Chronicle on Arivu

Complete Pages, Preserved Quietly

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Saving a web page should not depend on whether its useful content happened to be present in the first HTML response.

Arivu now has a complete background capture path for pages that need rendering. Safe direct extraction and an isolated browser service can work at the same time. Direct evidence becomes readable as soon as it is ready, while rendered evidence can replace it only when the rendered result is genuinely stronger.

Keyboard Paths Are Easier to Discover

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Fast knowledge work depends on reducing the distance between intent and action. Arivu has restored keyboard-first paths for the actions that repeat throughout a day, and made those paths easier to learn.

Press Q to capture, / or F to focus Search, Cmd/Ctrl+K to open Quick actions, and Cmd/Ctrl+P to print. In Library and bookmark result grids, the arrow keys move through visible items and Enter opens the focused result. Escape closes the active dialog or leaves the field you are editing.

Processing Failures Have a Recovery Path

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A background failure should not leave a self-hoster choosing between guessing, editing the database, and pretending the work never happened.

Arivu Administration now makes processing failures visible and recoverable. The API Usage view lists durable failed jobs and failed summaries with the context needed to decide what to do next: the owner, affected bookmark, attempts, timestamps, provider and model context where relevant, safe error information, and recorded failure details.

Failures Stay Attached to the Work

Failed jobs and failed summaries are shown separately because they answer different operational questions. A background job may have exhausted all of its attempts. A summary may have failed evidence or validation checks without exhausting the surrounding job.

Your Library Puts Your Material First

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Your Library should answer a direct question first: what did I save or write?

Arivu used to place generated concepts and entities in the same default list as bookmarks, Notes, annotations, daily notes, and research objects. Those derivatives can be useful, but they are not the same kind of material. Mixing them together made a busy Library feel larger without making your own work easier to find.

Library now opens with saved and authored content. Generated concepts and entities remain available through a clearly labeled secondary view and continue to appear where their relationships are useful in Graph.

A Bookmark Can Keep More of the Evidence

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Context, 2026-07-15: This post records the earlier browser-helper boundary. Fresh supported installs now enable an installer-managed native capture runtime by default, with a core-only opt-out. It can select stronger rendered evidence, retain local reader images, and present configured screenshots, PDFs, and offline HTML without using your browser profile. Direct capture retains its own bounded source response. See Complete Pages, Preserved Quietly and the current Preservation and Sharing guide.

A bookmark usually remembers an address. Research often needs more: what the capture recovered, whether it was complete, and which evidence was available when you read it.

Share the Source, Not Your Private Workspace

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sharing research should not require sharing the workspace where you interpreted it.

Arivu now lets you publish a deliberate secret-link snapshot from a bookmark. The public copy contains selected source fields and sanitized reader content, while private notes, tags, annotations, backlinks, graph connections, and Insights stay out.

Publication copies selected evidence across a clear boundary. It does not expose a live private bookmark.

Make Publication Explicit

Open a bookmark’s Share disclosure, create the public link, and copy its unrepeatable token when it is shown. Settings keeps a list of shares so you can manage them later.

When Arivu Does Not Have Enough Evidence, It Says Less

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Saving something and understanding it are different events. A selected passage may contain exactly the evidence you need. A full article may provide enough context for a careful summary. A page that returned only a title, a login prompt, or incomplete text may provide almost nothing.

Arivu now treats those cases differently. Generated knowledge must be grounded in selected text or source evidence. When there is not enough evidence, Arivu can leave the generated output empty instead of turning a fragment into a confident-sounding claim.

A Warmer, Lighter Arivu

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Arivu has a new visual language, but it has not become a different application.

The interface is now light-only, with warm sand around white working surfaces, coral for emphasis, neutral ink, serif editorial headings, and restrained sans-serif controls. Fine dashed rules organize related material. Compact radii and sparse shadows keep the application tactile without turning every section into a card.

