Frequently Asked Questions
Answers about Anchoris, local-first work, browser capture, privacy, Mac compatibility, and AI with clear boundaries.
About Anchoris
- What is Anchoris?
Anchoris is a local-first workspace for Mac. It keeps your notes, files, projects, and web research connected in one local folder, then helps reveal the relationships around your work.
Instead of treating every document as an isolated file, Anchoris is designed to help you see the surrounding context: what belongs to a project, what points back to a file, what was opened alongside it, and where the thread can continue.
- How is Anchoris different from a notes app?
A notes app is mainly for writing. Anchoris is designed as a local workspace for notes, files, projects, web captures, and connected context — with Lens, Work Map, and time-aware tools to help you return to work.
- Why was Anchoris created?
Anchoris started from the founder’s own work. Files were saved, but scattered. Notes lived in apps, decisions sat in chats, plans lived on calendars, and AI tools kept asking for more context before they could help.
After trying many note apps, project tools, graph tools, file managers, and AI workspaces, none felt like the quiet center Anchoris was meant to become: local by default, connected by design, time-aware, and careful about AI boundaries.
Anchoris is free to use. If you have feedback or ideas, email sayhi@anchoris.app.
- Who is Anchoris for?
Anchoris is for people whose work depends on context: researchers, writers, builders, students, founders, operators, and anyone who moves between notes, files, projects, references, and unfinished threads.
It is especially useful for people who do not just want to store information, but want to understand how their work connects over time. If you often ask “Where did I leave off?” or “What else belongs to this file?”, Anchoris is being built for that kind of work.
- Is Anchoris a notes app, a file manager, or an AI workspace?
Anchoris sits between those categories. It works with local files, helps organize work into projects, reveals connections through Lens and Work Map, and is designed for AI that works inside boundaries you choose.
A traditional notes app stores writing, and a file manager stores documents. Anchoris is designed to become the system around your work: where it lives, how it connects, how it changes over time, and how you return to it.
- What are project materials?
Project materials are the notes, files, PDFs, docs, captures, references, canvases, and related items that support a piece of work. Anchoris keeps them together without forcing them into a new cloud folder.
Local-first and privacy
- Where are my files stored?
Anchoris is designed around a local workspace on your Mac. Your workspace files stay local by default, in a folder you can see, back up, move, and control.
This matters because a local folder is not just a technical detail; it is a boundary. It gives your work a place before it becomes someone else’s cloud context.
- Does Anchoris upload my workspace files to the cloud?
No, not by default. The Anchoris website may collect newsletter or product-update signup data when you submit a form, but that is separate from your local workspace.
Subscribing for product updates does not create a workspace account, upload your notes, or send your local documents to Anchoris.
- Why does local-first matter in the AI era?
Cloud tools made work easier to access, and AI tools made it easier to process. But together, they also make it easier for personal work to disappear into systems you do not fully control.
Local-first gives your work a clear starting point: your files begin on your Mac, and you decide what to connect, sync, or bring into AI workflows.
HTML and web capture
- Where are captured web pages stored?
Captured pages are saved inside your local Anchoris workspace as ordinary HTML files, with supported page images stored locally alongside them. The source URL and capture details are preserved so you can see where the material came from.
- Can Anchoris open HTML files I already have?
Yes. Anchoris can open .html and .htm files in a clean Reader view, include readable content in local search, show document structure in Outline, and connect the file to Projects and related work.
- What can I capture from the browser?
You can capture a full page, selected text, or a specific area of a page.
- Do I need the browser extension?
No. You can still capture a URL from the Mac app. The extension is recommended when you want to capture the page as rendered in your browser, selected text, or a specific page area.
- Can I use Anchoris without the Chrome extension?
Yes. You can open and read HTML files, capture URLs from the Mac app, and work with notes, files, and projects without installing the extension.
The Chrome extension is recommended when you want to capture a page as rendered in your browser, selected text, or a specific page area.
- Does Browser Capture work on every website?
Not every page can or should be captured. Anchoris works with pages your browser can access and that the site allows the extension to read. Access restrictions, protected media, paywalls, and some highly interactive applications may limit what can be saved.
- Does Browser Capture upload my pages to the cloud?
No. Browser captures are sent to the Anchoris app running on your Mac over a local connection and saved into your local workspace.
- How is this different from a bookmark?
A bookmark remembers where a page was. Anchoris keeps a local, readable copy with its source context, so the material can remain available to your project, search, and connected work even after the browser tab is gone.
Connected work and time-aware context
- How is Anchoris different from a normal folder or file manager?
Folders show where files are stored. Anchoris is designed to show the work around a file: related notes, backlinks, project context, opened-alongside materials, canvases, and time-aware threads.
The goal is not to replace folders, but to make the relationships around your local work visible.
- What are Lens and Work Map?
Lens is the context panel around a file. It is designed to show nearby work such as related files, backlinks, opened-alongside materials, project context, and connected notes.
Work Map is the visual layer of that idea: a map of the relationships around your current file or project. It is graph for context, not graph for decoration.
- How does time fit into Anchoris?
Work does not only live in files. It unfolds through sessions, returns, plans, pauses, and unfinished threads.
Anchoris treats time-aware context as part of the work system, so your work can be understood not only by where it is stored, but by how it moves and when you return to it.
AI, access, and compatibility
- Does Anchoris use AI?
Anchoris is designed for AI with boundaries. The goal is not to replace your judgment or silently change your work, but to help you understand context, summarize work, and move forward with reviewable assistance.
Local AI support is part of the direction, and optional AI workflows should make it clear what context is being used. Local AI packs are planned and will be introduced carefully.
- Is Anchoris free to use?
Yes. Anchoris is free to use. Download the Mac app and install the Chrome extension at no cost.
Too many modern AI tools ask people to pay before they can feel whether the product truly helps them. Anchoris should earn trust by being useful first.
- Is Anchoris available now?
Yes. Anchoris is available for Mac. Download the app and install the Chrome extension to capture web pages into your local workspace.
Subscribe for product updates, essays, and release notes on the homepage if you want to follow what ships next.
- Which Macs does Anchoris support?
The current public release supports Apple silicon Macs running macOS 13 or later.
Check the download page for the latest version, release date, and compatibility details.
- Does Anchoris support Intel Macs?
Not in the current public release. Anchoris 0.1.6 is available for Apple silicon Macs only.
- Can Anchoris edit code files?
Anchoris can open and read lightweight code and plaintext files from your local workspace, and make light edits in context. Larger code files are handled more carefully, and you can open a file in an external editor when you need to do deeper editing.