LiteBook — a lightweight Markdown book engine to read, create and distribute portable .litebook books.

The project provides a complete environment for working with Markdown-based books, including a reader, an editor, and a portable archive format. LiteBook focuses on simplicity, readability, and long-term maintainability of written content.

LiteBook is built around the idea that books and documentation should remain simple, transparent, and portable.

Instead of relying on complex proprietary formats, LiteBook uses:

• Markdown for content
• a simple folder structure
• JSON configuration files
• a lightweight rendering engine

This makes LiteBook suitable for documentation, educational material, technical manuals, and knowledge bases.

LiteBook provides a fast Markdown rendering engine capable of displaying structured documents clearly and efficiently.

Supported elements include:

• headings and sections
• lists and nested lists
• code blocks
• quotes
• images
• diagrams
• mathematical expressions through plugins

The reader interface is designed to minimize distractions and focus on readability.

LiteBook includes an editor environment that allows users to create and organize books.

The maker interface allows users to:

• create a new LiteBook project
• manage chapters
• edit Markdown content
• organize book structure
• prepare books for distribution

This makes it possible to create complete books without external tooling.

LiteBook introduces a simple portable format based on folders with the .litebook extension.

Each LiteBook is a self-contained directory containing:

• book metadata
• Markdown chapters
• assets such as images or diagrams
• optional AI configuration

Because it is folder-based, the format works well with version control systems such as Git.

The rendering engine is modular and supports plugins.

Available plugins include:

• syntax highlighting
• diagrams
• mathematical rendering

The engine is designed to be easily extended with new plugins.

LiteBook allows optional integration with artificial intelligence features.

These capabilities can be defined in configuration files such as:

ai/skills.json

Possible use cases include:

• chapter summarization
• quiz generation
• semantic search
• knowledge extraction

AI features are optional and designed to integrate without affecting the base book format.

A LiteBook is simply a directory with a defined structure.

Example:

my-book.litebook
│
├ book.json
├ chapters
│   ├ intro.md
│   ├ installation.md
│   └ architecture.md
│
├ assets
│   ├ images
│   └ diagrams
│
└ ai
    └ skills.json

The book.json file defines metadata and the table of contents.

Example:

{
  "title": "My Book",
  "author": "Author Name",
  "toc": [
    { "title": "Introduction", "file": "chapters/intro.md" },
    { "title": "Installation", "file": "chapters/installation.md" }
  ]
}

The project is structured to separate the rendering engine, application features, and user interface.

src
│
├ engine
│   ├ core
│   └ plugins
│
├ features
│   ├ reader
│   ├ maker
│   └ archive
│
├ services
│
└ ui

The engine is responsible for Markdown processing and plugin execution.

Core modules include:

• markdown engine
• book loader
• link resolver

Plugins extend the rendering system.

Features provide the main capabilities of the application:

• Reader
• Maker
• Archive management

Services provide additional capabilities such as:

• book management
• AI services

The UI layer is implemented with Vue and provides the application interface.

LiteBook is built using the following technologies:

• Electron for the desktop application
• Vue.js for the user interface
• Vite for development and bundling
• Node.js for system integration
• Markdown for content format

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/litebook.git

Move into the project directory:

cd litebook

Install dependencies:

npm install

Run the development environment:

npm run dev

This will start the development server and launch the Electron application.

The development workflow uses Vite for the frontend and Electron for the desktop environment.

Typical development steps include:

1. running the development server
2. editing Vue components
3. modifying engine plugins
4. testing LiteBook files

Because LiteBook uses a simple folder format, books can be edited directly with any text editor.

LiteBook can be used for a wide range of content:

• technical documentation
• programming tutorials
• academic material
• training courses
• knowledge bases
• technical manuals

The format is particularly suitable for projects that require structured documentation with version control.

Future development may include:

• improved editor capabilities
• plugin marketplace
• enhanced AI tools
• collaborative editing
• online LiteBook viewer
• advanced search and indexing

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files to deal in the software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the software.

See the LICENSE file for more details.