Open Chronicle – Local Screen Memory for Claude Code and Codex CLI

Name: Open Chronicle – Local Screen Memory for Claude Code and Codex CLI
Availability: InStock
Author: taoh

by taoh·Apr 22, 2026·5 points·1 comment

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AI Analysis

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Local screen memory with Apple Vision OCR when OpenAI's Chronicle requires cloud processing.

Strengths

•On-device OCR with Apple Vision keeps sensitive screen data private
•MCP server exposes context to multiple AI coding agents
•Default blocklist protects password managers and messaging apps

Weaknesses

•Only 4 commits and 7 stars indicates very early development stage
•Mac-only limits audience significantly

Post Description

I built an open source version of OpenAI Chronicle.

Some design decisions I made:

1. Local first: OCR uses Apple Vision, summarization supports local AI providers via Vercel AI SDK. Nothing leaves your computer. 2. Multiple Provider: exposes MCP so any coding agents can use it. 3. Swift menubar app: efficient, low-footprint 4. Blacklist apps: password managers, messaging apps (Slack, WhatsApp, Messenger), mail clients are on default blocklist.

Current Limitations: 1. Mac only. Mac-first is a feature. 2. Small local models with weak structured-output support will fail on generateObject. 3. Retrieval is LIKE-query keyword search. FTS and optional embeddings are on the list.

Demo video (6s): https://youtu.be/V75tnvIdovc

Curious what you think the right balance between exclusionlist allowlists. Happy to answer anything.