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Workflows

Memory for the work you actually do.

Research rarely stays in one format. An idea might begin as a screenshot. Lead to an article. Become a note. Turn into a project. Then matter again six months later. Shelf keeps the trail.

The work changes. The memory stays connected.

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

One memory, seven kinds of work

The same thing you kept, later in the year.

  1. Reference

    A screenshot of a quiet interface

    Kept on a Tuesday, unfiled.

  2. Research

    Three more like it, and a report

    It turns out you had a question.

  3. Context

    The project and week around them

    Kept without you writing it down.

  4. Idea

    “The quiet ones keep winning”

    One line, written mid-research.

  5. Decision

    Rebuild the navigation this quarter

    The part the roadmap records.

  6. Creation

    The work that ships

    With its sources still attached.

  7. Rediscovery

    Two projects later, it returns

    Because you described it, not filed it.

  8. Branches

    The same arc runs through seven different kinds of work.

    Pick the one that looks like your week.

Nothing here is captured automatically. Every step is something a person chose to keep, read on their own Mac.

The work changes. The memory stays connected.

A workflow isn't a feature. It's the shape of a week: things noticed, things kept, a question that forms slowly, and a moment months later when one old capture answers it.

Shelf only holds what you chose to keep. It reads it on your Mac, keeps the context around it, and gives it back when you can only half describe it.

Next thought

Most work is lost between projects, not inside them.

Why saving isn't remembering

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+