The memory engine
What if your Mac could remember?
Shelf turns the things you save into connected memories, so you can find them later by what you remember, not where you put them.
Storage is not memory
Most apps store things.
- A folderstores a file.
- A bookmarkstores a URL.
- A screenshotstores an image.
- A notestores text.
Shelf
remembers the thing, what it means, and what it sits next to.
Storage answers
Where is the file?
Memory answers
What was that thing I remember?
One thing, many connections
One saved thing becomes a memory.
Watch it happen once. A screenshot arrives, Shelf reads it on your Mac, and it stops being a lonely file.
You sent a screenshot to Shelf.
Saved thing
Settings screen, dark appearance
Screenshot · 14 August
Why this belongs here
“Appearance · Dark”. Read out of the image by OCR, on device.
An illustration of how one saved item becomes a memory. Not a live library.
What Shelf can understand
Context you never had to type.
Everything here happens on your Mac. Image variations are the one exception: optional, off by default, and only with your own key.
- What it is
- Screenshot, image, PDF, link, note, audio or video.
- What it says
- Text read out of images with OCR, text inside documents, titles and descriptions. Audio and video transcribed on device, where supported.
- What it means
- A local summary and topic, so you can search in your own words instead of exact ones.
- When
- The moment it was saved, and what you saved around it.
- Where it came from
- The website or app it was captured from.
- What it connects to
- Related memories in your library, each with the reason the connection exists.
Search by memory
Describe it badly. That's fine.
You don't need the filename, the folder, or the exact words.
You only need to remember the idea.
Settings screen, dark appearance
Screenshot · saved 14 August
- Meaning
- “dark interface” matched a UI screenshot, not a filename
- Words read
- OCR found “Appearance · Dark” inside the image
- Context
- Saved while you were reading about interface design
- When
- 14 August · last summer
Also nearby
Article
The quiet end of light mode
Read the same week
Note
Contrast notes for the settings screen
Reuses two phrases from that article
Screenshot
Sidebar spacing study
Captured in the same session
An illustration of how Shelf reads a search on your Mac. Not a live search.
Context
Nothing you save has to stay isolated.
Five things, saved separately, weeks apart, in different moods.
Screenshot
A pricing table you captured in March.
Website
The page it came from.
PDF
A research paper you read after it.
Note
Two paragraphs you wrote the same evening.
Reference image
A layout you liked, saved without a name.
You never told Shelf they were one thing.
Shelf can see that they belong together, and shows you why it thinks so. The connections you disagree with come apart.
Compounding
The longer you use Shelf, the more useful your memory becomes.
Not because the app changes. Because your library starts having a shape.
You save
A screenshot, a link, a PDF, a note.
Shelf reads it
Text, subject, source, moment of capture.
Shelf connects it
To the things it already holds.
You forget
As you always were going to.
You describe it
Half a memory is enough to start.
Shelf brings it back
With the reason it matched.
You rediscover
Something you had written off.
You save more
Because it came back once.
Nothing about Shelf gets faster over time. Your memory does.
Rediscovery
Things you forgot can come back.
Shelf can bring old memories back when they relate to what you're working on now, and every suggestion carries its evidence: dates, activity, topic.
Saved 214 days ago
Pricing notes from a call you barely remember having.
Saved last summer
A dark interface you screenshotted for inspiration.
Imported bookmark
An article you meant to read, still unread.
Saved this week
The note that made these three relevant again.
Not a feed, and not engagement bait. When there isn't enough to say something useful, Shelf stays quiet.
The difference
Not another place to put things.
- Foldersorganise.
- Bookmarkscollect.
- Notesrecord.
- Searchretrieves.
- Shelfremembers.
Shelf isn't a workspace, and it isn't trying to run your week. It's a memory layer that sits under whatever you already use.
Every time you save something, Shelf turns it into part of your memory.
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.