Feather Documentation
Native markdown editor for Windows
Workspace Panel
The workspace panel is a collapsible sidebar that gives you a file browser for your project folders, right inside Feather. Add one or more folders, browse their contents, and open files without leaving the editor.
Opening the Workspace Panel
Toggle the workspace panel from the toolbar button at the far left of the toolbar (the open/close pane icon), or enable it in Settings > Appearance > Workspace panel.
The panel opens on the left side of the window at 260px wide.
Adding Folders
Click the Add folder button at the top of the workspace panel to add a root folder. You can add multiple folders to create a multi-root workspace. All added folders persist across sessions.
Browsing Files
The workspace displays a lazy-loaded directory tree. Click a folder to expand it, and click any markdown file (.md, .mdx, .markdown, .txt) to open it in a new tab.
The tree automatically updates when files change on disk (via file system watcher with 300ms debounce), so changes made in Explorer or other tools appear in real time.
File Operations
Right-click any file or folder in the workspace to access these operations:
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| New File | Create a new file in the selected folder |
| New Folder | Create a new subfolder |
| Rename | Rename the file or folder (also updates any open tabs and recent files) |
| Move to Recycle Bin | Delete the file or folder (recoverable) |
| Reveal in Explorer | Open the containing folder in Windows Explorer |
| Copy Path | Copy the full file path to clipboard |
| Copy Name | Copy just the file name to clipboard |
| Change Icon | Choose a custom icon for folders |
| Move Up / Move Down | Reorder root folders |
| Remove from workspace | Remove a root folder (does not delete files) |
Inline Rename
Double-click a file or folder name (or use the right-click menu) to rename it inline. The file name stem is pre-selected so you can type a new name immediately. Press Enter to confirm or Escape to cancel.
If the file is open in a tab, the tab updates automatically to reflect the new name. Recent files are also updated.
Custom Folder Icons
Right-click any folder and select Change Icon to open the icon picker. Choose from 85 icons across 9 categories:
- Folders — Standard folder variants
- General — Common glyphs (star, heart, flag, etc.)
- Education & Research — Academic and science icons
- Writing & Media — Content and publishing icons
- Infrastructure — Server and networking icons
- Cloud Drives — Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud, etc.
- Self-Hosted — Nextcloud, Syncthing, etc.
- AI Tools — OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.
- Dev Tools — GitHub, GitLab, Docker, VS Code, etc.
Icons are a mix of Segoe MDL2 glyphs and SVG brand icons. Your icon choices persist across sessions.
Drag and Drop
The workspace supports full drag-and-drop:
- Reorder root folders by dragging them up or down
- Move files and folders between directories by dragging
- Open files by dragging them onto a tab or the editor area
- Import files by dragging from Windows Explorer into a workspace folder
Search
Use the search box at the top of the workspace panel to filter the file tree by name. This searches across all root folders.
Settings
The workspace panel has a master on/off switch at Settings > Appearance > Workspace panel. When disabled, the toolbar toggle button is hidden and the panel stays closed. Your visibility preference is preserved when toggled back on.