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A better bookmark library

Capture the useful details of a page, keep them tidy, and return to them with context intact.

Create and edit freely

Add HTTP or HTTPS links, retrieve or enter details, and revise URLs or metadata later without losing the bookmark itself.

Canonical links, fewer duplicates

URLs are normalized, fragments are removed, short links such as bit.ly and t.co are expanded to their destinations before saving, and duplicate pages are kept out.

Rich page details

Keep a title, description, domain, cover, favicon, site name, author, publication date, tags, collection, notes, and timestamps.

Useful cards at a glance

See the title, description or note, website, visual details, labels, saved-copy status, and relevant actions right in the library.

Open where you browse

Open a live link in your computer’s default browser, then let Shelf record that it was opened and when.

Share from the actions menu

Generate a scannable QR code, copy the bookmark link, or copy the full saved details to your clipboard whenever you want to pass a bookmark along.

Favorites and archive

Star the links that matter most, or archive older ones without deleting them—then restore them whenever you need them.

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Details, fetched on your terms

Turn a bare URL into a useful record without making the library dependent on a constant connection.

On-demand retrieval

Page details are fetched only when you ask, during add or refresh—not every time you open your library.

Broad page extraction

Collect titles, descriptions, images, favicons, authors, dates, site names, and common social-card details.

Preview before saving

Review and adjust what Shelf found before it becomes part of your library.

Refresh without re-organizing

Update a bookmark’s page details later while keeping its tags, collection, notes, and history.

Short links resolve before saving

Expand common short URLs such as bit.ly and t.co before the bookmark is stored, while following normal redirects and resolving relative cover and favicon links against the final address.

Considerate requests

Requests have sensible timeout, redirect, and response-size limits, and make one brief retry when a site asks you to slow down.

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Organize your own way

Use flexible labels and visual collections, then layer search and filters to reach exactly the right group.

Reusable tags

Add any number of normalized, de-duplicated tags. Suggestions while editing help your vocabulary stay consistent.

Tag views and renaming

Browse tags with active usage counts, then rename one everywhere with a searchable picker and automatic merging.

Color-coded collections

Create, rename, recolor, and delete one-collection-per-bookmark groups. Deleting a collection leaves its bookmarks safe.

Move a result set at once

Move the exact current search result—including its filters and scope—to another collection in one action.

Saved Copies view

Show only bookmarks that have a local page copy and searchable extracted text available.

Filters that combine

Layer date-added ranges, searchable multi-select domains, saved-copy, favorite, never-opened, notes, and no-tags filters with search, tags, collections, archived links, or saved copies, then clear everything in one click.

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Comfortable for a handful—or thousands

Choose the way you browse, choose how you sort, and keep the library calm as it grows.

Five useful sort orders

Browse newest first, oldest first, A–Z by title, by website, or by visits—with recent activity breaking visit-count ties.

Search stays relevant

When you search, relevance comes first while your selected sort gives similarly matched links a stable order.

Grid or list

Choose roomy visual cards or a denser horizontal list; Shelf remembers your preference for the next launch.

Smooth large libraries

Only nearby rows are drawn as you scroll, keeping the interface quick even when you have thousands of bookmarks.

Images that fail gracefully

Covers and favicons load only as needed and fall back cleanly if a remote image goes away.

Helpful empty states

Clear guidance distinguishes an empty library from an empty search, with direct ways to add a bookmark or reset filters.

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Keep a copy of what mattered

Save important pages for later reading and searching, while the original bookmark stays in control.

Optional page capture

Save a page’s HTML when creating or editing a bookmark, or capture it later from the actions menu.

Background work that survives

Captures run in the background so you can keep working; unfinished requests are remembered and resumed after interruption.

Clear status and controls

See whether a copy is saved, in progress, or refreshing. Refresh or remove a copy without removing the bookmark.

Built-in offline reader

Open a saved page directly in Shelf in an isolated viewer designed for untrusted web content.

Export and search copies

Export an individual saved page and search its cleaned visible text, even when its regular metadata lacks the words you need.

Dependable local archives

Copies live beside your library with page HTML, extracted text, and capture information; sensible size limits and coordinated operations keep them predictable.

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Your context belongs beside the link

A bookmark is more useful when it remembers why you saved it.

Personal notes

Write and edit your own free-form notes separately from the page details Shelf retrieves.