Home brings the daily note, active work, useful memories, and recent knowledge into one calm starting point.

Designed for reading and thinking

Arivu holds long articles, notes, source excerpts, relationship evidence, and explanations. The redesign gives that material room to breathe. Line lengths are controlled, body text has a more generous rhythm, and headings make clear transitions without shouting.

Arivu Is About Connected Knowledge Now

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Arivu has become more focused. It is a self-hosted second brain for turning the material you collect into connected knowledge you can return to and learn from.

The clearest way to explain that work is a four-part loop: Capture, Connect, Discover, Learn.

Capture without setup

Save a link, note, quote, highlight, or file when it matters. You do not need to choose a folder, invent a taxonomy, or configure an AI provider before Arivu becomes useful.

Keep the Passage, Not Just the Page

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Saving a page answers one question: where did you find it? Research usually needs a second answer: what, exactly, mattered?

Arivu now lets you select a passage while reading, capture it as an annotation, and add your own context before the thought disappears. The quote stays attached to its source, so a useful sentence does not become an orphaned fragment in a separate notes app.

A selected passage becomes reusable source context.

Capture While the Context Is Fresh

In Arivu’s reader, select the text that matters and open the annotation composer. The selected passage is already there. Save the quote on its own, or add a note explaining why it matters, what it challenges, or where you expect to use it.

Notes, Right Where They Belong

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Notes are now a primary destination in Arivu.

That sounds like a small navigation change, but it corrects something important about the product. Your own thinking is not an attachment to the things you save. A meeting note, a question, a working idea, or a decision can matter before it has a URL or a polished structure.

Notes now has a permanent place beside Home, Library, Graph, and Insights on mobile.

A writing space beside your sources

Open Notes from the main navigation to write a standalone note or return to a daily note. Notes can carry tasks and reminders when a thought needs follow-through. They can also link directly to owned bookmarks and other notes.

The Website Caught Up

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Arivu website now looks and speaks like the application it documents.

The previous site belonged to an earlier moment. Its sharp brutalist presentation and bookmark-first language were useful historical markers, but they no longer represented a product centered on connected knowledge. The site has now caught up without erasing that history.

One visual language

The website uses the same light-only direction as the application: warm sand, white surfaces, coral emphasis, neutral ink, editorial headings, open lists, dashed rules, and compact controls. Typography has been rebuilt for longer reading, with consistent line spacing and a narrower article measure across guides, Blog, and Chronicle.

Your Second Brain, Your Model Provider

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The model connected to your second brain should be your choice. Arivu now supports Gemini, Anthropic, OpenAI-compatible services, and local or custom-compatible endpoints through runtime Admin Settings.

You can change the provider without rebuilding the app or editing deployment files. Admins choose a preset or compatible endpoint, select the model, and add credentials when that provider requires them. Local services can be keyless where supported.

One Workflow, Different AI Layers

Hosted providers can offer stronger generated summaries and synthesis. A local endpoint can keep more processing inside infrastructure you control. An OpenAI-compatible endpoint can connect another service that follows the expected interface. The right choice depends on your privacy, quality, cost, and operational needs.

Safer Self-Hosting, Less Guesswork

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Context, 2026-07-13: Upgrades are additive-safe, preserve executable permissions under restrictive defaults, and provide useful activation diagnostics when a replacement cannot start. Existing data and configuration remain in place.

Update, July 11, 2026: The installer no longer requires GitHub CLI. Piped bootstrap keeps interactive prompts TTY-safe, DNS mismatches produce actionable warnings, and newer Ubuntu releases are tolerated rather than rejected only for being newer. Upgrades now verify and transactionally activate the matching app and installer binaries, roll both back if activation fails, and prompt browsers to revalidate embedded frontend assets. Tagged releases report the exact release version; development builds may report development metadata. Public HTTPS can still require correct DNS, firewall, or shared-proxy configuration.

Research Has More Shape Now

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Saved knowledge gets more useful when it has shape.

