# Open Source Alternative to Rewind.ai

Source: https://github.com/jasonjmcghee/rem
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Open-Source-Alternative-to-Rewindai?index=0x658ccb3b1f50976b5bba3e4fd270ad1e79b65ed8404b3afa0303f2a469beaf7bbd7d5d84
Submitted by polluterofminds.eth on 2023-12-28 UTC, 6 upvotes, 0 comments

## Summary

The creator of rem, an open source Mac app, is seeking contributors to keep the project alive, since they cannot maintain it alone. rem locally records a screenshot every 2 seconds, runs text recognition on each one, and lets users scroll back through a full-screen timeline, search their history by keyword and application, and copy recent context for use with LLMs. The author states that the app has no telemetry or tracking, that all data stays on the user's laptop, and that it was only tested on Apple Silicon, though an Intel build now exists. The author also mentions a planned cross-platform version called xrem.

## Article

🧠 Remember everything. (very alpha - download anyway)

🚨 Looking for contributions / help! 🚨

I would love to keep this project alive and growing, but can't do it alone.

If you're at all interested in contributing, please feel free to reach out, start a discussion, open a PR, look at issues, look at roadmap below, etc.

Something not working properly? There's no telemtry or tracking, so I won't know! Please log an issue or take a crack at fixing it yourself and submitting a PR! Have feature ideas? Log an issue!

Want to learn more about the code?

Here's the Generated Wiki

Original Demo

An open source approach to locally record everything you view on your Mac (prefer other platforms? come help build xrem, cross-platform version of this project).

_Note: Only tested on Apple Silicon, but there is now an intel build

This is an early version (rem could use your help!)

Please log any bugs / issues you find!

Looking at this code and grimacing? Want to help turn this project into something awesome? Please contribute. I haven't written Swift since 2017. I'm sure you'll write better code than me.

I think the idea of recording everything you see has the potential to change how we interact with our computers, and believe it should be open source.

Also, from a privacy / security perspective, this is like... pretty scary stuff, and I want the code open so we know for certain that nothing is leaving your laptop. Even telemetry has the potential to leak private info.

This is 100% local. Please, read the code yourself.

Also, that means there is no tracking / analytics of any kind, which means I don't know you're running into bugs when you do. So please report any / all you find!

Features:

Automatically take a screenshot every 2 seconds, recognizing all text, using an efficient approach in terms of space and energy

Go back in time (full-screen scrubber of everything you've viewed)

Copy text from back in time

Search everything you've viewed with keyword search (and filter by application)

Easily grab recent context for use with LLMs

Intel build (please help test!)

It "works" with external / multiple monitors connected

Natural language search / agent interaction via updating local vector embedding

I've also been exploring novel approaches to vector dbs

Novel search experiences like spatial / similar images

More search filters (by time, etc.)

Fine-grained purging / trimming / selecting recording

Better / First-class multi-monitor support

Getting Started

Download the latest release, or build it yourself!

Launch the app

Click the brain

Click "Start Remembering"

Grant it access to "Screen Recording" i.e. take screenshots every 2 seconds

Click "Open timeline" or "Cmd + Scroll Up" to open the timeline view

Scroll left or right to move in time

Click "Search" to open the search view

Search your history and click on a thumbnail to go there in the timeline

In timeline, give Live Text a second and then you can select text

Click "Copy Recent Context" to grab a prompt for interacting with an LLM with what you've seen recently as context

Click "Show Me My Data" to open a finder window where rem stores SQLite db + video recordings

Click "Purge All Data" to delete everything (useful if something breaks)

(that should be all that's needed)

Build it yourself

Clone the repo git clone --recursive -j8 https://github.com/jasonjmcghee/rem.git or run git submodule update --init --recursive after cloning

Open project in Xcode

Product > Archive

Distribute App

Custom

Copy App

FAQ

Where is my data?

Click "Show Me My Data" in the tray / status icon menu

Currently it is stored in: ~/Library/Containers/today.jason.rem/Data/Library/Application Support/today.jason.rem

It was originally: ~/Library/Application\ Support/today.jason.rem/

(Never)AQ

Wow that logo is so great, you're an artist. Can I see your figma?

So nice of you to say, sure here it is

XCode + copy / paste from history:

Screen.Recording.2023-12-27.at.8.38.07.PM.mov