TextFold

🚀 New: TextFold in your browser! One click on the browser extension transfers the page you are reading to TextFold. For Chrome · Edge · Brave

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Paste a link: any web page · arXiv · PubMed Central · bioRxiv · medRxiv · Wikipedia · GitHub Drop files, one or several: PDF · Word · PowerPoint · Excel · EPUB · HTML · CSV · pictures · Markdown · text Works with: Claude Code · Pi · Zotero · Obsidian · your browser

Try the demo → or download the app ↓ · What's new ↓

Read with less in your head

Choose the level of detail you need, and lower your cognitive load.

	Level	Each paragraph becomes	In whose words
1	Full	the paragraph as written	the author's
2	Brief	its one to three key sentences, verbatim	the author's
3	Key	its point and the reason for it	AI, resting on the Brief sentences
4	Takeaway	one line on the spine of its section	AI
5	Topic	a few words; the text becomes a map of section cards	AI

Also for agent output

Your agent writes more than you have time to read. A Claude Code mod folds every reply the same way, one key per level, and an extension does the same in Pi. More ↓

🚀 New feature: Works in your browser

A button for Chrome, Edge and Brave sends the page you are reading to TextFold as you see it: signed in, past a paywall you pay for, drawn by the page's scripts. The browser finds its article the way reading views do, with its headings, figures, formulas and footnotes, and TextFold folds it. With TextFold open, its reader opens beside the page. Firefox is not supported yet.

Install it from GitHub. The button is in review for the Chrome Web Store; until it is there:

1. Install TextFold 0.10.40 or later (download) and open it. It connects itself to Chrome, Edge, Brave and Chromium each time it starts. With the Python package instead: python3 -m pip install -U textfold, then python3 -m textfold capture install once.
2. Get the extension folder. Download the repository as a ZIP and unzip it, or git clone https://github.com/chenxiachan/textfold.git. The folder is ready as it is: nothing to build.
3. Load it. Open chrome://extensions (edge://extensions in Edge), turn on Developer mode, choose Load unpacked, and pick the extension folder.
4. Click it on a page. Pin the TextFold button from the extensions menu (the puzzle piece) and click it on any page. A ✓ says the page is in your library. If the browser cannot reach TextFold, the button opens a page that says what to do.

Keep the folder where it is: the browser loads the button from it. To update, download it again into the same place and click ↻ on the button's card in chrome://extensions. Once the button is in the Chrome Web Store, remove this copy before installing it from there. To see the levels, connect a model ↓.

The button reads a page only when you click it, and hands it to TextFold on this computer and to nothing else (privacy policy). docs/web-capture.md tells how it works.

One fold, three places

• Read. Paste a link, drop a file, or click TextFold's button on the page you are reading in your browser. It opens as a map of its sections that you zoom into. Get started ↓
• Fold your agent's replies. One key per level in Claude Code and in Pi, with no second model. In Claude Code and Pi ↓
• Plug it into your workflow. python3 -m textfold get hands your agent or script a document one level at a time, and an open format lets any program read and write folded text. For agents ↓

What you get

• Words that travel. As you zoom, every word that stays slides to its new place and the rest fade around it.

• Zoom under your fingers. Stop halfway, turn back, or open one paragraph alone.

• Beside the original. Open a paper's or a PDF's own pages next to the text, each paragraph shown where it stands on its page.

• Ask AI about exactly what you read. Select a passage, or ask about the whole text: the short answer comes first, and each point links to the paragraph it rests on. With Look it up on the web, an agent on your computer searches the web too.

• Notes that zoom with the text. Highlight and write in the margin; what you marked stays as you zoom out, and is saved with the page.

• Your language. Read in many languages, translated sentence by sentence, with every formula as typeset. A document's own levels are written in its own language.

• Your library, in order. Search it with ⌘K, keep documents in folders (drag one in, or right-click it), and list it by kind, by when each came in, or by when you last opened it.

Get started

Download the app for macOS (Apple silicon or Intel) or Windows. Everything it needs is inside, Python included.

Or install the Python package, on any system and for your own pipeline:

python3 -m pip install textfold
python3 -m textfold serve

Open http://localhost:3017. The first time, connect a model; then paste a link or drop a file, and pick a language. You need Python 3.9 or newer (the one macOS ships with works).

