Linkhaven

Linkhaven is a local-first infinite canvas for bookmarks, images, live charts, news feeds, themes, and reusable layouts. It turns a blank tab into a spatial board where every link has a place, and the same React app powers both the hosted web build and the browser-extension new-tab experience for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

Documentation: schulzoli.github.io/Linkhaven

Why Linkhaven

• Infinite canvas with pan, zoom, snap-to-grid placement, marquee multi-select, copy/cut/paste, undo, and format painter
• Link cards, collapsible nested groups, pictures, live charts, and RSS/Atom news feeds on the same board
• Multiple workspaces with a pinned or auto-hiding workspace rail
• Six built-in themes plus saved or imported custom themes and token-level customization
• Reusable templates with preview thumbnails and bundled local images
• Local statistics for link opens, canvas opens, and storage footprint
• No account, mandatory backend, or remote sync requirement

Feature Overview

Canvas and editing

• Pan with right-click drag and zoom with the mouse wheel
• Snap-to-grid placement with configurable snapping behavior
• Marquee select across cards, groups, and picture nodes
• Copy, cut, paste, duplicate, and undo workspace edits
• Keyboard shortcuts and an in-app help panel for fast editing

Content and organization

• Create link cards from URLs; website icons load on request (Menu → Privacy), otherwise cards show a letter or your own image
• Give a card an optional local link (e.g. http://192.168.1.10:8123 next to https://home.example.com): a click opens it when it answers, otherwise the main link
• Resize cards from 2x2 up to 12x12 grid cells
• Override favicons with uploaded gallery images
• Organize content inside collapsible groups and nested groups
• Drop images onto the canvas as standalone picture nodes
• Add notes: sketch freehand with mouse, pen or finger in an Excalidraw-like hand-drawn style, and double-click to type handwritten text
• Collapsing a group hides every node inside it, including charts and feeds

Auto dashboard (optional)

• Turn it on under Menu → Privacy to get an Auto tab and a workspace built from what you open most: links, news feeds and charts
• Sources: link opens on your own cards, and in the extension the browser's top sites and history (optional permissions, asked for once, read locally)
• With AI arrangement also on, Claude groups the pages using your own Anthropic API key; only page titles and URLs are sent

Device sync and apps (optional)

• Turn on Device sync under Menu → Privacy to keep workspaces, themes and images in step across devices: through a Linkhaven server with a sync code (no account), or through a WebDAV folder you own (Nextcloud, a NAS, …)
• End-to-end encrypted on the device; the server only stores data it can't read
• Self-host everything (web app, sync, news feeds, charts) in one Docker container: doc/SELF_HOSTING.md
• Besides the browser extension, Linkhaven installs as a web app (PWA) on phones, tablets and computers and works offline: schulzoli.github.io/Linkhaven/app/; see doc/APP.md

Charts and news feeds

• Chart nodes plot a time series from a WebSocket or SSE feed: ranges from 1D to Max, price or % change, moving averages, log scale, CSV export
• Charts inside a group follow the group's settings; any chart can keep its own value
• News feed nodes merge several RSS or Atom feeds into one list with filter, sort, time window, and per-source toggles; each article opens in a new tab
• Optional local servers ship with the repository: npm run feed:charts (market data) and npm run feed:news (feed proxy). See doc/CHART_FEED.md and doc/NEWS_FEED.md

Themes, templates, and workspaces

• Built-in themes: Excalidraw, Blueprint, Minimal, Nord, Sunset, and Neon
• Save the current appearance as a custom theme, export it, or import .linkhaven-theme.json
• Save selected canvas content as reusable templates with preview thumbnails
• Download template exports as .template.json files
• Create, rename, reorder, delete, and switch between multiple workspaces

Data portability and local insights

• Export the current canvas as a .linkhaven.zip bundle
• Bundle exports can include the current workspace, gallery images, saved templates, and saved custom themes
• Import can either replace the current canvas or create a new workspace
• Statistics stay local and cover card counts, group counts, link opens, canvas opens, and storage usage

Screenshots

Groups and layout organization

Theme and appearance customization

Card editing and styling controls

Multiple workspaces

Template library

Charts and news feeds

Local statistics

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Windows, macOS, or Linux
• Node.js 22 or later
• npm 10 or later

Run locally

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173.

