Lookshelf
Everything your AI makes, on one shelf.
Claude artifacts, ChatGPT canvases, generated docs and components — out of your chat history and into a library that renders them live, reads them beautifully, and backs them up encrypted.
Free forever · No account required · macOS · Windows · Linux
Everything an artifact library should be. Nothing it shouldn’t.
Run the artifacts, don’t just read them
The HTML and JSX your AI generates — Claude artifacts, ChatGPT canvases — render live inside a locked-down sandbox. You see the real, working thing, not the source, and it can’t touch anything else on your machine.
Ten reading themes
Paper, Ink, Terminal, Newsprint, Zen, Blueprint, Academic, Pop, Notebook, Noir. The long Markdown your AI writes, dressed for the occasion.
Reader mode
One keystroke strips the interface down to a single, quiet column of text. Just you and the words.
Find what the AI made you three weeks ago
Drag whole folders straight in — even a cluttered Downloads. Then tag, file, and search every artifact in your library instantly.
Real dark mode
Not a filter slapped on top — a first-class theme across every surface of the app, easy on late-night eyes.
Fully offline
No CDNs, no calls home, self-hosted fonts. Lookshelf works on a plane, with no account, forever.
“A library isn’t a database. It’s a place — quiet, close, and always where you left it.”
— The Lookshelf philosophy
FOUR LAYERS DEEP
Cloud backup is optional. When you turn it on, your files pass through four real, tested layers of protection — not marketing layers.
Encrypted in transit
Everything moves over TLS, and every request is authenticated with a bearer token. Nothing travels in the clear, and nothing gets in without proving who it is.
Envelope encryption
Server-side envelope encryption: every user gets their own AES-256-GCM data key, wrapped by a master key we can rotate without ever touching your files.
Encrypted at rest
Your ciphertext lands on Cloudflare R2, which encrypts it again at the storage layer. Even the disks underneath never see plaintext.
Tamper & relocation detection
Every object is cryptographically bound to its exact identity (GCM AAD) and hash-verified on read. Move it, swap it, or change a single byte — Lookshelf notices and refuses it.
Also on by default: every write is mirrored to a second store deletions never touch · filenames encrypted at rest · per-account download budgets against stolen tokens · a hashed access audit log.
Free app. Open code. Run it yourself if you like.
The whole thing lives in one public repo — the desktop app and the backup server. Read every line that touches your files.
Want full control? Run the backend yourself with your own keys. The hosted Lookshelf Cloud is the convenience option, never a requirement.
The app is free. The peace of mind is $4.
The whole app, on your machine.
- Every feature, every theme — nothing held back
- Live sandboxed HTML & JSX previews
- No account, no sign-up, nothing sent anywhere
- Works fully offline, forever
- Open source — audit it, fork it, build it
DMG for macOS · installer for Windows · AppImage/deb for Linux
Managed, encrypted backup for your library.
- 10 GB of encrypted backup
- Version history — last 10 versions of every file
- 30-day trash restore for deleted files
- Restore your library on every device
- Four-layer encryption, deletion-proof mirror
100 MB free tier included with every account
cancel anytime · payments by Stripe
Fair questions, straight answers.
Is it really free?
Yes. The desktop app is free and open source — every feature, every theme, no account, no trial clock. The only paid thing is Lookshelf Cloud, an optional $4/month encrypted backup service (with a 100 MB free tier). The app never needs it to work.
Can you read my files?
Honest answer: your backups are encrypted at rest with per-user AES-256-GCM keys, but Gigahertz holds the master key that wraps them. That’s a deliberate choice — it means a lost password doesn’t mean a lost library. It also means Lookshelf Cloud is not zero-knowledge. If you want full control, the backend is in the open-source repo — self-host it with your own keys. And the app itself sends nothing anywhere.
What happens if I cancel?
You can cancel anytime, and the app keeps working exactly as before — it never depended on the subscription. Your account simply drops back to the free 100 MB backup tier, and your local library is untouched.
Mac only?
All three, natively: a DMG for macOS, an installer for Windows, and AppImage/deb packages for Linux — every release publishes binaries for each platform on the GitHub releases page. Prefer building from source? npm install && npm start works on all three too.
How do deletions work?
Delete a backed-up file and it sits in trash for 30 days, restorable with one click, then it’s purged from live storage. Deleting your account removes your data. And because every write is mirrored to a second store that deletions never touch, an attacker with your token can’t silently destroy your backup.