An LLM wiki that maintains itself, on your Mac
The LLM wiki pattern, popularized by Andrej Karpathy, is simple to describe: keep sources and notes as plain Markdown, and let a model write and maintain a layer of interlinked wiki pages on top. Cortext is a native macOS app that runs this pattern on any folder you already have, with no vector database, scripts, or prompt files to maintain.
Native macOS app · Bring your own models · 7-day free trialDownload Cortext for macOSWhat an LLM wiki is
Instead of retrieving chunks from a vector index at question time, an LLM wiki compiles knowledge ahead of time. The model reads your sources, writes topic pages in Markdown, and connects them with [[WikiLinks]]. Answers draw on a wiki that is already organized, and every page is a file you can open, edit, or delete.
Done by hand, the pattern means maintaining an instructions file, running the agent yourself, and tracking which files changed since the last pass. Cortext turns that loop into product behavior.
How Cortext builds the wiki
The build starts only after you agree, and you can exclude folders you don't want read.
- Digest: every note and source gets a short summary card, stored with a content hash so unchanged files are never processed twice.
- Plan: one pass reads all summary cards, not full texts, and decides the wiki notes for the whole library, so structure reflects your library rather than the order files were read.
- Write: wiki notes are written in batches into .cortext/wiki/ as ordinary Markdown, linked back to your notes.
- Resume: progress is saved, so quitting the app or starting your own conversation pauses the build instead of losing it.
How it stays current
Once the wiki is ready, Cortext watches for new and changed files. About ten minutes after a file settles, a background pass folds the change into the wiki: adding links, refreshing the pages that cite it, or writing a new page for material the wiki doesn't cover yet.
Review is driven by content, not timestamps. A file re-enters the queue only when its content changes, and deleting a file triggers a repair of the wiki pages that linked to it.
Your notes stay yours
- Background runs can write only to .cortext/wiki/ and the image library. Your own notes, inbox, and sources are read-only to them.
- Every change, from you, the AI, or another editor, becomes document history you can diff and restore.
- Files, the search index, and metadata stay in the workspace folder on your Mac. Model requests go only to the provider you configure.
Put the wiki to work
- Global search shows wiki topics alongside your notes. The agent searches the same index, so what you can find, it can find.
- Backlinks, related notes, and the graph view show how your notes and the wiki connect.
- Capture a URL or PDF into Sources/ and it joins the same queue.
- Ask Thoughts, the built-in agent, questions that draw on the wiki, your notes, and your local memory.
Models, requirements, and pricing
Use Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Moonshot, Z.AI, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, or run on Claude Code. Cortext requires macOS 15 or later on Apple Silicon. Try it free for 7 days, then keep it with a one-time $29.9 license for up to 2 devices.