Morrisson

Morrisson is a desktop editor for Astro content collections. Your content stays as Markdown files in src/content/, so your Git workflow doesn’t change, while editors fill in forms instead of hand-editing YAML. It runs on macOS (Apple Silicon), Windows and Linux.

Install

1. Get Morrisson on its own, or with Studio or Agency Full Access.
2. Download the installer from your Polar library: the .dmg for macOS, the .exe for Windows or the .AppImage for Linux.
3. Open Morrisson and paste the license key from your Polar library.

Morrisson checks the key online, then keeps working offline for 7 days after the last successful check.

Open a project

Choose the root folder of an Astro project, the one that contains src/content/. Your recent projects show on launch, and Morrisson remembers your last file, sidebar state and image folder for each one.

Edit an entry

Each entry has two tabs:

• Details: the frontmatter as form fields, with a YAML view when you need full control. You can switch between Form and YAML without losing your place.
• Markdown: the body, with a formatting toolbar, spellcheck, internal link autocomplete, and word count and reading time in the footer.

Field labels are readable versions of the keys, so pubDate shows as “Pub Date”. Tag fields autocomplete from tags already used in the collection.

For images, pick a file in an image field, or drag or paste one into the body. Morrisson saves it into your project, fills in the path and alt text, and shows a preview. Each image field has an optional optimize toggle.

Changes save automatically, with a “saved” badge instead of a Save button. If a file changes on disk while you have it open, Morrisson asks before overwriting it. Press ⌘⇧F to find and replace across the whole project.

Typed fields (optional)

Without a schema, Morrisson works out field types from the frontmatter itself. To get dropdowns, date pickers, required markers and tighter forms, add .morrisson/frontmatter.schema.json to your project root.

Top-level keys are collection folder names, the first folder under src/content/. Each one describes its fields in JSON Schema style:

{
  "blog": {
    "type": "object",
    "properties": {
      "title": { "type": "string" },
      "pubDate": { "type": "string", "format": "date" },
      "category": { "type": "string", "enum": ["News", "Guides"] },
      "draft": { "type": "boolean" }
    },
    "required": ["title", "pubDate"]
  }
}

Fields support type, enum, format (date, date-time or textarea), nested properties for objects and items for lists. Set additionalProperties to false to keep extra keys out of the form; any unknown keys already in a file still show under Additional fields. Morrisson reads the file when you open the project.

Manage files

The sidebar lists every collection and entry:

• Create entries from the collection menu, and duplicate, rename or delete them from each file row.
• Deleted files go to Trash, where you can restore them or empty it.
• Drafts are marked in amber and entries missing required fields in red.
• Each file keeps a history of snapshots you can preview, restore or clear.
• You can hide the sidebar to focus on writing; it remembers that per project.

Preview and publish

Preview starts your project’s local dev server. If node_modules is missing, Morrisson offers to run npm install first.

Publish runs checks first, like titles, dates and required fields, then shows the changed files and a suggested commit message you can edit before publishing with Git. Morrisson adds .gitignore rules for its own metadata folders so they stay out of your repository.

Appearance and shortcuts

• Choose light, dark or system appearance from the app menu, or cycle through them with ⌘⇧D.
• Press ? to see every keyboard shortcut.
• Escape closes any dialog.

Updates and support

Every Morrisson license includes lifetime updates. For help, see Updates and support.