Cortex.md

Tracking since May 2, 2026.

Changelog

• May 13, 2026
  short_description

  Capture the web into your own local Obsidian-compatible markdown vault — AI-organized, cross-linked, fully on your own disk.

  AI research vault for local Markdown: capture sources, audit AI work, save research packs, and export context.

• May 8, 2026
  description

  Cortex turns the web into a knowledge vault you actually own.
  
  Click once to save any page, selection, or snippet as a clean markdown file in a folder on your disk. An AI step you control (your provider, your API key, your monthly spend cap) tags it, categorizes it, and cross-links it to everything you've saved before. A side panel gives you a searchable wiki and a force-directed graph of how it all connects.
  
  No accounts. No cloud. No telemetry. Just markdown on disk.
  
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  WHY CORTEX
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  • Real markdown on real disk. You pick the folder. Open it in Obsidian, VS Code, Logseq, or any editor. Cortex never uploads your vault.
  
  • One-click capture. Save the current page from the popup, the right-click menu, or a keyboard shortcut (⌘⇧S to capture page, ⌘⇧E to capture selection).
  
  • Clean extraction. Mozilla Readability strips the chrome, Turndown converts to markdown, DOMPurify sanitizes. You get the article, not the ads.
  
  • AI organizes for you. New captures land in inbox/, then get tagged, categorized, and linked into the existing graph. Auto mode runs unattended; Manual mode shows you the proposed move first.
  
  • In-extension wiki. Browse and search the vault from a side panel. Click [[wikilinks]] to navigate. Edits persist to disk. External edits made in Obsidian sync back when you refocus the tab.
  
  • Knowledge graph. A live force-directed graph of every note and link in your vault, rendered with Cytoscape.
  
  • Bring your own AI. Anthropic Claude or OpenAI. Keys default to session-only storage. Set a monthly USD cap and the extension stops calling the provider when you hit it.
  
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  HOW IT WORKS
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  1. Install Cortex and open the options page.
  2. Pick a vault folder on your disk (any empty folder works; an existing Obsidian vault works too).
  3. Choose a provider, paste an API key, set a monthly spend cap.
  4. Open any web page and hit ⌘⇧S (or click the toolbar icon).
  5. The page becomes vault/inbox/<date>-<slug>.md. The AI then moves it to the right category and adds links to related notes.
  6. Open the side panel to read, search, edit, and explore the graph.
  
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  PRIVACY
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  • Your vault content lives on your disk. Cortex has no server. There is no Cortex account.
  
  • Page content is sent only to the AI provider you have configured, only when you trigger a capture, only with the API key you provided. Nothing else leaves your machine.
  
  • API keys default to chrome.storage.session and are cleared when you close the browser. Flipping the "remember" toggle stores them in chrome.storage.local. Keys are never written to chrome.storage.sync, so they never leave the device.
  
  • Cortex uses the activeTab permission rather than <all_urls> host access. The extension cannot see any page until you explicitly capture it.
  
  • No analytics. No tracking. No third-party scripts.
  
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  WHO IT'S FOR
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  • Researchers and students who want a permanent, searchable record of what they read.
  • Writers and journalists building a reference library out of source material.
  • Engineers and PMs who keep notes in Obsidian and want a faster capture path.
  • Anyone who has tried "read it later" apps and wished the result was just files they owned.
  
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  TECH NOTES
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  Built on WXT, Vite, and React. Uses the File System Access API for direct vault writes, Dexie for the local index, MiniSearch for full-text search, and Cytoscape for graph rendering. Manifest V3.
  
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  NOT YET IN THE MVP
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  Email/Gmail ingestion, mobile, cloud sync, team vaults, semantic embedding search, and Firefox/Safari builds are on the roadmap but not shipped. The current focus is making the capture → organize → browse → graph loop excellent for a single user.
  
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  PERMISSIONS, EXPLAINED
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  • activeTab + scripting: read the current page only when you trigger a capture.
  • storage: persist your settings, vault handle reference, and search index.
  • sidePanel: render the wiki and graph alongside the page you're reading.
  • contextMenus + commands: right-click "Capture" and the keyboard shortcuts.
  • tabs: identify the active tab during capture.
  • offscreen: parse HTML in an offscreen document so Readability runs reliably.
  • alarms: schedule the periodic vault re-sync that picks up edits made in Obsidian.
  • host permissions for api.anthropic.com and api.openai.com: send capture content to the AI provider you chose. No other domains are contacted.
  
