Intended Audience

Glow is built for developers and terminal enthusiasts who prefer to stay in the command line rather than switching to a browser or dedicated app just to read markdown. This page describes who gets the most value from Glow, what prior knowledge you should have, and why it fits naturally into a terminal-centric workflow. Understanding who Glow is designed for helps you decide whether it matches your working style and how to get the most out of it.

Who Glow Is For

Glow targets two overlapping groups: developers who regularly encounter markdown files in their projects — README files, changelogs, API docs, contribution guides — and terminal enthusiasts who prefer to do as much as possible without leaving their shell environment. If you find yourself constantly opening markdown files in a browser or a GUI editor just to read them in a formatted way, Glow solves that friction.

You are in the intended audience if you:

• Spend most of your working day in a terminal emulator
• Frequently read README.md, CHANGELOG.md, or documentation files as part of your development workflow
• Work with tools like git, curl, grep, or less and think of them as natural extensions of how you work
• Want rendered markdown — with proper headings, code blocks, and emphasis — rather than raw plaintext
• Prefer keyboard-driven interfaces over mouse-driven ones

Expected Skill Level

Glow assumes an intermediate level of terminal comfort. You should be at ease navigating the file system from the command line, running programs with flags and arguments, and editing configuration files in a text editor. You do not need to know anything special about markdown rendering engines or terminal UI frameworks — Glow handles all of that for you.

If you are new to the command line, Glow will still work, but you will get more out of it once you are comfortable with shell basics.

What Makes Glow a Good Fit

Glow is particularly well-suited to your workflow when:

• You read more markdown than you write. Glow is a renderer and browser, not an editor. It is optimized for consumption.
• You value aesthetics in the terminal. Glow applies syntax highlighting, styled headings, and readable word wrapping so that markdown feels like a document rather than raw text.
• You want a fast, keyboard-driven experience. The interactive file browser lets you navigate, search, and open files without reaching for a mouse. Keyboard shortcuts keep your hands on the keyboard throughout.
• You work with both local files and remote content. Glow can render local markdown files and fetch markdown from URLs, so it fits naturally into workflows that involve GitHub READMEs, documentation sites, or internal wikis that expose raw markdown.

What Glow Is Not

Glow is not a markdown editor, a static site generator, or a document conversion tool. It does not produce HTML, PDF, or any other output format — its output is styled text rendered directly in your terminal. If your goal is to transform markdown into another format or publish it somewhere, you will want a different tool for that step.

Check whether Glow suits your workflow — render a local README

If you have a markdown file handy, run:

glow README.md

Expected output: your terminal displays the markdown file with styled headings, formatted code blocks, bold and italic text, and proper list indentation — all within the terminal window itself, without opening a browser or external application.

Render a remote markdown file from a URL

Terminal users who frequently browse GitHub or other documentation sources can render markdown directly from a URL:

glow https://raw.githubusercontent.com/charmbracelet/glow/main/README.md

Expected output: Glow fetches the raw markdown and renders it in your terminal with the same styling as a local file. No browser tab required.

Launch the interactive file browser

If you work in a project directory with multiple markdown files and want to browse them interactively:

glow

Expected output: Glow opens a terminal UI listing discoverable markdown files in and below the current directory. You can navigate with arrow keys, search by typing, and open a file for reading — all without leaving the terminal.

• Installation — Get Glow set up on your system so you can follow along with the workflows described here.
• Interactive file browser — Learn how the keyboard-driven TUI works and which shortcuts are available.
• Rendering a markdown file or URL — The core workflow Glow is built around, covered in detail.
• Customizing output style — Adjust colors, themes, and formatting to match your terminal and personal preferences.
• Configuring persistent settings — Set your preferred defaults once so Glow behaves the way you want every time you run it.