Desktop research workspace. Read PDFs on an infinite canvas — and keep the investigation (notes, highlights, diagrams, web searches) on that canvas so you can follow your reasoning later. AI answers only when you ask; it never auto-summarizes or underlines for you.
Features · Research canvas · Download · Development · License
Stop reading. Start thinking. Vertical scroll is a cage. Work on an infinite whiteboard instead: notes, diagrams, and web searches live on the same scene as the text. For students, researchers, and curious readers who refuse to outsource thinking to AI.
Pan and zoom virtualized pages on a whiteboard, rendered by PDFium. The document is the axis; the space around it is yours. Large PDFs stay fluid.
Select text and lock a highlight onto the canvas. Color it, copy the text, or grow a note or web search from it.
Drop a rich note anywhere, or grow one from a highlight. It sits next to the passage that sparked it.
Search from a highlight, place a browser, or paste or drop a link onto the canvas. Browse in-app, then pin a screenshot beside the text.
Arrows, shapes, and sketches with Excalidraw tools, drawn on top of the PDF.
Jump via outline, page thumbnails, or a list of your highlights, notes, captures, and canvas images. The sidebar finds your place; research stays on the canvas.
Camera and annotations autosave per PDF. Come back and continue where you stopped. Everything stays on your machine — fully offline.
The PDF viewer is an infinite canvas (Excalidraw + EmbedPDF / PDFium): virtualized pages, free pan/zoom, and freeform research on top of the document. Product north, architecture, roadmap, and agent conventions:
docs/features/product-north.md— research canvas premises (canvas owns research; AI subordinate)docs/architecture/infinite-pdf-canvas.md— vision and architecturedocs/roadmap.md— v1 → v2 path, research-on-canvas debt, legacy migrationAGENTS.md— operational ground truth for contributors and agents
The previous lector-based vertical reader has been removed; the canvas viewer is the only PDF path.
Progress notes: https://jkominovic.dev
Grab the latest .dmg from Releases (Apple Silicon: *-mac-arm64-setup.dmg), open it, and drag Libritus into Applications.
macOS may say the app is damaged and offer to move it to the Trash. That is Gatekeeper blocking an unsigned build — the app is fine. In Terminal:
xattr -cr /Applications/Libritus.appThen open Libritus again. (Right-click → Open, or System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway, can also work.)
git clone git@github.com:JulianKominovic/libritus.git
cd libritus
bun install
bun run devPackaged mac build:
bun run build:macAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0). Non-commercial use only — a personal open-source project, shared openly.
