Export
Your memories are yours to take.
A memory system should not become a trap.
If you leave Shelf, the things you brought into it should leave with you.
Your library is already a folder of files on your Mac, and Shelf can write it out as Markdown, JSON, or the originals, unchanged.
01 · Today
What you can export.
Your library
Files you can read anywhere
02 · The honest part
What export does not carry.
Export gives you your content. It does not promise that everything Shelf worked out about that content will make sense somewhere else.
- The meaning indexNot currently supported
Rebuilt locally from your library rather than exported as a portable file.
- Connections as a portable graphNot currently supported
There is no graph export format today.
- Automatic scheduled backupsNot currently supported
Backups are something you create when you want one.
- Import from another MacWorks on your Mac
Restoring an encrypted backup, on your own machine.
03 · Deleting
Leaving should be as easy as arriving.
Delete an item and it goes, with an undo first and a cleanup at the next launch. Delete Shelf's library folder and everything Shelf knew is gone with it. No account to close, no request to file, no waiting period.
04 · Why it matters
Memory gets more valuable with time.
Which makes ownership more important with time, not less. A library you have kept for three years is exactly the thing you cannot afford to have locked inside one app.
Stated plainly
Current limitations
- Derived structure is not portable yet
- OCR text and notes come out as files. The index and the connections between items do not have an export format.
- Export is a manual action
- You choose when to export or back up. Shelf does not do it on a schedule.
You shouldn't stay because leaving is hard. You should stay because Shelf is useful.
Try it knowing you can leave.
Shelf is free, and your library stays in formats you can read elsewhere.
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.