# Skardyy/mcat

Terminal image, video, and Markdown viewer

Repository: https://github.com/Skardyy/mcat
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/mcat
Language: Rust
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: markdown, iterm, kitty, sixel, terminal-graphics, ascii, ls
Last push: 2026-08-22T00:19:59+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 85/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 95, longevity 36
- inputs: {"age_days": 506, "days_push": 12, "days_rel": 34, "gap_med": 8, "n_releases_24m": 28}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1388, forks 51 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:35.146277+00:00)

## What it is
Mcat is a Rust-based terminal tool that parses, converts, and previews files such as images, videos, PDFs, DOCX, HTML, and Markdown directly in the terminal. It supports multiple graphics protocols (kitty, iTerm, sixel, ASCII) and can convert between formats via a flexible pipeline.

## Use cases
- preview images and videos in the terminal
- view markdown files with ANSI formatting in the terminal
- convert docx and pdf files to markdown
- render html files as png images from the command line
- display pdf documents inline in kitty or iterm terminals
- pipe file contents as markdown to other tools
- zoom and pan images interactively in the terminal

## When to choose
- you want to preview rich media and documents without leaving the terminal
- you need a swiss-army file converter that outputs markdown, html, or images
- you use a terminal with graphics support like kitty, iTerm2, or sixel-capable emulators

## When to avoid
- you need a full GUI document viewer with precise rendering fidelity
- you only need simple plain-text file viewing (cat suffices)
- your terminal lacks any image protocol support and you dislike ASCII output

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: cli, image-processing, video-processing, markdown, pdf, file-system, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, files, pdf, media
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: terminal-graphics, sixel, kitty-graphics, iterm, file-converter, rust, ls, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- Skardyy/mcat (main) score 85

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:35.146277+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:39:45.510870+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Skardyy/mcat (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:35.146277+00:00, sha 9725435d6cab)
  - registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/mcat (fetched 2026-08-29T11:54:57.505474+00:00, sha 6c6b2a4a4b59)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.