Build for production

npm run build

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start the Vite development server
npm run build	Type-check and build the production app
npm run preview	Preview the production build locally
npm run server	Start the Linkhaven server
npm run selfhost	Build the web app and serve it with sync
npm run feed:charts	Start the reference chart feed server
npm run feed:news	Start the RSS/Atom feed proxy
npm run docs:build	Build the documentation site into site/
npm run lint	Run ESLint with zero warnings allowed
npm run format	Format the repository with Prettier
npm run test	Run Vitest with coverage
npm run test:watch	Run Vitest in watch mode
npm run test:e2e	Run Playwright end-to-end tests
npm run build:extension	Build the browser extension package
npm run deploy	Run the extension deployment script
npm run deploy:chrome	Publish only the Chrome build
npm run deploy:edge	Publish only the Edge build
npm run deploy:firefox	Publish only the Firefox build
npm run deploy:dry	Dry-run the extension deployment flow

Browser Extension

Linkhaven can be packaged as a browser-extension new-tab experience for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

Build the extension

npm run build:extension

This creates dist-extension/ with the bundled app, manifest, icons, and privacy page.

Load the extension locally

Chrome and Edge:

1. Open chrome://extensions or edge://extensions
2. Enable Developer mode
3. Click Load unpacked
4. Select dist-extension/

Firefox:

1. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
2. Click Load Temporary Add-on
3. Select dist-extension/manifest.json

To release, run Actions → Release with the new version and the stores to publish to; details in extension/EXTENSION.md.

Linkhaven Server

npm run server   # device sync, news feed proxy and chart feed on http://127.0.0.1:8790

The same server runs locally or as the public sync service (Docker + automatic HTTPS); see doc/SERVER.md.

Self-hosting

One container serves the web app together with sync, the news feed proxy and charts; opened from there, the app uses it without any setup:

LINKHAVEN_DOMAIN=links.example.com SELF_HOSTED=on docker compose -f server/docker-compose.yml up -d --build

At home without a domain, with Tailscale or your own reverse proxy: see doc/SELF_HOSTING.md.

Web App (PWA)

npm run build:pwa   # installable, offline-capable web app in dist-pwa/

It is published with the docs to schulzoli.github.io/Linkhaven/app/. Installing it on phones and computers and setting up device sync are described in doc/APP.md.

Storage and Privacy

Linkhaven is local-first.

• IndexedDB is the primary persistence layer for workspaces, templates, themes, image metadata, and image blobs
• localStorage is used as a lightweight snapshot and fallback layer for workspace state and workspace-directory metadata
• Local usage insights stay on the current device and power the in-app Statistics view only
• Out of the box Linkhaven is a pure link dashboard that makes no network requests and needs no server: no browser permissions, no charts or feeds, no icon lookups, no AI
• Every feature that uses the network or reads browser data is off by default and has its own switch with live status under Menu → Privacy: website icons, Google favicons, app icons, chart and news feed nodes, Check Links, the Auto dashboard and its AI arrangement, and device sync
• With Website icons on, creating a link card fetches the site's /favicon.ico once and caches it locally; with Google favicons on, Google's public favicon service is the fallback (never asked about local addresses)
• With App icons on, homelab cards (Jellyfin, Radarr, Home Assistant, …) are matched to an app by name, address or default port on the device, and only that icon is loaded from the dashboard-icons collection on jsDelivr; Data → Find app icons does the same for existing cards
• Chart nodes connect only to the feed server URL set on the node (by default the optional local server on 127.0.0.1)
• News feed nodes load the feeds you add through the feed proxy set on the node (by default the optional local proxy on 127.0.0.1), or directly when the proxy is cleared; article images load from the news sites (can be turned off per node)
• Check Links in the Data tab sends a HEAD request to each link card's URL, only when you start it
• Device sync talks only to the sync server or WebDAV folder you choose, and encrypts everything on the device first
• No account, remote sync requirement, or third-party analytics or behavioral tracking is built into the app

For deeper persistence details, see doc/STORAGE.md. The privacy policy is published at schulzoli.github.io/Linkhaven/privacy/ and ships in the app at public/privacy/index.html.

Documentation

• Documentation website, built from doc/ by npm run docs:build
• doc/APP.md for the web app (PWA) and device sync
• doc/SELF_HOSTING.md to run all of Linkhaven on your own server
• doc/SERVER.md for the Linkhaven server (sync, feed proxy, charts) and how to host it
• doc/STORAGE.md for persistence, bundle, and migration details
• doc/CHART_FEED.md for chart nodes and the feed protocol
• doc/NEWS_FEED.md for news feed nodes and the feed proxy
• doc/CANVAS_ENGINE.md for the canvas engine and optional card effects
• extension/EXTENSION.md for extension packaging and release workflow
• extension/STORE_LISTING.md for store-copy and reviewer notes
• public/privacy/index.html for the standalone privacy page
• CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution workflow

Support Linkhaven

If Linkhaven is useful to you and you want to support more polish, testing, and store-release work, you can do that here:

• Buy Me a Coffee