How to review and collaborate on Markdown files without GitHub

You can let anyone review, comment on, and sign off on a Markdown document in the browser without ever touching GitHub. The blocker is almost never the writing — it’s that the people who have to approve the doc (a manager, a client, legal, security) don’t live in your repo and won’t open a pull request. The fix is to turn the .md file into a plain web page they can read and comment on, and to keep the approval honest when the text changes. Here’s the workflow.

Why is reviewing Markdown outside GitHub hard?

Markdown lives in repos, and repos assume git fluency. A non-developer can’t comment on a .mdfile without an account, repo access, and the pull-request interface. Pasting it into Google Docs “solves” access but destroys the Markdown and strands the approved text in a different tool. What you want is the comfort of a web doc with the source staying a real Markdown file — which is exactly what a review layer like Seal provides.

The workflow, step by step

Point your AI agent at the Markdown file. Run the free, open-source Seal plugin (sealmd) from Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or Copilot with the /sealmd command on any .md file. It opens a clean, rendered review page in your repo — nothing to paste, no add-on.
Share a link with the people who need to review. Send the page link to your manager, client, legal, or security reviewer. They open a normal web page in any browser. No GitHub account, no repo access, and no git knowledge needed.
Each reviewer reads a summary written for their role. Instead of a 6,000-word wall, each reviewer sees a short AI summary written for their role and lands on the slice that’s relevant to them, then comments and suggests changes inline like Google Docs.
Collect comments and suggested changes. Reviewers comment and suggest edits on the rendered document. Your AI agent or your editor makes the actual edits to the .md file; Seal is the review layer on top, so suggestions stay tied to the source.
Get identity-verified sign-off (optional, hosted). When you need a record that a named person approved exactly these words, publish to the hosted tier. Sign-off is identity-verified (verified email, with SSO and WebAuthn step-up on higher tiers) and bound to the document’s content hash, and it goes stale automatically if the text later changes.

Do reviewers need a GitHub account?

No. With the free local plugin, reviewers open the page straight from your repo and comment with git history as the audit trail — no GitHub account required. Formal, identity-verified sign-off lives in the hosted tier, where reviewers create a free account so approval is tied to a real person; reviewers never count toward a paid seat.

Can my whole team collaborate on the same Markdown doc?

Yes. Everyone you share the link with can read, comment, and suggest changes on the same rendered document at once, like Google Docs. Seal isn’t a Markdown editor — your AI agent or your editor writes the file — but it’s where the human collaboration happens: comments, suggested changes, and approval, all staying in sync with the underlying .md.

Get the free local plugin Try hosted