Ferrite v0.2.5: The Mermaid Update

We're excited to release Ferrite v0.2.5 - our biggest update yet! This release brings a complete Mermaid diagram overhaul, native CSV/TSV viewing, internationalization infrastructure, a semantic minimap, and dozens of productivity improvements.

Mermaid Diagram Overhaul

The native Mermaid renderer received massive improvements:

Architectural Changes

• Modular refactor - Split the 7000+ line mermaid.rs into organized modules per diagram type
• Performance caching - AST and layout caching with blake3 hashing for complex diagrams
• Crash prevention - Infinite loop safety and panic handling for malformed input

New Features

• YAML frontmatter support - Parse --- metadata blocks with title:, config: etc.
• Parallel edge operator - Support A --> B & C & D syntax for multiple edges
• classDef/class styling - Full node styling via directives
• linkStyle edge styling - Edge customization via linkStyle directive
• Subgraph improvements - Layer clustering, internal layout, edge routing, nested margins

Bug Fixes

• Fixed chained edge parsing (A --> B --> C)
• Fixed flowchart direction (LR/TB/RL/BT) keywords
• Fixed missing nodes in complex flowcharts
• Fixed viewport clipping with negative coordinates
• Fixed asymmetric shape text centering

Native CSV/TSV Viewer

Ferrite now handles tabular data natively:

• Table view - Fixed-width column alignment for CSV and TSV files
• Rainbow column coloring - Alternating colors for improved readability
• Auto-delimiter detection - Detects comma, tab, semicolon, and pipe separators
• Header row detection - Intelligent detection and highlighting

Internationalization (i18n)

The groundwork for a fully translated UI:

• i18n infrastructure - YAML translation files in locales/ directory
• String extraction - All UI strings moved to translation keys
• Weblate integration - Community translations via Weblate
• CJK paragraph indentation - First-line indentation for Chinese (2 chars) or Japanese (1 char)

Semantic Minimap

The minimap is now actually useful for navigation:

• Header labels - Display actual H1/H2/H3 text instead of unreadable pixels
• Content type indicators - Visual markers for code blocks, diagrams, tables, images
• Density visualization - Subtle horizontal bars showing text density
• Mode toggle - Switch between "Visual" and "Semantic" modes in settings

Split View Enhancements

• Dual editable panes - The rendered pane in split view is now fully editable
• Full undo/redo support - Both panes maintain complete edit history

New Productivity Features

Editor Improvements

• Keyboard shortcut customization - Rebind any shortcut via settings panel
• Custom font selection - Select preferred fonts for editor and UI
• Windows fullscreen toggle - Dedicated F10 for fullscreen (separate from F11 Zen mode)
• Drag & drop images - Drop images to auto-save to ./assets/ and insert markdown link

Document Tools

• Table of Contents generation - Insert/update <!-- TOC --> blocks with Ctrl+Shift+U
• Document statistics panel - Word count, reading time, heading/link/image counts
• Snippets/abbreviations - Text expansions like ;date → current date

Session & Files

• Session restore reliability - Workspaces and recent files now persist correctly
• Recent folders - Recent files menu now includes workspace folders

Bug Fixes

• Search highlight drift - Fixed highlight boxes drifting from matched text
• Config persistence - Settings now save correctly across restarts
• Zen mode centering - Content centers properly in rendered/split view
• Git status auto-refresh - Refreshes on save, focus, and file system events
• Quick switcher mouse support - Fixed mouse hover/click not working
• Table editing cursor loss - Fixed cursor losing focus after each keystroke
• Line width in split view - Now respects pane boundaries with proper centering
• Windows top edge resize - Window can now be resized from all edges
• macOS Intel optimization - Reduced CPU usage with idle repaint scheduling

New Branding

Ferrite has a new visual identity:

• New logo - Orange geometric crystal icon
• Platform icons - Windows, macOS, and Linux icons in all required sizes

Upgrade Instructions

Windows

Download the new installer from the download page and run it. Settings are preserved.

macOS

Download the new DMG and drag to Applications, replacing the old version.

Linux

# AppImage
chmod +x ferrite-0.2.5-linux-x64.AppImage
./ferrite-0.2.5-linux-x64.AppImage

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i ferrite-0.2.5-linux-x64.deb

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo rpm -U ferrite-0.2.5-linux-x64.rpm

What's Next (v0.2.6)

The next release focuses on:

• Large file performance - Handling 80MB+ CSV files efficiently
• Flowchart refactoring - Splitting the 3500+ line flowchart module
• Executable code blocks - Run code snippets directly in preview
• Content blocks/callouts - GitHub-style [!NOTE], [!WARNING] blocks

Thank You

Thanks to everyone who reported issues, contributed translations, and provided feedback. Special thanks to:

• @SteelCrab for CJK rendering improvements
• @sr79368142 for Simplified Chinese translation work
• The community on GitHub Discussions

Download v0.2.5 | View full changelog | Report issues