Paste or drop	What TextFold reads
A paper's link or DOI: arXiv, PubMed Central, bioRxiv, medRxiv	its text as the site structures it (an arXiv paper without an HTML version is read from its PDF; another DOI needs an open full text in Europe PMC)
Any other web page	its article, without the menus, the adverts, or the text it hides from its readers
A page open in your browser	the page as you see it, signed in or subscribed, with what its scripts drew: click TextFold's button. Works in your browser ↑
A Wikipedia article, a GitHub repository	the article; the README, with its pictures
A PDF	the paper online when the PDF names one, with your file beside it; any other PDF, on your computer: read by TextFold itself, figures included, or more completely by the PDF engine (MinerU, about 3.4 GB, installed once from the landing), which a scanned PDF needs
A Word, PowerPoint or Excel file, a CSV, an EPUB, a saved web page	the document with its headings, tables, pictures and formulas: read by TextFold itself, or more completely by the PDF engine once it is installed
A picture	its text, read by the PDF engine
An item of your Zotero library	its arXiv paper, else its PDF or other file, else its DOI. Works on your Zotero ↓
A Markdown or text file	the file as written

What you read is kept in your system's folder for app data, shared with the desktop app.

git clone https://github.com/chenxiachan/textfold.git
cd textfold
python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
python3 -m textfold serve

What you read is then kept in the clone.

Connect a model

TextFold uses a model you already have, and there is no account to create. It looks for one when it starts; if it finds none, the first page offers the ways in.

You have	What to do
Claude Code, Codex, Pi or WorkBuddy	Nothing. TextFold finds it and uses it. WorkBuddy (experimental) brings its models, on your WorkBuddy sign-in; CodeBuddy's own CLI works too.
A ChatGPT plan	Click Use my ChatGPT plan. A small bridge starts on your computer and signs in with your account (needs Node.js).
Nothing yet	Click OpenRouter in one click. Authorize once, and free models are ready.
An API key	Settings › Add provider: Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Qwen, Zhipu GLM, Kimi, MiniMax, Google, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Your questions can go to a stronger model than the one that writes the levels: Settings › Models › Answering questions, with how hard it reasons.

In the reader

Do	To
Pinch, or ⌘ / Ctrl + scroll	zoom around the pointer
1 to 5	jump to a level
Cards or Map, beside the levels at Topic	the sections and their topics as cards, or as a mind map
Click a paragraph	open just that paragraph
Click a figure	see it enlarged
Original, at the top	read beside the paper's PDF
Save, at the top	keep the page as one file, as Markdown at the level you read, or only your notes
Aa, at the top	light or dark, the default or paper style, the text's size, serif or sans-serif, the line spacing, the column's width, and which margins show
F	focus: the text alone, the bars back at the screen's edge
Full screen, in Aa	the window fills the screen (⌃⌘F on a Mac, F11 on Windows)
Select text	highlight, write a note, or ask
Ask the paper, bottom right	ask about the whole text (Look it up on the web, beside the question: an agent on your computer searches the web too)
L	next language
⌘F (Ctrl+F)	find words in the text: at the level you read, and in the author's words that level leaves out (the paragraph opens at Full while you are there); Enter and ⇧Enter step through them
⌘K (Ctrl+K) or /	search your library
⌘ / Ctrl or Shift + click in the sidebar	pick several documents, to move into a folder or delete together
The pin, at the top of the sidebar	keep the sidebar open beside the text

Works with your tools

Bring a text in from your Zotero library, link what you read to your Obsidian notes, and fold your agent's replies where you work. (Your browser: above ↑.)

Works on your Zotero

Click Zotero library, under the drop zone, and your library is there as Zotero shows it: your collections, your group libraries, a search. Read opens any item.

• An item on arXiv opens from arXiv. Any other opens from its PDF, with the PDF beside the text, or from the EPUB, saved web page or Word file it holds. An item with only a DOI opens from Europe PMC.
• It keeps what you entered in Zotero: the title, the authors and the citekey.
• It stays on your computer. TextFold asks the Zotero app you already run, the way citation plugins do: no account, no key, nothing sent to Zotero's servers, and nothing in your library changed.

To turn it on, in Zotero 7: Settings › Advanced › Allow other applications on this computer to communicate with Zotero.