Notes in the flow

Notes can stand in as a card description, contribute to fuzzy search, and be isolated with a dedicated filter.

Notes travel with you

Your notes are included alongside metadata and organization when you use Shelf’s portable CSV format.

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Your library, your files

Local-first is a practical promise: readable data, a location you choose, and safeguards around the changes that matter.

No account, no remote database

Your active library is a standard SQLite database on your computer. Shelf does not require a hosted service or synchronization account.

Immediate, durable saves

Changes are committed in SQLite transactions before Shelf reports them complete, keeping the library durable and internally consistent.

Inspectable, versioned data

The normalized SQLite database has a schema version and can be opened with common SQLite tools when you want to inspect, query, or back it up directly.

Choose the location

Use an absolute folder and a portable .sqlite3 filename instead of being limited to the default application-data location.

Move everything together

Relocating storage carries the SQLite library and its sibling saved-copy folder together; an existing target always requires confirmation.

Separate operational settings

Your library database remains distinct from the app’s storage, privacy, pending-work, and automation preferences, with validation around file choices.

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Bring your library with you

Move in confidently, understand what happened, and leave with a portable copy whenever you want.

Guided imports

Choose Shelf or Raindrop.io before selecting a CSV, and see the expected format before anything is changed.

Validate first

The complete file is checked before import. Review totals and row-level issues, then cancel cleanly or continue with valid rows only.

Flexible Shelf CSV

Common column names such as link, name, labels, folder, and starred are understood; a URL is the only required field.

Collections and complete history

Imports create needed collections, while Shelf’s own CSV round-trips metadata, organization, states, notes, timestamps, and visit activity.

Raindrop.io migration

Bring in titles, excerpts, covers, notes, tags, favorites, and creation dates without unnecessary remote fetching; unsupported extras are safely ignored.

Exports with a clear scope

Export the complete library or exactly the current filtered results, and see whether imports added, updated, or skipped each record.

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Privacy controls without false promises

Protect access to the running app when you need to, while staying honest about the boundary of that protection.

Optional password lock

Keep Shelf open by default or require a password to use the running app.

Secure password handling

Passwords are stored only as securely salted password hashes—never as readable plaintext.

Inactivity and manual locking

Set an inactivity timeout from 1 minute to 24 hours, count common interaction as activity, or lock immediately from the toolbar.

Protected changes

Changing or removing an existing password requires the current password, and work from an old session cannot update a newer one.

Automation respects the lock

Protected local API actions remain unavailable while Shelf is locked, while recovery and status actions stay available.

An honest boundary

App lock protects access through Shelf; it does not encrypt your library, exports, preferences, or saved pages at rest.

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Automation when you want it

Give trusted local tools a capable API without turning Shelf into a cloud service.

Off by default

Enable the optional local API only when you need it. Choose its interface and port, see its status, and have it return on later launches.

Safe configuration changes

If a new server address cannot start or be saved, Shelf attempts to restore the previously working setup.

Discovery, health, and snapshots

Trusted tools can discover the service, check its availability and lock state, and read the library or individual bookmarks.

Complete bookmark operations

Create, replace, delete, flag, open, enrich, and batch-create bookmarks—up to 1,000 atomically—with clear metadata merge choices.

More than bookmarks

Automate saved copies, collections, privacy controls, storage moves, and CSV import/export through the same product rules as the desktop app.

Clear contracts, trusted networks

Structured JSON errors and stable conventions make integration predictable. The API has no authentication or TLS, so use non-local access only on networks you trust.

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A native, considerate desktop app

Shelf is made for the three major desktop platforms, with a quiet interface that remains useful when you are offline.

macOS, Windows, and Linux

Use Shelf across the major desktop systems, with native packages for Intel and ARM64 machines.

Familiar window behavior

Use a consistent title bar with native minimize, maximize, close, dragging, and double-click maximize or restore behavior.

Adapts to your display

The window stays within the active screen’s usable area and adjusts for smaller displays and display-scale changes.

Responsive and accessible

Layouts adapt to narrower windows; controls include useful labels and keyboard support, with reduced motion when your system asks for it.

Native dialogs and browser opening

Use your operating system’s file, folder, import, export, and URL-opening experiences rather than awkward custom replacements.

Offline-friendly by design

All interface assets ship locally. Organizing, reading saved copies, imports, exports, and local search work without internet access.

A calmer place for the useful web.

Download Shelf free ↓