Verstak Desktop

Verstak is a local-first desktop workspace for files, notes, browser captures, activity and work journal entries. This repository contains the Go/Wails desktop host and UI shell; user-facing functions are delivered by official plugins.

Alpha software. Use a disposable vault while evaluating it. APIs, storage formats and packaging can change before the first stable release.

What the alpha does

• keeps each workspace's identity independent of its current directory name;
• keeps browser captures in a reviewable Inbox, with archive and restore rather than a destructive “remove from inbox” action;
• records local file/note activity and, after review, turns it into journal entries without creating a workspace automatically;
• accepts optional browser domain-time batches. The browser extension is opt-in: it sends only normalized domain names and bounded durations, never URLs, page titles, page contents, keystrokes or navigation history;
• runs official plugins from a plugins/ directory next to the executable.

Components

Clone these repositories as siblings when building a complete local setup:

Repository	Purpose
verstak-desktop	desktop host and UI shell
verstak-official-plugins	Files, Notes, Browser Inbox, Activity, Journal and other official plugins
verstak-browser-extension	Chromium/Firefox capture and optional domain-activity extension
verstak-sdk	plugin manifest schema and TypeScript API

Build from source (Linux)

Requirements: Go, Node.js with npm, Python 3, the Wails v2 build prerequisites, and the WebKitGTK development package for your distribution.

git clone https://git.mirv.top/verstak/verstak-sdk.git
git clone https://git.mirv.top/verstak/verstak-official-plugins.git
git clone https://git.mirv.top/verstak/verstak-desktop.git
git clone https://git.mirv.top/verstak/verstak-browser-extension.git

cd verstak-sdk && ./scripts/build.sh
cd ../verstak-official-plugins && ./scripts/build.sh
cd ../verstak-desktop
./scripts/install-dev-plugins.sh
./scripts/build.sh

The Linux executable is placed in build/bin/. Start it with --debug to display internal plugin-provider IDs and write diagnostic logs.

Release artifacts

Maintainers can create a Linux desktop tarball after the sibling repositories above have been built:

cd verstak-desktop
./scripts/release.sh v0.1.0-alpha.1

It writes release/verstak-desktop-linux-amd64-<version>.tar.gz and a matching SHA256SUMS file. The archive is self-contained: unpack it and run the included executable. Browser and SDK packages have their own release scripts in their repositories.

Privacy and activity tracking

The extension's passive domain tracker is disabled by default. Enabling it requires an explicit choice in the extension and lets the user maintain a domain exclusion list. Manual page, selection and link captures are separate actions; they enter Browser Inbox and never create a workspace or journal entry by themselves.

License

Copyright © 2026 Verstak contributors. Licensed under GNU AGPLv3 or later.