Show HN: Doxx – Terminal .docx viewer inspired by Glow
https://github.com/bgreenwell/doxx
I got tired of open file.docx → wait 8 seconds → close Word just to read a document, so I built a terminal-native Word viewer!What it does:
* View `.docx` files directly in your terminal with (mostly) proper formatting
* Tables actually look like tables (with Unicode borders!)
* Nested lists work correctly with indentation
* Full-text search with highlighting
* Copy content straight to clipboard with `c`
* Export to markdown/CSV/JSON
Why I made this:
Working on servers over SSH, I constantly hit Word docs I needed to check quickly. The existing solutions I'm aware of either strip all formatting (docx2txt) or require GUI apps. Wanted something that felt as polished as [glow](https://github.com/charmbracelet/glow) but for Word documents.
The good stuff:
* 50ms startup vs Word's 8+ seconds
* Works over SSH (obviously)
* Preserves document structure and formatting
* Smart table alignment based on data types
* Interactive outline view for long docs
Built with Rust + ratatui and heavily inspired by Charm's [glow](https://github.com/charmbracelet/glow) package for viewing Markdown in the CLI (built in Go)!
# Install
cargo install --git https://github.com/bgreenwell/doxx
# Use
doxx quarterly-report.docx
The name causes miscues and carries negative connotations, though, on account of its homonym verb (doxxing).
Scripting uses interest me too. Perhaps pandoc will still be a better option, but I'm also a sucker for TUIs and _Charm projects!
But still doxx feels like it would just get some unwarranted attention when its unnecessary and docc seems a nice enough name too.
I mean, the project seems fantastic but still the project seems quite new and I don't think that it would suffer anything from a name change.
If someone asks about it "It's a tool to view docx files", end of conversation
[1] https://itsdangerous.palletsprojects.com/en/stable/
https://pandoc.org/faqs.html#how-can-i-convert-pdfs-to-other...
It's refreshing to see something that isn't another chatbot.
Not so good of a name.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=doxx
What about something like mdocx?
>"Exposing" word documents in the CLI.
You're trying way too hard.
Exposing contents is called a leak. Doxxing is exposure of a person's identity/address etc.
There is no wordplay here that actually fits what this tool does. This is just a very misleading name.
This software is your baby...but if you named your baby something that possibly repels others, you should feel comfortable with that feedback going forward. i don;t mean that in a bad way, simply a fact of how humans (good or bad) respond to things. This is all simply a series of signals. What you do with that is your business of course.
By the way, have you considered a more boring name for the app like *DocSee*? :-)
pandoc can do this
pandoc -t plain file.docx | grep "pattern"
Very unfortunate
If you read through that claude.md, it's a well-organized summary of the project, touching on design, architecture, enumerating the functionality implemented so far, future goals, and more. It makes for a pretty great onboarding document for collaborators, tbh.
Have jetpack, will fly.
I did something like this with pandoc:
Keeps a lot or formatting. My favorite way to read a README file in the terminalThe other thing which was not obvious - can you extract document metadata and/or hidden text elements?
BTW, 8 seconds to start Word? What kind of computer are you using? Word is not performance beast but its not that slow either.
Of course it's a big install on the other hand.
I tried it, but some documents are not shown correctly as far as I remember.
What?
But a humble request: please make sure that the planned "AI integration" is completely optional, not compiled-in, or, even better, a sister project ("aidoxx"?).
Having the functionality of sending the contents of a Word document to any external service will be a red flag and block adoption of this tool in many environments.
`doxx document.docs | doxxAI`
Even without any of the bad vibes around AI, it is just much more aesthetic and wonderful if the core doxx util was a single purpose command.
Also, it is open source so if it's sufficiently useful, someone will spin off a AI stripped down version anyways, and that'll probably gain more users/goodwill in the kind of CLI SSH dev niche market this tool is trying to fit in.
- https://github.com/mikeebowen/OOXML-Validator (if you plan on making edits, you'll want to ensure they're renderable by other Word users)
- https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=yuenm18.... (incredible VS code extension for debugging OOXML files)
One thing that will surprise a lot of users is how common old-style Word (.doc) files are still. For that you might consider integrating Antiword (https://github.com/grobian/antiword) if you can get comfortable with the licensing.
Be aware that styles play an important role in numbering that doesn't seem to be picked up here. So you'll want to apply the styles before calculating the numbering levels.
Over all really cool. Hit me up if you ever want to swap notes on Docx and Rust. My email is in my profile.
Keep it up!
My one feature request would be to remove, or provide a version without, the “AI” stuff.
[1] https://github.com/anvie/dotext
Needs a new name, or a certain percentage of the audience will nope out before you even get to explain what it does.
The criticism of the project name is on point though. Horrible for searching and probably a no-no in job machine.
Is .docx edit support a possibility in the future?
Now can you do Excel next? I'm aware of [calamine](https://github.com/tafia/calamine) but that doesn't render as beautifully as doxx. Presumably a lot of the MS XML schema ontology is shared? Ideally you could just use some of their readers and add your UI flare.
Also really nice list of tools in your previous submissions. Awesome work!
https://github.com/bgreenwell/doxx/releases/tag/v0.1.1