Pagium 0.12 · macOS · Local-first

A real home for everything AI hands you.

An HTML-default notebook.

Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini hand you HTML, PDFs, and images. Pagium keeps them as-is: first-class, linkable, searchable files on your own disk.

Download for macOS See how it works

Free · Apple Silicon · 17.1 MB · v0.12.53

Every format

Every format, as itself.

HTML, PDF, Markdown, images. Each rendered natively, each a first-class node in one graph: real backlinks, full-text search, resolvable links. Nothing downgraded on the way in.

An .html file from Claude isn't an attachment. It's a note: same backlinks, same search, same link resolution as your Markdown.

Capture

Get anything in. One move.

Paste from ChatGPT or Claude with ⌘⇧V, or clip any page with the browser extension. Filed and indexed in about 150 ms.

Inspect

Click any element. Ask about it.

Hit ⌘⇧I in any HTML preview, then click anything. Pagium captures its selector and outer HTML and hands the AI an exact reference.

Edit

Press ⌘E. You're editing.

Read mode is byte-stable paper. ⌘E makes the rendered surface itself writable, with byte-exact saves. Select a phrase and ask the AI without leaving the page.

AI agent

An AI agent that knows your vault.

⌘⇧K. Ask questions, act on files, every mutation logged and one-click undoable. Clipped pages can't hijack it: web content is treated as data, never commands.

Privacy posture · BYOK

Your key, or your login.

Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, or local Ollama. Or skip the key entirely and run on your ChatGPT login with Codex. Pagium never intermediates the call: no proxy, no markup, no monthly tax. Prompt caching cuts repeat input cost about 78%.

Keys stored on your disk, readable only by you.
Scriptable & connected

Every vault, scriptable. Wired into your tools.

pagium-cli is agent-first: JSON by default, deterministic exit codes, no GUI. One MCP server exposes your vault to Claude, Cursor, Zed, Windsurf, Gemini, and ChatGPT.

One MCP server · your AI tools

One-click config writer wires each client to your vault.

Questions

Before you download.

What's the point of Pagium if Obsidian can view HTML and PDFs?
Obsidian views HTML; Pagium treats HTML as the note: a first-class node in the same graph as your Markdown, with real backlinks, full-text search, and link resolution. The HTML file Claude just handed you participates in the graph, instead of sitting there as a dead attachment.
Where are my notes stored?
Plain files in a folder you choose on your own disk. No cloud, no account, no telemetry. Open them in any browser, grep them from the terminal, or sync the folder with iCloud, Syncthing, or git.
Which AI tools work with Pagium?
Any tool that exports HTML, PDF, or Markdown. Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity all work. Save the file into your vault folder and Pagium indexes it within a beat.
Can I use Pagium's AI without an API key?
Yes, two ways. Run Ollama locally for fully offline AI with no key. Or pick the Codex provider to run on your existing ChatGPT login. The keyed providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter) stay available for bring-your-own-key.
Can I edit notes inside Pagium?
Yes. Markdown, HTML, and PagiumHtml notes edit in place. Read mode is the default — clean, byte-stable paper; press ⌘E to flip to Edit and a Notion-style toolbar follows the active block. Editing is true in-place WYSIWYG on the live preview, and a per-block byte-anchor map keeps every untouched byte identical on disk, so git diff stays clean and authored style is never normalized away.
How does search work?
SQLite FTS5, indexed by a Rust file-watcher with ~150 ms latency. Cold start is under 400 ms; the index is a single file beside your vault and can be regenerated on demand. HTML and Markdown content is searched; PDF filenames are searched.
Does Pagium work offline?
Yes. The vault, the index, and the app itself all run entirely on your machine — no network connection is required to read, write, search, or link notes. AI features call whichever provider you choose, or stay fully local with Ollama.
What format does Pagium save notes in?
One UTF-8 HTML file per note. Each declares its format version with a <meta name="pagium:version" content="1"> tag. Wiki-links are <pagium-link href="./other.html"> custom elements any HTML parser can read without losing data.
Can I share a note with someone who doesn't have Pagium?
Yes. Click Share on any note (or press ⌘⇧S) and Pagium hands you a public pagium.app/s/<id> URL anyone can open in a browser. Links are temporary by design — pick 1, 7, or 30 days. The page is a self-contained snapshot, with no signup, and you can revoke it anytime in Settings → Shares.
How does Pagium compare to Notion?
Notion is a SaaS database in the cloud. Pagium is the opposite: a local-first desktop app with no database, no cloud, no account. No team workspaces or kanban boards, but notes you still own when the company is gone, and a vault you can read with cat.
How does Pagium compare to Bear or Apple Notes?
Bear and Apple Notes keep your writing inside an opaque SQLite database you have to export from. Pagium has nothing to export — the file on disk is the note. Drag it, email it, version it, render it on a static site. It's just HTML.
Is Pagium free?
Yes — free to download and use. No paid tier, no account, no telemetry. Bring your own API key for the AI features (Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter) or run all-local with Ollama; Pagium never intermediates the call or charges for usage.
What platforms are supported?
Pagium ships as a signed .dmg for macOS 12 (Monterey) or later on Apple Silicon. Windows and Linux builds will follow once the multi-format vault spec is frozen. The companion pagium-cli runs anywhere with a POSIX shell.
Can Pagium search inside my PDFs?
Not yet. Today Pagium indexes PDF filenames; full-text search covers HTML and Markdown. PDF text extraction is on the roadmap.
What formats does Pagium preview?
HTML, PDF, Markdown, and common image formats (PNG, JPG, SVG, WebP, GIF). Every other file is visible in the sidebar and opens in your system default app on click.