Open Golem Docs

Use it with your ai

Ask your ai to help with your documents.

Golem Docs keeps every document in a folder on your computer. An ai app that can work in a folder can read your documents, tidy them up and write new ones, while you keep working in Golem Docs.

Connect your ai

  1. Install Golem Docs on your computer. It’s free, for Mac, Windows and Linux. Download it.
  2. Choose a folder for your documents. Golem Docs asks the first time it opens, and File › Vault Folder changes it later. Your documents appear there as ordinary files.
  3. Open that folder in your ai app. Each ai app does this a little differently. Here is how in four of them.

Claude (desktop app)

  1. In the message box, choose Cowork.
  2. Click +, add a folder, and pick your Golem Docs folder.
  3. Ask away. Keep the app open while it works on your files.

Cowork is in beta on Mac, Windows and Linux, on paid Claude plans.

ChatGPT (desktop app)

  1. Switch from Chat to Work.
  2. Open a local folder and pick your Golem Docs folder.
  3. Ask away. It asks before changing anything outside that folder.

Mac and Windows. Local folders only work in the desktop app, not on the web or your phone.

Codex or Claude Code

  1. In a terminal, go to your Golem Docs folder.
  2. Run codex or claude there.
  3. Or, in the Codex app, choose the folder as your project and pick Local.

Both read the AGENTS.md (or CLAUDE.md) at the top of the folder. More on the developers page.

Cursor

  1. Choose File › Open Folder and pick your Golem Docs folder.
  2. Ask in the Agent panel.
  3. Look over its changes before you keep them.

Cursor is made for code, but it works on any folder of files.

Menus change as these apps are updated; if a step looks different, look for the option to open or add a folder.

Ask in your own words

  • “Turn my meeting notes into a one-page summary for Sam.”
  • “Find every recipe that uses basil and list them in a new note.”
  • “Fix the spelling in my cover letter, but don’t change my wording.”
  • “Make a table from this year’s running log.”

How it works

Golem Docs keeps the folder and your account in step. A change on either side reaches the other, and from there your browser, your other devices and anyone you share a document with.

Keeping the folder in step with your account, and through it your other devices and the people you share with, comes with sync, $3 a month. Without it, the folder and Golem Docs still keep in step on this computer, and versions and the trash are kept on it. On the same computer, a change in the folder shows up in Golem Docs within a few seconds, and one made in Golem Docs reaches the folder within a minute. Other devices look at your account about once a minute.

Your ai appworks in the folder Documents folderon your computer Your accountversions, 30-day trash Browser Phone Shared with Sam

Earlier versions are kept

Letting an ai change your notes should not be scary. Golem Docs keeps earlier versions of every document, whoever changed it.

  • In your account
    Saved automatically    Open
  • In your account
    Saved automatically    Open
  • In your account
    Named “First draft”    Open
  • Golem Docs keeps the version from before each burst of changes, and one every ten minutes while the changes go on. A change that cuts a document to less than half its size always keeps the one before it.
  • A document that is deleted goes to the trash for 30 days.
  • If ten or more files vanish at once, Golem Docs waits for you before it does anything. That is far more often an unplugged drive than a decision.

Tell your ai how you like things kept

Most ai apps read a short note of instructions at the top of the folder before they start. Here is one to begin with; change it to suit you.

Save it as a note named AGENTS.md in the folder. The file, ready to copy, is on the developers page.

How I use mine

My own folder, as it is today:

  • Diary, written in Golem Docs most mornings
  • AI Research, one folder per paper, with my notes and the PDF together
  • Books, a note for each book I read
  • Health and Work

Your ai, your choice

Golem Docs never sends your documents to an ai. When you let an ai app work in your folder, what it reads goes to the company that runs it, under their terms. Choose one you trust, and tell it which folders to leave alone.