These are the questions that recur across FoldRender's guides, pulled into one page with one-paragraph answers. Each one is answered at full length in a specific guide — linked from the cards below — and every answer here is limited to what the shipped build actually does: the four formats verified on a clean device, the git paths verified and unverified, and the things the app deliberately does not attempt.
Cloning, credentials and private repositories: the Android git client guide and clone a private repo. The short version: public clones are anonymous and verified; commit and push ship unverified.
The honest list — shipped-but-unverified behaviour included, so you can tell before installing whether this build does the thing you came for.
Answers here are summaries; each linked guide carries the full procedure and its own limits list.
Verification status is stated, not smoothed over: Markdown, source, PDF and notebook rendering are the clean-device-verified four; commit, push and the diff viewer are shipped but unverified.
FoldRender is a reader — no editor, no terminal, no build, no annotation — and no FAQ answer will claim otherwise.
FAQ
Is FoldRender free?
Yes. It is free on Google Play — no in-app purchases and no ads, and the listing shows neither row — as FoldRender: Repo Reader, package id dev.foldrender.app. Google Play is the only distribution channel; the site does not host an APK.
What Android version does it need?
Android 11 or newer — the app declares minSdk 30, and Play will tell you if a device is below that rather than letting you install a build that cannot run.
Do I need a GitHub account to read a public repository?
No. Anonymous cloning of a public HTTPS repository is verified on a clean device: paste the URL, tap Clone, nothing else. An account or token only enters for private repositories.
Can I edit files or code?
No. There is no editor anywhere in the app. FoldRender opens, renders, searches and exports; it cannot change a character of anything.
Can I commit and push from the phone?
The controls ship in the build — commit message field, push checkbox, Commit & push button — and nobody has run them end to end, so no guide will tell you they work. There is also no editor, hence no in-app change to commit. Clone-and-read is the supported git loop today.
Where does a cloned repository live?
In app-private storage, in a repos directory under the app's files directory — git needs a real filesystem, which Android's storage-access framework does not provide. No storage permission is requested, and no other app can read the clone.
Does it work offline?
Yes, once content is on the device. Every renderer works on local files, and diagrams and equations render from mermaid and KaTeX bundled inside the APK with the rendering WebView's network loads blocked — airplane mode changes nothing about reading. Only remote git operations need a connection.
Is FoldRender a WebView-based viewer?
No. Rendering is native Jetpack Compose. The only WebViews are the fenced islands for mermaid and KaTeX and the HTML file viewer, each with network loads blocked.
Which formats are verified?
Four: Markdown, source code, PDF and Jupyter notebooks — verified on a clean device. Other renderers in the app (JSON/YAML/TOML trees, CSV tables, images, HTML, logs) are described from the shipped build.
Why is the file tree slow right after cloning a big repo?
The first listing walks the whole repository, and on the order of 4,600 files that takes a long time showing only a spinner — no percentage, no file counter. It does complete; the missing progress indicator is a known rough edge. Subsequent navigation lists each directory lazily as you expand it.
Can I open a folder I already have on the phone?
Yes — Open a folder grants a directory through the Android folder picker, and the grant persists across restarts with the full tree, badges, search and rendering. It simply has no git integration; that is reserved for repositories FoldRender cloned itself.
Can I search inside PDFs?
No. The find bar appears only for text-shaped formats — Markdown, notebooks, JSON/YAML/TOML, CSV, source, logs, plain text. PDFs navigate by the page counter and the tap-to-jump thumbnail strip.
Does it support SSH remotes?
No. Git in FoldRender is HTTPS-only — an ssh:// or git@ URL will not work. Personal access tokens are the credential the hosts want, and tokens are encrypted with an AES-GCM key in the Android hardware keystore.
Can I turn a document into a PDF or share it?
For Markdown and Jupyter notebooks, yes: the Export sheet offers Print / Save as PDF through the Android print framework, a self-contained HTML file with fonts, math and diagrams inlined as data URIs, and a full-page PNG. Other formats have no export.