Works with your Obsidian

TextFold Bridge, an Obsidian plugin by @adalach, links your notes to what you read in TextFold, the way Zotero and its citation plugins work together: TextFold keeps the documents and what you wrote on them, and your notes keep links into them.

• Your own notes, folded. Read a note at TextFold's five levels inside Obsidian, its words travelling as in the reader. After an edit, Refold asks the model only for the sections that changed, and your highlights find their passages again.
• Drag from the reader into a note. A paragraph, a whole section, a selection, a card of the Topic map or one of your notes goes in as a callout, with its title, its section and a link back.
• Links that open at the place. A textfold:// link opens the document at its paragraph, note or level. Hover it in Obsidian to read the passage.
• Your TextFold notes beside the note. A sidebar lists the passages the note cites, and your highlights and questions on the documents it refers to. Import them as a note of their own, and update it later without losing what you wrote in it.

Set it up:

1. Install TextFold: download the app for macOS or Windows, or install the Python package (Get started ↑).
2. Open TextFold (the app, or python3 -m textfold serve), and keep it open while you use the plugin. It needs TextFold 0.10.18 or later, and the plugin talks to it on 127.0.0.1 only.
3. In Obsidian: Settings › Community plugins › Turn on community plugins › Browse, search for TextFold Bridge, then Install and Enable.
4. With the desktop app, set Settings › TextFold Bridge › Links › Open links in to TextFold app. By default, links open in your browser.

In Claude Code and Pi

TextFold puts the five levels on every reply in Claude Code and in Pi. Press 5 for the answer in one sentence, 3 for the point of every paragraph, 1 for every word (in Pi, hold Alt). Nothing is paraphrased, so at every level you read exactly what the model said.

It needs Claude Code 2.1.287 or later, in the terminal or in the Code tab of the Desktop app.

claude plugin marketplace add chenxiachan/textfold
claude plugin install textfold@textfold

Key	Level	What you get
1	Full	every word Claude wrote
2	Brief	each point, with the reason behind it
3	Points	just the points, at a glance
4	Outline	the map of a long reply: its sections, and what each one says (a reply without headings shows its points)
5	Gist	the answer, in one sentence

Type the digit while the prompt is empty, or pick a level in the row above the prompt. Short replies stay whole: one under about 80 words, or one a fold would barely shorten, always shows as written.

Start folded. A session starts at Full. To start at another level, run /config and set Starting level; in the session, the row above the prompt and the keys 1 to 5 still change it.

Why you can trust a fold. TextFold asks Claude to lead with the point: the answer first in every reply, the key sentence first in every paragraph. A fold keeps what Claude put first. There is no second model and no summary, so a fold costs nothing and takes no time.

More in plugins/textfold.

An extension puts the same five levels on every reply in Pi. It needs Pi 1.2.0 or later, on Node 22.15 or later.

git clone https://github.com/chenxiachan/textfold.git
pi install ./textfold/plugins/pi-textfold

Hold Alt and type the digit, click a level in the row above the prompt, or type /fold and a level: /fold 3, /fold points, /fold off. Every reply folds in place, the earlier ones too, and so does the model's thinking, so a long coding turn reads in a few lines. The level stays with the session, and /fold calibrate teaches the keys on any keyboard. On a Mac, let the terminal send Option as Meta, or Option+1 types ¡. It folds with the mod's own engine, so a reply reads the same at each level in Claude Code and in Pi.

More in plugins/pi-textfold. Contributed by @jlamweil.

For agents and scripts

python3 -m textfold get gives a document one level at a time, coarsest first, so an agent reads the map before it spends its context on the whole text:

python3 -m textfold get https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.23916        # the map: every section's topic
python3 -m textfold get 2512.23916 --level key --section 3      # one section: its points, each with its reason
python3 -m textfold get report.pdf --json                       # the whole document, in the TextFold format

A document not folded yet is folded first, with the model you connected. Every line a model wrote is marked as such and anchored to the author's sentences it rests on: docs/format.md describes the format, for any program that reads or writes folded text.

