Kip is a fast, native macOS client for your self-hosted Karakeep. Type a fragment you remember and it searches your server and the copy on your Mac at once, then lets you preview, open or file it without leaving the keyboard.
Karakeep is a great place to put things. Kip is built for getting them back: from a half-remembered word, a site, a tag or a month.
Your instance and the local copy searched together, results merged without duplicates. The full Karakeep query language, shown as filter chips you can edit.
A dense list, a visual grid and a reading view that share one selection, so switching never loses your place.
Press Space on any bookmark for a Quick Look–style preview. Arrow keys move to the next one, Escape closes.
A global shortcut opens a search panel on the screen you're working on, even with the main window closed, and hands focus back when you're done. Paste a URL to save it.
Save links, notes, images and PDFs. Edit titles, notes, tags and lists, favorite and archive, also on many bookmarks at once, with undo where the server allows it.
The whole library lives in a local database. Articles and images are kept for recent bookmarks, everything, or the tags you choose. Changes made offline sync later.
A share extension saves links and text from other apps straight into Karakeep, and the macOS Share menu works from Kip.
Instagram, Threads, X, TikTok and Facebook bookmarks shown with author, caption and stats instead of a login wall.
English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian and German. Light, dark or system appearance, a choice of accent colors, VoiceOver and reduced motion respected.
Type plain words, or the Karakeep query language. Every filter turns into a chip you can see, change or remove, and the scope you're searching is always on screen.
Both at once. Matches found by both come first, then the server's, then your Mac's.
Karakeep's own full-text search, including page contents it has crawled.
SQLite full-text search on the local copy. Instant, and still there when you're offline.
Karakeep's hybrid search, offered only when your server has it enabled.
Typing is debounced and stale requests are cancelled, so results never arrive out of order. When the server can't be reached, Kip says so and keeps searching your Mac.
focus #productivitywords, with a taglist:Reading is:favfavorites in a listurl:sqlite.orgfrom one siteafter:2026-01-01 -is:archivedrecent and not archived(#bread or #pizza) is:favgroups with and / or-is:tagged -is:inlistwhat still needs organizingis:media age:<1mfiles saved in the last monthThemes are your own groupings, built from tags, lists or a query and kept on your Mac. Kip suggests them from what's really in your library and never changes your server data on its own.
Select a bookmark and press Space. Step through the list with the arrow keys, Escape to close. Try it here with the buttons, or your keyboard.
Kip keeps a full copy of your bookmarks in a local SQLite database and syncs with care. A careful sync is the difference between a client you trust with your library and one you don't.
Search right after connecting while the library downloads in the background. An interrupted sync resumes where it stopped.
A partial pass never deletes anything locally. Removals are only applied once Kip has checked the whole library.
Edits made offline wait in a persistent queue and retry with backoff. An uncertain outcome is checked, never repeated blindly.
If a bookmark changed on the server meanwhile, Kip notices and asks, instead of overwriting either side.
No account, no cloud service and no analytics. Kip talks to your Karakeep and nothing else unless you allow it.
Never in files, logs or diagnostic reports, and never sent to any host other than your instance. Signing out removes the key and the local data.
Nothing is collected or phoned home. Operational logs are kept minimal and leave out your content.
App Sandbox with only the permissions it needs. Kip never reads your clipboard on its own.
Plain HTTP is accepted only for local addresses, and only after you confirm it.
Articles render in a restricted web view with no credentials injected, and third-party images load only if you allow them.
Suggestions stay suggestions. Kip changes tags, lists or bookmarks only when you ask, and deleting always asks first.
Sidebar, content and inspector, the quick panel, the preview panel and the share extension. The main thread only draws.
Query parser, combined search, resumable sync and a persistent queue of pending changes, all in Swift Concurrency.
A per-instance database on your Mac, and the documented Karakeep API with your key. No other service involved.
Kip is free and open source under the MIT license. If it's useful to you, you can sponsor the work.
# Build from source with Xcode git clone https://github.com/bsramin/kip cd kip xcodebuild -project Kip.xcodeproj -scheme Kip \ -configuration Release \ -derivedDataPath build build open build/Build/Products/Release/Kip.app
Kip comes from the same place as Pass Quick Access and Nexion: Swift and SwiftUI, no Electron, keyboard first, and nothing sent anywhere you didn't choose.