Open Source · Local-First

Save sources.
Let ideas surface.

MemoReef turns links, highlights, documents, chats, and video archives into local Markdown Drops you can review, cite, and hand to your AI agents.

Local-first. Plain files. Obsidian-compatible.

View on GitHub Get Drop to Reef How it works ↓
Capture

Save sources
without breaking
your flow.

MemoReef catches sources however they arrive. Every capture becomes a structured Markdown Drop stored locally in your vault under MemoReef/Drops/.

Drop to Reef — browser extension
Save the current page or selected text. Sends to your local server with a Capture Token.
Bookmark exports & URL lists
Chrome / Firefox HTML · plain text · CSV
Documents & files
PDF · DOCX · Markdown · text · OCR-assisted scans
Chat gateway commands
/reef · /drop · reef: · drop: · youtube: · x: · signal:
Tokwise archives
Short-form video research — transcript, summary, metadata
# import a Tokwise video archive
memoreef import-tokwise ~/.tokwise/videos/videos.jsonl
✓ 84 videos → MemoReef/Drops/
Privacy

Local by design.
Yours by default.

MemoReef writes plain Markdown to a local Obsidian-compatible vault. Your Drops are written as local files. No hosted MemoReef account or sync service is required.

Runs offline by default — no internet required
LAN / Tailscale server only when you start it
All write endpoints protected by Capture Token
Stop the server when done — vault stays yours
Capture Token
~/.config/memoreef/capture-token
Enter once in the browser extension. The extension stores it. Protects /api/drop and /api/capture.
Triage

Review before
you trust.

Every captured source starts as an unvetted Drop. Review Mode helps you keep what matters, treasure what you will cite, and sink the rest. Status stays in Markdown frontmatter.

Drift — 12 unsorted
heuristics-for-better-research.md
sink treasure keep
claude-cookbook-prompting.md
sink treasure keep
---
type: drop
status: drift
import_source: browser-extension
---

A Drop is not yet a trusted note — it is a local source inbox item waiting for review.

Agent Memory

The Octopus
retrieves your Pearls.

Treasures become Pearls: cited passages and source-backed findings grounded in material you chose. Agents can search your local vault instead of guessing from the open web.

Pearl Brief · AI Research 2025
attention-is-all-you-need.md
◆ Pearl · cited 8 times
anthropic-interpretability-2024.md
◆ Pearl · foundational
llm-reasoning-survey-2025.md
◆ Pearl · recent
3 Pearls · 14 Drops · ready for agent handoff
$ memoreef pearl-dive "attention mechanisms" --vault ./reef
Start Your Reef Read the Docs

~ Reef Keeper

Knowledge Sediment

Frequently Asked

Is MemoReef local-first?

Yes. MemoReef runs on your machine and writes plain Markdown files into a local vault. No hosted backend, no account, no cloud sync, no API key required. A LAN or Tailscale server can optionally be started for remote capture — stop it when not needed.

Does MemoReef require Obsidian?

No. MemoReef writes plain Markdown files readable anywhere. Obsidian is a natural fit because MemoReef creates an Obsidian-compatible folder structure with frontmatter, hub links, and graph-ready groupings.

What can MemoReef capture today?

Browser pages and highlighted text via the Drop to Reef extension · browser bookmark exports (Netscape HTML) · plain-text URL lists · CSV files · PDFs · DOCX files · Markdown files · text files · OCR-assisted scanned PDFs and images · readable article extraction from saved HTTP/HTTPS pages · chat commands via gateway adapters (/reef, /drop, reef:, drop:, youtube:, x:, signal:) · Tokwise short-form video archives.

How does the browser extension work?

Drop to Reef is in the MemoReef repository under extensions/drop-to-reef/. Install it via developer mode in Chrome or a compatible browser. Configure your local MemoReef server URL and Capture Token once — then click the extension to save the current page or any highlighted text directly into your vault as a Markdown Drop in MemoReef/Drops/.

What is the Capture Token?

A persistent secret written to ~/.config/memoreef/capture-token on the server machine. All write endpoints (/api/drop, /api/capture) require this token. Enter it once in the browser extension; the extension stores it locally for future requests.

Is LAN or Tailscale mode safe?

All write endpoints require the Capture Token for every request. The server is not started unless you run the start command. Stop it when done — the vault stays local regardless. No source data leaves your machine. MemoReef does not phone home.

Can it capture from chat gateways?

Yes. Thin gateway adapters for Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, and iMessage-style bots forward commands to /api/capture. Supported prefixes: /reef /drop reef: youtube: x: signal:. MemoReef core handles parsing, URL extraction, metadata, and vault writing — the adapter stays thin.

Can it import Tokwise or short-form video archives?

Yes. Use import-tokwise with a Tokwise .jsonl archive:

memoreef import-tokwise ~/.tokwise/videos/videos.jsonl --vault /path/to/vault

Each video is stored as a structured Markdown Drop with transcript, summary, metadata, and classification.

What is not implemented yet?

Hosted multi-device sync, an official Obsidian Community Plugin, browser extension publication to the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons (the extension is in the repo — install via developer mode), a native mobile app, and LLM-generated summaries are not part of the current release. Web article extraction is best-effort and may fail on paywalled, JavaScript-only, or blocked pages.

Terminology

Drops
Captured source files — unvetted, stored in MemoReef/Drops/.
Drift
Unsorted inbox state for newly captured Drops.
Reef
Reviewed, trusted source library.
Shoals
Source clusters grouped by topic.
Treasures
High-value sources flagged during triage.
Pearls
Cited findings and source-backed ideas from your Treasures.
Handoff
Agent-ready context export from your local vault.