Your data
Know what Shelf knows.
Trust gets easier when the architecture isn't mysterious.
So: what Shelf stores, where it lives, what it derives, what can leave, and what you control.
Everything on this page is either a file in Shelf's folder on your Mac or an action you take on purpose.
01 · What you save
The things you keep.
- Screenshots and images
- Captured or dropped in, then read for the text inside them.
- Links and pages
- The address, the preview, and an offline reading copy.
- PDFs and documents
- Kept as files, with their text made searchable.
- Notes and snippets
- Copied text and things you write yourself.
- Audio and video
- Transcribed on device, where macOS supports it.
02 · What Shelf derives
Derived memory is still personal.
Shelf does not only hold your files. It builds things from them, and those belong to you just as much.
- OCR textThe words found inside images, so a screenshot is searchable by what it says.
- TranscriptsText from audio and video, produced on device.
- Meaning indexA local index that lets search work by resemblance rather than exact words.
- Summaries and topicsGenerated locally for notes and saved reading.
- ConnectionsRelationships Shelf notices between things you kept.
- Learned preferencesWhat you return to. Erasable from Settings → Data at any time.
Local memory, in Shelf's folder
03 · Where it lives
One folder on your Mac.
Your library, the derived text, the index and your search history sit in Shelf's folder under your user account: ~/Library/Application Support/Shelf/. It is an ordinary folder. You can back it up, move it, or delete it, and Shelf's knowledge goes with it.
04 · What can leave
Two ways out, both visible.
- Fetching a page you savedRequires internet
The site you chose to save sees an ordinary page request from your Mac.
- Image variationsOptional external service
Off by default. Sends the selected image and your request under your own key.
- Publishing a shelfNot currently supported
Not shipped in the Mac app, so nothing in your library is published today.
- Analytics, telemetry, crash reportsNot currently supported
The app contains none, so there is no usage data to send.
05 · What Shelf doesn't need
Less to hold means less to lose.
- No Shelf accountnothing to create, nothing to sign into
- No cloud copythe core library exists on your Mac
- No sync serviceShelf is a single-Mac app today
- No update pings or identifiersthe app does not phone home
One exception, from the website
Downloading Shelf asks for your name, email and what you do, and that goes to our download records. The website host also keeps ordinary access logs. That is the website, not the app.
Stated plainly
Current limitations
- No sync between Macs
- Moving your library to another Mac means export or a backup, not a service that does it for you.
- Deletion is local
- Deleting from Shelf removes it from your Mac. It cannot reach a copy you already sent to someone else.
The library is yours. So is everything Shelf figured out from it.
See it on your own machine.
Download Shelf, save one thing, and look in the folder.
Free. macOS 14 and later, Apple Silicon and Intel. No account.
Keep reading
Related pages
Shelf V3 is out now
Shelf V3 is the current build. Shelf does not use automatic updates, so download the latest build here and install it over your current version.
This is intentional. Shelf is built around a local-first, privacy-focused philosophy. An automatic updater requires additional background processes, network connections, update infrastructure, and another system with permission to modify the app. We prefer to keep Shelf’s network footprint and background activity as small as possible.
Manual updates keep the process explicit: Shelf only checks the internet when a feature actually needs it, and you decide when a new version is downloaded and installed.