SurfSense

SurfSense is an open-source desktop app that acts as an AI agent for documents you can't upload. It researches, transforms and edits your files on your own machine, keeps its index on your disk, and needs no account. It is available as installers for Windows, macOS and Linux, and the project's latest listed release is v2.2.0.

What It Is

SurfSense is a privacy-focused, NotebookLM-style research notebook. You add files or folders as sources, then ask the agent to search, extract or edit them. Answers are cited, and the index is stored locally rather than in a cloud database. The model is a setting: a local model through Ollama, or a hosted provider such as OpenAI, Anthropic or any OpenAI-compatible API using your own key.

Formats and Deliverables

The README documents per-format support. PDF, Word and Excel do the most today. Examples: PDF page merging, splitting and form filling; Word edits as tracked changes and comments; Excel with formulas and native charts; PowerPoint text replacement and slide duplication. Edits, conversions and PDF tools always produce a new file, leaving the original unchanged. Some conversions need LibreOffice-based Office support, enabled in Settings. Image generation needs an image model, which is not chosen by default.

From indexed sources, the site says SurfSense can produce summaries, documents, slides, spreadsheets, web pages, PDFs, mind maps, flashcards, quizzes, two-voice podcasts, images and infographics.

Privacy and Offline Use

The site states that the app works with the network unplugged once a local model is downloaded, and that model keys stay on the device. Documents leave the machine only if you choose a remote model. Source code is public on GitHub under Apache-2.0, with content in a proprietary backend directory under the Business Source License 1.1.

Current Status

The homepage and README announce that the hosted web app is being sunset in favor of the local app, with users asked to export workspaces before 18 October 2026.