  Feedback, issues, and feature requests are welcome.

  Cortex turns every page you save into clean markdown on your disk — categorized, cross-linked, and graphed by AI. Built for people who want a real second brain, not another bookmarking app.
  
  — What you get —
  
  • ONE-CLICK CAPTURE
    Save any page or selection with ⌘⇧S / ⌘⇧E, the toolbar icon, or a right-click. Mozilla Readability strips the chrome and Turndown produces clean markdown with frontmatter (title, source URL, capture time, tags).
  
  • A REAL FOLDER ON DISK
    You pick the vault folder. Every capture lands as a plain .md file. Open it in Obsidian, VS Code, anything. There is no proprietary database — uninstall the extension and your notes are still there.
  
  • AI ORGANIZE
    New captures land in inbox/ and Cortex AI tags them, categorizes them, and cross-links them to existing entities and concepts in your vault. Auto or Manual mode — you stay in control.
  
  • IN-EXTENSION WIKI + KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
    Browse and edit your vault from the side panel. Click [[wikilinks]] to navigate. A Cytoscape-rendered force-directed graph shows how every note connects.
  
  • ASK YOUR VAULT
    Type a question. Cortex retrieves the most relevant notes (semantic + lexical), feeds them to the model, and answers with [[wikilink]] citations back to the source notes.
  
  • AUTO-RESEARCH
    Type a topic and Cortex dispatches a web research agent (Perplexity Sonar), gathers and dedupes citations, extracts entities, and writes a fully-linked note with inline cites.
  
  • INGEST FROM YOUR EXISTING SOURCES
    PDFs, DOCX, Markdown/HTML files, Google Drive documents, Gmail threads, and YouTube transcripts can all be turned into source notes in your vault.
  
  — Pricing —
  
  • Free — 25 AI credits / month. Quick capture and Ask are included.
  • Plus — $9/month or $90/year. 1,000 AI credits, document/Drive/Gmail ingest, web research, AI link validation.
  • Pro — $19/month or $190/year. 5,000 AI credits, deep multi-step research, graph investigate, smart-merge audit.
  
  You only ever pay for AI usage. The vault, capture, search, and graph are free forever.
  
  — Privacy posture —
  
  • Vault content stays on YOUR disk. Cortex does not host or sync your notes.
  • Page content is sent to Cortex AI only when you trigger an AI action that needs it.
  • The backend stores usage metadata (feature, model, credits, tokens) for billing, NOT your captured content.
  • No third-party trackers, no analytics, no telemetry.
  • Cortex uses activeTab + scripting (not <all_urls>) so it cannot see a page until you click capture.
  
  Manage your account at https://cortexmd.ai/account

• May 8, 2026
  short_description

  Capture the web into your own local Obsidian-compatible knowledge vault.

  Capture the web into your own local Obsidian-compatible markdown vault — AI-organized, cross-linked, fully on your own disk.

• May 8, 2026
  name

  Cortex

  Cortex.md

• May 8, 2026
  category

  productivity/tools

  productivity/workflow

• May 8, 2026
  host_permissions

  https://api.perplexity.ai/*, https://api.deepseek.com/*

  https://soxghibailtwdjvrywqp.supabase.co/*, https://www.googleapis.com/*, https://accounts.google.com/*, https://gmail.googleapis.com/*, https://www.youtube.com/*, https://youtube.com/*, https://m.youtube.com/*

• May 8, 2026
  permissions

  sidePanel, storage, activeTab, scripting, contextMenus, commands, tabs, offscreen, alarms

  sidePanel, storage, activeTab, scripting, contextMenus, commands, tabs, offscreen, alarms, identity

Permissions & access

Permissions

sidePanelstorageactiveTabscriptingcontextMenuscommandstabsoffscreenalarmsidentity

Host access

https://soxghibailtwdjvrywqp.supabase.co/*, https://www.googleapis.com/*, https://accounts.google.com/*, https://gmail.googleapis.com/*, https://www.youtube.com/*, https://youtube.com/*, https://m.youtube.com/*

Screenshots