Chiltepin Studio

Chiltepin Studio lets you edit Markdown blocks through forms, YAML, and diagram controls.

Try it without installing anything — chiltepin.dev/studio runs the whole editor in your browser tab. No signup is required, and every template is one click away.

Run it over your own files — one command, and your .md files stay the source of truth:

chiltepin studio                   # --port, --no-open

It opens on a Home page: a searchable grid of your docs, most recent first, plus a New-doc card with templates. Click a doc to open it — the wordmark in the top bar always takes you back Home.

Working in a doc

An open doc shows a sidebar on the left ("‹ Home", your document list with the open doc highlighted, and "+ New doc") and the rendered document on the right. The page you see is the editor — click anything to change it:

• Click to select — a whole block, or a part inside one (a message in a sequence diagram, a node, a table cell). Click the rendered cover to edit the title and subtitle ("✎ Edit cover" appears on hover).
• Enter to edit the selection. Blocks open an edit sheet with a form and a raw YAML tab. Diagram parts open a small inline editor for just that value.
• Arrow keys move the selected part — nodes move between grid cells, list items reorder, table cells navigate. ⌫ deletes, Tab cycles parts, Esc steps back out.
• Drag works too — nodes snap to the grid, lists show a live insertion marker.
• Insert with the + menu or the / command — a searchable gallery of every block with live thumbnails. ? shows all shortcuts.
• Drop a file onto the page: a .csv becomes a ready-filled table or chart block at that spot, and an OpenAPI spec offers to create a whole new doc.

For specific diagrams:

• ERD drag-to-connect. Select an entity, drag the connect dot onto another entity, pick the cardinality (1:1 / 1:N / N:1 / N:M) — the relation is appended to the YAML.
• Annotate sequence steps. Select a message and press n (or click "＋ add note ②") — the note lands as that message's summary, and the rendered doc shows a numbered step list whose numbers match the diagram badges.

Present, publish, export

• ▶ Present (⇧⌘P) turns the current doc into a slide deck on the spot — the same deck chiltepin slides renders. Esc returns to the doc.
• Site ↗ opens the full built site in a new browser tab.
• The Export menu saves the current doc as standalone HTML, a slide deck, or a PDF.

Studio's chrome is dark by default and follows the same colorScheme key as the rendered output, for the app and rendered document.

The hosted studio

The hosted editor is labeled Studio demo. Its banner explains that work is cleared on reload or when you close the tab. Click Start tutorial for a walkthrough of documents, editing, adding blocks, and keeping a copy. You can close or restart the guide at any time.

chiltepin.dev/studio is the same editor with its storage swapped: the parse → validate → render pipeline already runs in the browser, so the only thing the local version needs a server for is your files.

• Nothing is uploaded. Documents live in the tab, and the page has no backend to send them to.
• They do not survive a reload. That is the trade for having no account and no database. Use Share to keep a copy — the link carries the entire document, deflated into the URL fragment, so it never touches a server. Hold ⇧ while clicking Share for a link that opens straight into the deck.
• ?template=<name> opens a prefilled document — chiltepin.dev/studio?template=adr lands you in a finished ADR. That is what the Templates gallery links to.
• What needs a server is hidden, not broken: PDF export (it drives a real Chromium), the built site, and live file-change events. Everything the browser can do on its own stays — editing, validation, rendering, presenting, and HTML export.

Your files stay the source of truth

The studio reads and writes your .md files directly — it doesn't keep its own copy. Every edit rewrites just the block you changed, so diffs stay small and reviewable.

That also means outside changes appear live: ask an AI agent to edit a doc while the studio has it open, and the page updates the moment the file is saved. Review the saved diff when multiple tools edit the same document.