RST Preview & reStructuredText Preview (RST Viewer, No Python)

RST Preview & reStructuredText Preview (RST Viewer, No Python), a VS Code extension by Zovo

Open a .rst file and see it rendered beside the editor, as you type. No Python, no Sphinx, no docutils, no conf.py. Free, no sign-in, works offline.

Free, MIT license. Needs VS Code 1.90.0 or newer. Extension ID zovo.zovo-rst-preview, version 0.2.2.

Questions people ask

Why this preview

• It opens with no setup. Other RST previews need Python with docutils or a full Sphinx project, and fail with an empty window when Python is missing or installed in a path with a space. RST Preview renders reStructuredText itself, inside VS Code.
• Lists, tables and directives look right: bullets, numbered lists (1, a, i, I), definition, field and option lists, grid tables with row and column spans, simple tables, csv-table and list-table, admonitions, footnotes, citations and substitutions.
• Sphinx files do not break it. toctree, automodule and other Sphinx directives show as labelled boxes, and roles such as :ref:, :doc: and :py:func: show as links or code, never as an error page.

What it does

• Live preview that updates while you type and scrolls with the editor (both ways). Double-click the preview to jump to that line.
• Problems panel: a title underline that is too short, a link to a missing target, a broken table. The preview keeps the last good render when something goes wrong.
• Code blocks in color (code-block, sourcecode, literalinclude, doctest), with :linenos:, :emphasize-lines: and :caption:.
• Math with KaTeX: the math directive and the :math: role.
• Local pictures (image, figure, |name| image::), include of local files, contents, sectnum, topic, sidebar, rubric, epigraph, parsed-literal, line-block, raw:: html (cleaned: no scripts, no event handlers).
• Outline: the sections of the file in a side list, in the VS Code Outline view and in the breadcrumbs.
• Two looks: the colors of your VS Code theme, or the GitHub README look (light and dark).
• Export HTML: one file with the pictures, math fonts and code colors inside. It opens in any browser with no network.

How to use

1. Open a .rst file.
2. Click the preview button at the top right of the editor, or press Ctrl+K V (Cmd+K V on a Mac). Ctrl+Shift+V opens the preview in place of the editor.
3. Use the Outline, VS Code / GitHub, Export HTML and Source buttons in the preview toolbar.

Large files and safety

• Files up to 20 MB render at once (setting rstPreview.maxFileMB). A larger file shows a message and a Render anyway button instead of a frozen window. Only the changed parts of the page are redrawn while you type.
• The preview loads nothing from the network: remote pictures (for example badges) show as a small label. Links open in your browser only when you click them.
• include, literalinclude, csv-table :file: and pictures are read only from inside your workspace folder. A path such as /etc/passwd or ../../.. is refused, include cycles stop, and nesting stops after 5 levels.

Settings

Limits

• RST Preview is not Sphinx. It does not run conf.py, extensions or autodoc, so text that Sphinx makes from Python code is not shown, and :ref: to a label in another file shows as plain text.
• raw content other than HTML (LaTeX and so on) is not shown. :file: and :url: options of raw and csv-table :url: are not read.
• Some rare docutils features are missing: header and footer, the special layout of bibliographic fields (:Address: and others show as a plain field list), and custom roles beyond .. role:: with a class.

Guides

• Preview a reStructuredText (.rst) file in VS Code
• RST Preview Online, free in your browser with no upload