Use case

Turn scattered research into searchable memory.

Research never arrives in one format. A PDF here, three tabs there, a screenshot of one chart, and a note you wrote on the train.

Shelf reads all of it locally and keeps the connections, so a body of reading behaves like one memory.

Download Shelf See how it works

01 · The problem

The work is done. The recall is not.

Weeks of reading end up spread across a downloads folder, a browser, a notes app and a camera roll.

02 · The old way

Four apps and a naming convention.

Every system that depends on you naming things consistently fails at exactly the moment the research gets interesting.

03 · Shelf

One place that reads what you keep.

PDFsDocument text indexed locally.

ArticlesPage text saved with the link.

ScreenshotsWords read out of the image with OCR.

Audio and videoTranscribed on device, where supported.

NotesYour own writing, connected to the sources it came from.

04 · Context

A reading session stays a session.

Shelf links things saved close together, from the same source, or about the same topic, and shows the evidence for each link.

05 · Retrieval

Ask for the finding, not the file.

“The paper with the retention chart.” “The interview where they mentioned churn.” Semantic and full-text search run together, so a half-remembered detail is usually enough.

Found it1 of 4 memories

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.

06 · Privacy

Sensitive reading stays put.

Documents are read and indexed on your Mac. There is no account, no upload step and no sync server.

Export to Markdown, JSON, CSV, HTML, plain text or the original files whenever you need the material elsewhere.

Make your reading retrievable.

Keep sources in Shelf and search them the way you remember them.

Download Shelf

Free. macOS 14 and later, Apple Silicon and Intel. No account.

Keep reading

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.

Download the latest version →Version 3.0 · macOS 14+