# Kept
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<p align="center">
<img src="demo.gif" alt="Kept archival illustration" width="100%" style="border-radius:20px;">
</p>
Kept saves your AI conversations as local Markdown files, then gives you a desktop app to search, browse, connect, and reuse them.
It works with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and Kimi. Your archive lives on your machine under `~/.kept/`, with an Obsidian-compatible vault plus local indexes for full-text search, topics, projects, and graph views.
[Quick Install](#quick-install) | [Download](#download) | [Setup](#setup) | [Build from source](#build-from-source) | [MCP server](#mcp-server)
## Why Kept
AI chats often become working memory: debugging trails, research notes, product decisions, prompts, snippets, and half-finished ideas. Most of that history stays inside vendor UIs.
Kept turns it into files you own.
- Plain Markdown, grouped by provider.
- Fast local search with SQLite FTS5.
- Graph and topic views for finding connections across old conversations.
- Optional chat over your own archive using the model provider you configure.
- An MCP server so coding agents can read, search, and manage the vault.
## How It Works
```
Chromium browser extension
-> reads conversations from provider API endpoints using your signed-in session
-> normalizes messages and supported image assets
-> sends them to the Kept desktop app on http://localhost:18241
Kept desktop app
-> writes Markdown files to ~/.kept/vault/
-> indexes content in SQLite
-> builds a local knowledge graph in CozoDB
-> exposes search, graph, project, export, and agent tools
MCP server
-> lets Claude Code, OpenClaw, and other MCP clients work with the vault
```
Kept does not scrape rendered chat pages. The extension syncs conversation data from provider API responses and hands the normalized payload to the local app.
## Supported Providers
| Provider | Sync | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ChatGPT | Yes | Full conversations, streaming history, branch-aware saves |
| Claude | Yes | Full conversations and streaming history |
| Gemini | Yes | Best effort; Google's API format changes often |
| Grok | Yes | Includes supported image assets |
| Kimi | Yes | Uses the Kimi auth helper included in the extension |
Provider APIs are private and can change without notice. Kept keeps the archive as plain files so your saved conversations stay readable even if an adapter needs an update.
## Quick Install
Windows PowerShell:
```powershell
irm https://kept.work/install.ps1 | iex
```
macOS and Linux:
```bash
curl -fsSL https://kept.work/install.sh | bash
```
The installer downloads the latest GitHub Release, installs the desktop app, and extracts the Chromium extension to a local folder. Browsers still require you to load the extension manually in Developer Mode.
The same scripts can be run directly from GitHub:
```powershell
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/egroup-labs/kept.work/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex
```
```bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/egroup-labs/kept.work/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
```
## Download
Desktop builds are published on [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/egroup-labs/kept.work/releases/latest).
Current release targets:
- macOS Apple Silicon: `.dmg`
- Windows x64: NSIS `.exe` installer
- Linux x64: `.deb` and `.AppImage`
The release also includes the Chromium extension package. Until the Web Store listing is live, install the extension in developer mode.
## Setup
### 1. Install The Desktop App
Use the [Quick Install](#quick-install) command above, or download the build for your OS from [Releases](https://github.com/egroup-labs/kept.work/releases/latest), install it, and launch Kept.
On first launch, Kept creates:
```
~/.kept/
vault/
index.db
kg.db/
config.toml
token
```
The app also starts a local server on `http://localhost:18241`. The browser extension uses this local server to send conversations into the vault.
### 2. Load The Browser Extension
Kept supports Chromium-based browsers: Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Arc, Opera, and Chromium.
1. Extract the extension from the release, or use `extension/` from this repo.
2. Open your browser's extensions page, for example `chrome://extensions`.
3. Enable Developer Mode.
4. Click Load unpacked.
5. Select the `extension/` directory.
### 3. Connect The Extension
With the Kept app running, open this page in the same browser:
```
http://localhost:18241/connect
```
That page gives the extension its per-install token. After that, use the extension popup or Kept onboarding flow to sync your providers.
## Vault Layout
Kept writes conversations as Markdown with YAML frontmatter:
```
~/.kept/vault/
chatgpt/
2026-05-02_optimizing-cuda-kernel.md
claude/
2026-05-02_kept-readme-draft.md
gemini/
grok/
kimi/
```
You can open `~/.kept/vault/` directly in Obsidian, VS Code, or any editor. The files are the source of truth; the search and graph databases can be rebuilt from them.
## MCP Server
`mcp/` is an MCP server named `kept-vault-server`. It lets agentic clients list, read, write, search, rename, and delete files in your Kept vault.
Inside Claude Code:
```text
/plugin marketplace add egroup-labs/kept.work
/plugin install kept-vault@kept-plugins
```
One-line installer for Linux and macOS:
```bash
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/egroup-labs/kept.work/main/scripts/install-kept-mcp.sh)
```
PowerShell:
```powershell
& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/egroup-labs/kept.work/main/scripts/install-kept-mcp.ps1)))
```
Set `KEPT_VAULT_PATH` if your vault is not at `~/.kept/vault`.
Tools exposed by the server:
- `list_vault`
- `list_directory`
- `read_file`
- `write_file`
- `update_file`
- `delete_file`
- `move_file`
- `grep_vault`
## Build From Source
Requirements:
- Node.js 20+
- Rust toolchain
- A Chromium-based browser
- Optional: [Ollama](https://ollama.com/) for local models and embeddings
```bash
git clone https://github.com/egroup-labs/kept.git
cd kept/app
npm ci
npm run tauri dev
```
### Linux Dependencies
Ubuntu/Debian:
```bash
sudo apt install -y \
build-essential clang libclang-dev pkg-config \
libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libsoup-3.0-dev \
libpango1.0-dev libcairo2-dev libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-dev libglib2.0-dev
```
`build-essential`, `clang`, and `libclang-dev` are required for Rust crates that
use `bindgen` (e.g. `zstd-sys` pulled in by CozoDB). The rest are the GTK /
WebKitGTK / GLib stack Tauri 2 links against.
Then run:
```bash
npm run tauri:dev:linux
```
### Frontend-Only Mode
You can run the UI against mock data without the Rust app:
```bash
cd app
npm ci
npm run dev
```
Vite serves the UI at `http://localhost:1420`.
## Repository Layout
```
app/ Tauri 2 desktop app
src/ React frontend
src-tauri/ Rust backend, Axum server, vault, search, graph, agent tools
extension/ Chromium extension
platforms/ Provider sync adapters
mcp/ MCP server for the vault
scripts/ App and MCP install scripts
```
## Privacy And Security
- Core archive and search data stays on your machine in `~/.kept/`.
- The extension talks to the desktop app over `localhost` and must include the bearer token stored at `~/.kept/token`.
- Kept has no hosted account and no cloud sync.
- Optional chat, topic discovery, and graph features call only the model provider you configure, or your local Ollama server.
- The updater checks the configured Kept update endpoint for new desktop releases.
## Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome. Conventional commits are preferred:
```text
feat(scope): add ...
fix(scope): repair ...
```
Useful areas to start:
- `extension/platforms/` for provider adapters
- `app/src-tauri/src/vault.rs` for vault writes
- `app/src-tauri/src/db.rs` for search indexing
- `app/src-tauri/src/kg-gen/` for graph generation
- `mcp/src/` for MCP vault tools
## License
MIT