The web is a sea of information. Everyone deserves their own pond.
Install
Download the latest .dmg from GitHub Releases, or install it with Homebrew:
brew tap raphaelsalaja/pond https://github.com/raphaelsalaja/pond brew install --cask raphaelsalaja/pond/pond
Pond needs macOS 13 or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel. It's signed and notarized, and it updates itself from GitHub Releases. Windows and Linux are on the roadmap.
Browser extension
Saving from the web and connecting accounts in Sources both need the Pond extension. It works in Chrome, Arc, Brave, and Edge.
- In Pond, open the library menu at the top of the sidebar, choose Browser Extension, then click Download. A Pond Extension folder lands in Downloads. You can also download
pond-extension-X.Y.Z.zipfrom the release, or build it from source withapps/extension/README.md. - Open
chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, click Load unpacked, and choose the folder. - Click the Pond icon or right-click a page to save. Pond must have opened once so the extension can reach it.
Raycast extension
The Raycast extension searches your active Library, saves URLs, opens Saves,
and switches recent Libraries. See
apps/raycast/README.md for setup.
CLI
Install the local automation client from npm:
npm install --global @pond/cli pond auth authorize --token <token> pond doctor
Copy the Local API token from Pond Settings. The CLI launches Pond when needed
and sends every Library operation through the authenticated loopback service.
Run pond --help for commands and output formats.
Development
Requires Node.js 24 (see .nvmrc) and pnpm 11.27.0.
pnpm install pnpm dev
Extension dev (separate terminal):
pnpm --filter @pond/extension dev
Raycast extension dev (separate terminal):
pnpm --dir apps/raycast develop
CLI development:
pnpm cli -- --help pnpm cli:build
If native modules fail after an Electron upgrade:
pnpm --filter @pond/desktop rebuild
See apps/desktop/README.md for architecture and on-disk layout. Before contributing, read the contributor guide, code standards, and desktop architecture. Run pnpm check and pnpm build from the repository root to verify a change.
Assistant and MCP
Assistant lives in the right column. It searches this library with a key you paste in Settings, or a local host you run such as Ollama or LM Studio. Pond never stores those keys on a Pond server.
Cursor, Claude, and other MCP hosts can search the same library. Pond speaks MCP over stdio. This block belongs in Cursor mcp.json. It launches Pond as a local stdio server (--mcp) against the library on this Mac:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pond": {
"command": "/Applications/Pond.app/Contents/MacOS/Pond",
"args": ["--mcp"]
}
}
}Copy the exact command from Settings → Model Context Protocol → Advanced. Pond does not host a public MCP URL.
Library
The desktop library is a three-column DAM: folder sidebar, image list, Assistant. Folders, Uncategorized, List layout, and Eagle import that keeps folder trees ship in this cut.
See the roadmap for what's next. Not on it: Eagle Cloud, their Plugin Center store, or Photoshop-class format preview.
How sourcing works (and your responsibility)
Pond's source adapters run entirely through your own authenticated browser session, on your own machine. There are no Pond-operated scraping servers and no credential harvesting. Pond never sees or stores your platform passwords or cookies on any remote service. When you import from a source, a hidden local browser window loads the pages you already have access to and reads what's on them.
Because that traffic comes from your account, Pond is deliberately conservative:
a built-in rate governor paces every request, respects platform rate-limit
signals (retry-after and friends), backs off instead of escalating, persists
cooldowns across restarts, and hard-stops a source if it detects a
challenge/checkpoint. You can turn off automatic fetching at any time in
Settings → Harvesting.
That said, you are responsible for your own use of each platform under its
Terms of Service. Pond is a personal tool for organizing things you've already
saved; use it accordingly. If you're writing or reviewing a source adapter, see
the CONTRIBUTING "Add a source" section for the boundaries
adapter authors are expected to respect.
Read Responsible use before you connect an account.