What it does Knowledge is (was) an Electron desktop app that ingests websites, documents, and files into a local knowledge base. It indexes everything, visualizes connections as a force-directed graph, and layers an LLM chat interface on top so you can interrogate your own hoarded data instead of just searching it.

The interesting bit The built-in Chromium browser is the clever glue: browse normally, right-click to summarize or extract topics, and the page becomes a first-class object in your graph. It’s a rare case where the “capture” flow and the “explore” flow live in the same window instead of bouncing between a browser extension and a separate app.

Key highlights

• Local-first knowledge graph with inbox, graph, and grid views
• LLM chat against projects and individual sources
• Embedded Chromium with one-click summarization and note extraction
• Companion Chrome extension for clipping from your real browser
• TypeScript/Electron stack; 1,458 stars at time of writing

Caveats

• Development has ceased. The README opens with a shutdown notice; don’t start building your life’s work around it unless you plan to fork.
• The disclaimer is unusually blunt: “not a consumer product,” “no warranty,” “at your own risk.” The authors are clearly worried about data loss.
• Release artifacts live in a separate repo (knowledge-canvas), which suggests the project structure may be messier than it looks.

Verdict Worth a look if you’re researching personal knowledge management UIs or want to fork a batteries-included Electron starter with graph viz + LLM chat. Skip it if you need something maintained; the field has moved on to Obsidian plugins and dedicated RAG stacks.