A running TextFold (the app, or python3 -m textfold serve) says where it is in server.json, in its data folder (~/Library/Application Support/TextFold on a Mac, %LOCALAPPDATA%\TextFold on Windows, ~/.local/share/textfold on Linux, the clone when run from one): {"format": "textfold/server", "version": 1, "url": "http://127.0.0.1:<port>", "port": <port>, "pid": <pid>, "textfold": "<version>", "started": "<UTC time>"}. The file goes when the server stops; one left behind (a server ended outright) names an address that answers nothing.

An agent in a browser that offers WebMCP, a draft web standard (tried in Codex's own browser), finds TextFold's own operations on its pages as tools: it reads the passage you are reading or selected, and, when you ask, saves a note on an exact passage, imports a file or a Zotero item, or sorts your folders. Nothing changes in a browser without it. docs/webmcp.md lists the tools. Contributed by @peitianyi23-sudo.

Save a page

Save, at the top of the reader, keeps a page as one HTML file that opens anywhere without a server: its levels, the notes you choose and, if you like, its original PDF to read beside it. It can also keep the whole text as Markdown at the level you are reading, your notes under their paragraphs (at Topic, an outline that a mind-map plugin draws), or only your notes, as a page, a PDF, Markdown for Obsidian or JSON. From the command line, the page without your notes:

python3 -m textfold export 2512.23916

TextFold is a tool, and its license covers its code. When you share a file, follow the terms of the original text, shown under its title.

What's new

• October 30, 2026: agents of your own, the PDF engine where you choose, and long PDFs keep their levels.
• October 28, 2026: a button in your browser.
• October 27, 2026: a label stays a label.
• October 27, 2026: WorkBuddy 5.8, progress that moves, and saved pages read whole.

• October 30, 2026: agents of your own, the PDF engine where you choose, and long PDFs keep their levels. A program that starts Claude Code, Codex or Pi under another command, such as mirasim claude, can be added in Settings under Agents on this computer: write its command, choose which agent it runs as, and Detect lists its models. The PDF engine (MinerU, about 3.4 GB) goes beside your library, so on Windows it is no longer on C: when your library is on D:. You can also choose an empty folder for it in Settings before you install it. When a long PDF's levels are written but its argument links cannot be made, the levels are kept and it opens without the links. A relay that sends a whole reply under a stream's header is read too. Thanks to @Gazerrr03, @nasodaengineer and @HamiltonZeng.
• October 28, 2026: a button in your browser. In Chrome, Edge or Brave, one click sends the page you are reading to TextFold as you see it, signed in or subscribed, with what its scripts drew, and its reader opens beside the page. The article is found in the browser the way reading views find it, with its headings, figures, formulas and footnotes: a paper on ScienceDirect keeps its 32 headings and 9 figures. The app connects itself to the browser each time it starts, and the button is on its way to the Chrome Web Store. Each section of a paper also knows whether it is part of the appendix, from the paper's own marks. Thanks to @minatomugino864-lgtm. Works in your browser ↑
• October 27, 2026: a label stays a label. A line that is not part of the text's argument, such as "Keywords:", a heading the PDF engine read as a line of text, an author's address or a date, keeps its own words at every level. The model used to write a sentence about it, longer than the line itself ("Section one is the Introduction."); now it leaves the line as written. A document already folded reads so once you choose Regenerate in its language menu.
• October 27, 2026: WorkBuddy 5.8, progress that moves, and saved pages read whole. WorkBuddy 5.8 brings a smaller copy of CodeBuddy, which TextFold now runs as WorkBuddy does. That copy keeps WorkBuddy's sign-in to itself, so when TextFold cannot use it, it says so and what to do: install CodeBuddy on its own and sign in there, and TextFold takes that one. A generation counts each section as it comes back, so one slow section no longer holds the count at 0. A saved web page whose only is an advert, or whose comments are longer than its article, is read as its article. Numbered list items keep their numbers when a list folds. Thanks to , , and .

Contributors

Contributions are welcome: start with CONTRIBUTING.md.

If TextFold helps you read, ⭐ star it so others can find it.

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Built on trafilatura, which finds the article on a web page, Defuddle and Readability, which find it in your browser, pdf-inspector, which reads a PDF's own text, PDFium by way of pypdfium2, which cuts its figures, MinerU, the PDF engine, and mammoth, which reads Word files; PDFs are shown with PDF.js and formulas with KaTeX, set in Latin Modern Math. Thanks to their authors.

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