A bookmark is a source. A note is context. A task is an open loop. But real research also has projects, people, books, meetings, decisions, and threads that unfold over time. Those things show up again and again, but they do not always fit cleanly into a tag or a folder.

This update adds that missing layer. Arivu can now turn saved material into typed research objects, bring documents and transcripts into the same note workflow, trace topics across time, and keep recent knowledge readable when the network drops.

Review Learns What Matters

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Resurfacing is only useful when it respects your attention.

An old saved link can be a gift. It can also be noise. The difference is context: why is this here, why now, and what should happen if it was not useful?

That is why Review now has a clearer feedback loop.

Review Has Reasons

When an item appears in Review, it should not feel random. It can return because it is:

Today Is the New Home Base

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Context, 2026-07-11: Today is now called Home and has a clearer knowledge-centered shape. The daily note, active work, useful memories, Focus, Review, and recent material still meet there. See Arivu Is About Connected Knowledge Now.

Context, 2026-07-13: Home now keeps Pulse, Focus, Review, and Board in a persistent switcher. Focus adds work filters, Review uses denser evidence and disclosed follow-up forms, and Board adapts five workflow lanes across screen sizes. The historical Today workflow below is preserved.

An AI Assistant You Can Actually Trust

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Update, July 11, 2026: Arivu now supports runtime choice among Gemini, Anthropic, OpenAI-compatible, local, and custom-compatible providers. Local endpoints can be keyless where supported, and AI remains optional. Read Your Second Brain, Your Model Provider for the current model-provider story.

Most AI assistants ask you for trust up front. They act, and you find out afterward. That is a bad fit for a tool that holds your knowledge and can change it.

From Saved Links to a Real Second Brain

Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Context, 2026-07-11: This post records the Capture, Inbox, Focus, Review loop as it launched. Arivu now leads with a broader connected-knowledge loop, Capture, Connect, Discover, Learn, while Inbox, Focus, and Review remain available as supporting workflows. See Arivu Is About Connected Knowledge Now.

For most of its life, Arivu answered one question well: where do I put this link so I can find it later?

That is a good question. It is also not the whole job. The hard part of a second brain is not saving. It is deciding what a save should become, doing something with it, and being reminded of it at the right time. Saving is easy. Following through is the part that quietly falls apart.

Your Knowledge, Yours to Keep

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A second brain is only trustworthy if you can walk out with everything in it. This update makes Arivu’s data flow both ways: richer imports on the way in, and real, portable exports on the way out. Since then, imports and backups have grown to include documents, transcripts, and knowledge objects too. Along the way, capture got easier and search got a single source of truth.

Context, 2026-07-13: Installer-managed host backups now include the SQLite snapshot and adjacent asset store, plus a versioned size/hash manifest that restore verifies. Full JSON remains the portable account-level export and restore format described below.

Quieter Admin, Stronger Guarantees

Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Before we ship a wave of new features, we wanted the operating layer underneath them to be solid. This update rebuilds the admin experience on the app’s own storage, makes provider configuration a runtime concern instead of a restart concern, and adds a clear audit trail for sensitive actions.

None of this changes what Arivu looks like day to day. It changes how confidently you can run it.

A Native Admin Dashboard

The admin dashboard now runs entirely on the app’s own SQLite storage. Admins listed in ADMIN_EMAILS get an /admin area with sections for overview, API usage, users, system status, recent activity, collections, and an audit log.

A Smoother Browser UI

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We spent this session tightening the browser UI that ships inside the self-hosted Arivu app.

The work was not about adding a flashy new feature. It was about making the existing interface feel more dependable: easier to sign back into, clearer when something goes wrong, calmer to look at, and faster after the first load.

Better Account Recovery

The account screens now handle recovery and invited-user entry points more directly. If you need to get back into your account, the path is visible from the sign-in experience instead of feeling hidden. Invited users also get a clearer handoff into the app.

