What it does

Deta Surf is a desktop app (Electron + Svelte + Rust) that mashes up a browser, file manager, and AI note-taker. You drop in PDFs, YouTube links, tweets, or local files; organize them into notebooks; and query them with LLMs without copy-pasting between tabs. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, stores everything locally in an open format called SFFS, and lets you bring your own API keys or run local models via Ollama.

The interesting bit

The “Smart Notes” feature lets you @-mention any tab or library item and auto-generate text with citations that deeplink back to the source—down to a PDF page or a video timestamp. There’s also “Surflets,” where the app writes little interactive applets on demand to visualize data you paste in. It’s the rare AI tool that seems to have thought about provenance before buzzwords.

Key highlights

• Local-first storage engine (SFFS) with open, transparent formats; works offline for much of your library
• Split-view tabs: browse web pages and notes side by side without window juggling
• Citations are first-class: click back from a note to the exact webpage section, PDF page, or video timestamp
• BYO model: OpenAI, Claude, DeepSeek, or local LLMs through Ollama
• “Surflets” generate interactive mini-apps from natural language prompts

Caveats

• The README is light on technical architecture details—no word on how SFFS handles conflicts or sync, or how large libraries perform
• Electron-based, so expect the usual memory footprint; no benchmarks or system requirements are listed
• The “app generation” feature is intriguing but the docs don’t clarify how sandboxed or debuggable Surflets are

Verdict

Researchers, students, or anyone drowning in browser tabs and PDFs should take a look. If you already live in Notion or Obsidian with a workflow you love, the migration cost is unclear—this is more browser than note-taking plugin.