---
title: Reader
description: A personal research library that turns saved articles and PDFs into focused reading, annotation, and retrieval surfaces.
canonical: https://read.significanthobbies.com/
updated: 2026-08-28
---

# Reader

Reader turns a saved article or PDF into a focused place to read, annotate,
revisit, and discuss it.

## Who it is for

Reader is for people who save serious material but lose it among browser tabs
and undifferentiated bookmarks. It is a personal research library, not a
social reading network or a team knowledge product.

## How it works

1. Paste a web article URL or upload a PDF.
2. Read the prepared source without the surrounding page clutter.
3. Highlight an exact passage, add a note, or listen with text-to-speech.
4. Return through full-text search, tags, lists, boards, or the saved source.
5. Ask for a summary or question the open source with AI when that helps.

Mozilla Readability prepares web articles. PDF text is extracted so documents
can join the same search and source-grounded discussion flow.

## Current product state

Reader is a mature personal-use product in maintenance-first support. The
owner is not using it enough to justify speculative expansion, so future work
is limited to problems that block the capture-to-reading loop.

- The browser-local path can be used without a Reader account.
- Google sign-in opens the account-backed library.
- Saved libraries are private by default; sharing is explicit.
- The Chrome MV3 companion is source-built for local unpacked use. Public
  browser-store distribution is deferred.
- There is no public plan or checkout. No permanent free or paid model is
  declared.

## Privacy and AI

Account-backed data is isolated per user. PDFs are stored behind an
ownership-enforcing proxy. Browser-held OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini BYOK
credentials are used per request and are not persisted server-side. Reader can
also use the Fleet AI gateway.

## When to use Reader

Use Reader when a web article or PDF deserves attentive reading, durable notes,
or a reliable route back to the supporting passage. Do not use it as evidence
that a source is trustworthy; Reader preserves and helps work with a source but
does not independently validate its claims.

## Start

- [Open Reader](https://read.significanthobbies.com/library)
- [Try a sample document](https://read.significanthobbies.com/sample)
- [Read the FAQ](https://read.significanthobbies.com/faq)
- [View the changelog](https://read.significanthobbies.com/changelog)
- [Inspect the source](https://github.com/Significant-Hobbies/reader)