Arivu Is Simpler to Self-Host Now

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Arivu is moving in a simpler direction.

Update, July 2026: Since this post, Arivu added a first-party Linux VPS installer with plan, backup, restore, upgrade, reconfigure, and shared-proxy modes. The Go and SQLite runtime shape below is still current, but the recommended production path is now covered in Safer Self-Hosting, Less Guesswork and the guided self-hosting guide.

The app is now rebuilt around one Go application that serves the web UI, API, background workers, CLI commands, and migration tooling. The shipped frontend is embedded into the binary. Persistence is SQLite. Provider integrations use direct HTTP calls. The result is a self-hosted Arivu that has fewer pieces to run, fewer dependency trees to audit, and a clearer operational model.

Arivu From the Terminal

Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Arivu started as a web app and browser extension because that is where most bookmarking happens. But a second brain should not disappear the moment you leave the browser. Research, writing, operations work, and development all move through the terminal too.

The new Arivu CLI brings the same intelligence layer to command-line workflows. You can save links, search by meaning, inspect bookmarks, import exports, check reading stats, manage local profiles, explore graph connections, and boot a local Arivu stack without switching context.

Automated Security, Testing, and Code Quality

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Historical note, July 2026: This post reflects the automation used by the earlier Python and JavaScript stack. The current Go-based app uses a different, smaller dependency surface and validation workflow. The product-level commitment still stands: automated checks should catch security, quality, and regression issues before release.

With the codebase now open source, we invested in the automation that keeps it healthy. This update adds continuous integration pipelines, automated dependency monitoring, static analysis, and a frontend test suite - the kind of infrastructure that catches problems before they reach you.

Arivu Is Now Open Source

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Historical note, July 2026: This post describes the first open-source self-hosting setup. Arivu has since been rebuilt as a Go application with embedded frontend assets and SQLite persistence, and AI provider configuration is optional rather than required for the core workflow. See Arivu Is Simpler to Self-Host Now and the current self-hosting guide for the supported deployment model.

Arivu is open source. The entire application - backend, frontend, browser extension - is now available on GitHub under the MIT license. You can read the code, run it on your own server, and contribute back.

Deep Modularization, Reliability Engineering, and Admin Tools

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our earlier hardening pass laid the groundwork - security, speed, and an initial split into smaller modules. This update goes deeper. We’ve broken the backend into fully independent domains, added retry and conflict handling for reliability, built a testing infrastructure that catches problems before you see them, and shipped an admin dashboard for controlled early access.

Full Domain Separation

The initial hardening split out a few core services. This time, we went further - every major feature area now lives in its own domain with clear boundaries. Authentication has its own dedicated layer, including lockout and email handling. Bookmarks, collections, analytics, import/export, knowledge graph, search, and AI processing are all independent.

Your X Bookmarks, Finally Useful

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Historical note, July 2026: X bookmark sync remains optional and depends on X API access. X text is authoritative evidence for the post, while a linked article is separate evidence used only after successful extraction. Metadata-only or failed extraction does not support generated claims, and unsupported derived material stays out of Graph and analytical Insights. Imported items otherwise remain in the broader second-brain loop, and AI enrichment is provider-optional.

You bookmark tweets. A lot of them. A thread on system design, a link to a blog post about pricing strategy, someone’s take on a paper you want to read later. They pile up in X’s bookmarks tab: a flat, unsearchable list with no summaries, no tags, no way to connect ideas.

Production Hardening: Security, Speed, and Structure

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Arivu is now more secure, faster, and easier to evolve. This update focuses on the invisible infrastructure work that separates a side project from a production-ready product.

We completed a comprehensive hardening pass across three domains: authentication security, database performance, and code architecture. Here’s what changed and why it matters.

Security

Your account is now protected against brute-force password attacks. Repeated failed login attempts trigger a temporary lockout, stopping automated guessing while letting legitimate users recover naturally.

