [options]

When input.md is omitted, marknative reads from stdin.

Options

Flag	Short	Default	Description
--format <fmt>	-f	png	Output format: png or svg
--output <path>	-o	next to input	File or directory path
--theme <name|json>	-t	default	Built-in theme name or a JSON ThemeOverrides object
--scale <n>	-s	2	PNG pixel-density multiplier
--single-page		false	Render all content into one image
--code-theme <t>		auto	Shiki theme for code blocks
--json		false	Print a JSON manifest instead of file paths
--help	-h		Print help

Built-in themes: default, github, solarized, sepia, rose, dark, nord, dracula, ocean, forest

Output path rules

Condition	Behaviour
No --output, single page	File placed next to the source (e.g. README-01.png)
No --output, stdin	File placed in current directory (output-01.png)
--output with extension, single page	Written to that exact path
--output without extension, or trailing /	Treated as directory; files named <stem>-01.png, <stem>-02.png, …
--format svg, single page, no --output	SVG written to stdout

Examples

# Render a file — pages appear next to README.md
marknative README.md

# Write pages into an explicit directory
marknative README.md -o out/

# Single PNG file (one-page document)
marknative slide.md -o slide.png

# SVG output
marknative diagram.md -f svg -o diagram.svg

# Dark theme, lower scale (fast preview)
cat notes.md | marknative -t dark -s 1 -o preview.png

# High-resolution export
marknative doc.md -s 3 -o print/

# Single-page mode — no pagination
marknative long-doc.md --single-page -o poster.png

# Custom code-block theme
marknative doc.md --code-theme dracula

# Inline JSON theme
marknative doc.md -t '{"colors":{"background":"#1e1e2e","text":"#cdd6f4"}}'

# SVG piped to another tool
marknative doc.md -f svg | rsvg-convert -o doc.pdf

JSON output mode

Pass --json to get a machine-readable manifest — useful in scripts and agent workflows:

marknative report.md --json

{
  "pages": [
    { "index": 1, "path": "/abs/path/report-01.png", "format": "png" },
    { "index": 2, "path": "/abs/path/report-02.png", "format": "png" }
  ]
}

Extract paths with jq:

# All paths as newline-separated list
marknative report.md --json | jq -r '.pages[].path'

# First page only
marknative report.md --json | jq -r '.pages[0].path'

Scale and performance

--scale	Time per page	Typical use
1	~29 ms	Quick preview
2	~99 ms	Default — screen quality
3	~214 ms	High-res / print

The first render in a new process takes an extra 1–3 s for cold-start (skia-canvas, MathJax, Shiki). Subsequent renders in the same process are fast.

Claude Code skill

A companion skill package marknative-skill teaches Claude Code agents how to use the CLI. Install it via the Vercel skills system to let agents render Markdown automatically.