Documentation · this section

Documentation — 00

A reader's manual.

Last updated · 2026-05-12

Shelf is a Chrome extension for saving articles, videos, and podcasts to files you own. It writes Markdown by default and exports to Notion, Obsidian, and Logseq on top — without OAuth servers, without lock-in, without phoning home.

These pages are the manual. They are short on purpose. Read in any order; the prev/next links at the bottom of each page suggest a sequence if you want one.

What you’ll find here

The docs are organised around what you do, not what the product does.

Start here explains how to install the extension and walks through the first save. — Exports has one short page per destination: Markdown, Notion, Obsidian, Logseq. Read only the one(s) you use. — Organize covers collections, nesting, and (for Pro readers) Smart Rules. — Legal is the privacy policy and terms of service, exactly the same pages that are linked from the footer.

If anything is missing — or unclear — send a note via the feedback form. The docs are versioned with the extension; the date at the top of each page changes when the content does.

What’s intentionally not here

  • Marketing copy. The pricing page is on the home page. The features list is there too.
  • A developer reference. Shelf isn’t open-source; the API surface that matters is the Markdown frontmatter (documented under Exports → Markdown) and the Notion property mapping (under Exports → Notion).
  • A changelog. Coming when releases are frequent enough to need it. For now, the date at the top of each doc page tracks the last change.

A word on the voice

These pages talk to you like a reader, not a customer. Shelf was made for one kind of person: someone who keeps articles to read later and is tired of those articles disappearing when the host shuts down. That premise shapes everything else. If the docs read like a letter from the maker to that reader, they’re doing their job.

The next page is the only one you have to read.