Search That Thinks, Summaries That Matter

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Historical note, July 2026: This post describes an earlier search and summary milestone. Search, summaries, and source-aware answers still matter, but the current product frames them inside a broader self-hosted second-brain workflow with notes, Inbox, Focus, Review, optional AI, and cited answers.

Finding a bookmark shouldn’t feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. And reading an AI summary shouldn’t feel like reading filler text generated to hit a word count.

First Impressions, Perfected

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You sign up for a new app, and then… nothing. A blank screen. Maybe a tooltip that tells you what’s already obvious.

You click around, hoping to stumble into value.

The Problem

Most onboarding is either too much or too little.

The five-step wizard you’ll never remember. The “getting started” video you’ll never watch. Or worse: figure it out yourself, good luck.

These approaches fail because they treat onboarding as a hurdle to clear rather than a journey to guide. They dump information when you don’t need it and disappear when you do. They assume everyone learns the same way, at the same pace, with the same goals.

Your Bookmarks Remember You

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Historical note, July 2026: Memory Jogger was the first expression of Arivu’s rediscovery idea. That idea now lives inside the broader Review loop, which can bring back bookmarks, imported document notes, standalone notes, and related research context because they are due, older, important, unfinished, or still actionable, and lets you give recall feedback such as Useful, Not useful, Snooze longer, or Never resurface. See Review Learns What Matters and Research Has More Shape Now for the current model.

Faster Everything

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Historical note, July 2026: This post describes the earlier React/Vite application stack. Arivu has since moved to a simpler self-hosted Go application with embedded frontend assets and SQLite persistence. The performance goal remains, but the current runtime architecture is documented in Arivu Is Simpler to Self-Host Now.

Arivu just got faster. A lot faster.

We migrated the entire frontend to React 19 and Vite, and the difference is night and day. Cold starts that used to take seconds now happen in milliseconds. The app feels instant, not “fast for a web app” instant, but actually instant.

Your Brain, Mapped

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Historical note, July 2026: This post captures an early step beyond folders and tags. The Knowledge Graph still matters, but it now sits inside a broader second-brain workflow: notes, explicit links, backlinks, tasks, reminders, cited answers, and Review. Older references to analytics, scoring, and AI-only processing should be read as historical context, not the whole current product direction.

Today, Arivu stops being a bookmark manager.

For years, bookmarking tools have asked the same question: where do you want to put this? Folders. Tags. Collections. We organize our knowledge like filing cabinets because that’s what computers understood.

We're Live

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Context, 2026-07-11: This post preserves the first public marketing site and its original brutalist design language. The current site now mirrors Arivu’s warmer, light-only application design. See The Website Caught Up for that change.

The front door is open.

Today we launched arivu.app - not just a marketing site, but a statement.

Brutalist by Design

We chose brutalist design because it mirrors how we think about bookmarking: direct, honest, and unapologetically functional.

Fortified & Fresh

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bookmarks don’t die, they just get buried. You save something brilliant, fully intending to return to it, and then… three months pass. Six months. A year. That article about distributed systems? Still sitting there, unread, slowly becoming irrelevant.

The problem isn’t that you don’t care. It’s that nothing reminds you.

Most bookmark managers treat every link the same: a flat list ordered by date, maybe grouped into folders you created with good intentions. There’s no concept of urgency, no sense that some bookmarks are aging out of relevance while others remain evergreen. Your collection becomes a timeline of abandoned intentions.

Bring Your Bookmarks

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Historical note, July 2026: This was Arivu’s first import story. Imports have since expanded beyond the original HTML, CSV, and plain-text focus to include Arivu JSON backups, OPML, RSS/Atom feeds, URL-bearing CSV/TSV files, and service exports such as Readwise or Kindle-style tables where URLs can be mapped. See Your Knowledge, Yours to Keep and Import & Export for the current import and export model.

Welcome to the first Arivu Chronicle.

We’re starting with something that matters: getting your bookmarks out of wherever they’re stuck.