Scholarly.ai transforms passive video consumption into an active learning experience. Designed for students and lifelong learners, it is a Chrome Extension that integrates seamlessly with YouTube to provide instant note-taking, doubt resolution, and content organization—all without breaking your flow.
Unlike traditional tools that rely on constant cloud connectivity, Scholarly is built with an Offline-First architecture, leveraging Chrome's built-in AI capabilities to process data locally on your device.
- Timestamped Snapshots: Instantly capture key moments. Every snapshot is linked to the exact second in the video.
- Contextual Notes: Add your own thoughts to every capture.
- Instant Q&A: Ask questions about the video content and get detailed, timestamped answers.
- Summarization: Generate concise summaries of long lectures or specific segments.
- Multilingual Support: Ask in your native language, get answers in your preferred language.
- PDF Export: Compile your session into a clean, organized PDF with clickable timestamps.
- Playlist Mode: Merge notes from an entire course playlist into a single master document.
While Scholarly works out-of-the-box with Chrome Built-in AI, we believe in giving you choice. Connect your preferred intelligence provider:
- Chrome Built-in AI (Default, Offline, Free)
- OpenAI (GPT-5, GPT-4o, GPT-4-turbo)
- Google Gemini (3, 2.5 Pro, Flash)
- Ollama (Local Llama 3, Mistral)
Scholarly.ai is engineered with privacy as a core tenet.
- Local Processing: Video analysis and note generation happen on your device.
- No Data Mining: We do not track your viewing habits or store your notes on our servers.
- Offline Capable: Study anywhere, even without an internet connection.
Scholarly uses a modern, robust tech stack designed for performance and maintainability:
| Layer | Technology | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Core | React 18 + TypeScript | The view layer. |
| Build | Vite + CRXJS | Bundling and HMR (Hot Module Replacement). |
| State | Redux Toolkit | Managing global app state (user session, settings). |
| Async | TanStack Query | Managing async data (DB reads/writes, AI responses). |
| Router | React Router | Navigation within the side panel. |
| UI | Shadcn/UI + Tailwind | Accessible UI components. |
| Storage | IndexedDB + idb |
Google's standard wrapper for local storage. |
| AI Logic | LangChain.js | Unified interface for Chrome AI & External APIs. |
| @react-pdf/renderer | React-based PDF generation. |
For a deep dive into the technical design, please read our Architecture Guide.
We welcome contributions from the community! Whether it's a bug fix, a new feature, or documentation improvements, please check out our Contributing Guidelines to get started.
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