driftnet

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[▶ Try the demo](https://kevinchu1110.github.io/driftnet/demo/) · [Website](https://kevinchu1110.github.io/driftnet/) · [Chrome extension](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/driftnet/inmlinbodfopmanbllkkjcgheelacddm) · [Docs](#-docs)

🆕 1.2 is out: chat replies link each card with its own signature instead of the share key, LINE answers before its reply token expires, model and embedding endpoints go through the SSRF guard, and yt-dlp gets a cookies file and a stale-version warning. What's new · What stays stable

📖 What it is

Every day your feed carries great articles, open-source repos and tools past you. You paste them into a chat "for later", and like everything else in the current, they drift out of sight.

driftnet is the net you leave in that current. Drop links in a group chat (LINE, Slack, Discord, Telegram), click the Chrome button, import your old bookmarks or use the command line. driftnet catches each one, follows a post to the project it is really about, boils it down to a short summary in your language, and files it in your own folders, in a local catalogue with full-text search (Chinese included). Your agents haul in the same catalogue over MCP. It runs on your own computer and works with any model, or none.

🎥 See it work

1. A post becomes the tool. A Facebook reel with no links in it goes into the chat. driftnet reads the caption, finds both repos on GitHub by exact name, and files each as its own card. The chat gets one line; the summary is on the page.

you ▸ this week's AI roundup https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DfVB2odi3/

bot ▸ 📌 This week in AI (3/11)｜News ＋ Paperclip, RealWonder https://driftnet.example/#item-1

From a real run. The post had no links: driftnet read the caption and found both repos on GitHub by name.

2. Know what it is at a glance. Before: a bare link in a chat. After: a card with pictures from the page, a one-line answer, what you'll see and why it's here, so you can tell in seconds whether to open it.

3. Sort with the mind map. New links the AI filed on its own wait in the Inbox with two or three suggested folders. Or drag a card onto a folder on the mind map, which branches out from the root like XMind.

✨ Core features

Catch the link

• 🎯 Finds the actual tool. A post linking a repo becomes the repo; a post that only *names* projects gets them looked up on GitHub by exact name. Links a model makes up are thrown away.
• 💬 Reads "link in the comments". The Chrome extension opens the comments; a weekly roundup becomes one item per project.
• 📥 Many ways in. A Chrome button, Discord, Telegram, Slack or LINE bots, your agent, or one HTTP call (Ways in).

Understand and sort it

• 🖼️ Cards you can read at a glance. Pictures, a one-line answer, what you'll see, why it's here.
• 🗂️ Your folders are the categories. The AI files new links by each folder's path and description; its suggestions wait in the Inbox.
• 🧠 Mind map and split view. Drag cards onto folders; ✨ AI tidy-up proposes a plan that changes nothing until you apply it (the web page).
• 📱 A page you can search, on a phone too. Notes, undo and trash, keyboard shortcuts, read-only share links.
• 🚫 Not a read-later app. Pocket and Raindrop keep the link you gave them. driftnet follows the post to the tool it is about, keeps a short outline instead of the whole page, and lets your agents read and write the same catalogue over MCP.

Cheap, safe and yours

• 💸 Spends almost nothing. Repeat links are free and pages are cut to an outline of about 350 tokens before any model sees them. Five real Facebook reels were judged for $0.00029 in total.
• ⚖️ Optional judge. Jev (needs a TypeSafe key) decides in ~100 ms what is worth summarising. Without it, your model sorts each link.
• 🗳️ Learns what to ignore. 👎 a result and its publisher loses reputation; sources that keep getting voted down stop costing anything.
• 🛡️ Safe by default. Private and local addresses are refused, and prompt injection is never passed on to agents.
• 🤖 Agents use it too. MCP, /openapi.json, /llms.txt, /feed.xml and an outgoing webhook; or let them do the reading (Agents).
• 🧩 Any model or none, and it stays yours. A free local model through Ollama, a Claude or Gemini subscription you already have, a paid API key (pennies), or no model (links are then saved and wait unsorted under "Other"). Local SQLite; English and Traditional Chinese throughout.

🚀 Quick start

Everything runs on your own computer: no server to rent, no account. Want a look first? [Try the demo](https://kevinchu1110.github.io/driftnet/demo/) runs the real page in your browser.

Easiest: let your AI agent install it

Copy this into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any agent that can run commands on your computer:

Read https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KevinChu1110/driftnet/main/docs/llms-install.txt and set up driftnet for me.

It checks Node.js, starts driftnet, connects itself over MCP and tells you when it is done.

Or run one command yourself

You need Node.js 22.13 or newer. Never used a terminal? Step by step for Mac and Windows. Then, in a terminal:

npx driftnet

Your browser opens http://localhost:8787: that is driftnet's page, served by your own computer (*localhost* means "this machine"; nobody else can see it). ⚙ Settings → AI: pick a provider and fill in its key and model. Or skip it: links are still saved and wait unsorted under "Other", and an AI agent can write the summaries (Agents). To connect the AI apps on this computer (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex) in one go: npx driftnet init.

Closing that terminal window stops driftnet. To have it start at login and run in the background instead (macOS, Linux, Windows), run once:

npx driftnet service install      # status: npx driftnet service status · undo: npx driftnet service uninstall

Your settings live in ~/.driftnet/.env and the catalogue in ~/.driftnet/driftnet.db.

Add your first link

Any of these works:

• On the page: paste a link into the box and press Add.
• In a terminal: npx driftnet add https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip
• From the browser: the Chrome extension sends the page you are looking at.
• From a chat: paste a Discord, Telegram, Slack or LINE bot token in ⚙ Settings → Chats (how to get one) and drop links there.

A card shows up within 5–30 seconds: what it is, why it might matter to you, and where it was filed.

Other ways to run it: from source, Docker

From source, to hack on it or run it as a login service:

git clone https://github.com/KevinChu1110/driftnet && cd driftnet

pnpm install pnpm start # http://localhost:8787 pnpm service:install # optional: start at login (macOS / Linux)

With Docker:

docker build -t driftnet https://github.com/KevinChu1110/driftnet.git

docker run -d -p 127.0.0.1:8787:8787 -v driftnet:/data -e DRIFTNET_HOST=0.0.0.0 driftnet start

Without start, the container is the MCP server over stdio (docker run -i --rm -v driftnet:/data driftnet). DRIFTNET_HOME moves the settings and the catalogue somewhere else.

Not working?

• Port 8787 is in use: another driftnet is probably running; open http://localhost:8787, or start this one with PORT=8788.
• `driftnet needs Node 22.13 or newer`: install it with nvm install 22 or from nodejs.org.
• Cards stay ⏳ with no summary: no model is set up yet. Choose one in ⚙ Settings → AI, or let your agent work the queue (Agents).
• Opened from another computer and got `421`: without a password driftnet only answers on this machine. Set a password (DRIFTNET_TOKEN), or list the address in DRIFTNET_ALLOWED_HOSTS.

Which setup is yours?

📚 Docs

Where your data goes

[!IMPORTANT]

The catalogue stays on you