# ReticulOS

> ReticulOS is a desktop app for Linux and Windows that keeps what you save in one place. Save notes, links, pictures, PDFs and recordings from any app, find them again by describing them, and ask Ret, the built-in AI, for answers that cite your own notes.

## Key facts
- Name: ReticulOS (a desktop software product). Unrelated to the Reticulum Network Stack (a mesh-networking project) and to the medical terms "reticulosis" or "reticulocyte". Inside ReticulOS, "Reticulum" is the name of its full workspace window.
- Tagline: Your computer, with context.
- What it is: a desktop app that keeps what you save in one place. Save notes, links, pictures, PDFs and recordings from any app into collections, find them again by describing them, and ask Ret, the built-in AI, about them. Answers cite the notes they came from.
- Platforms: Linux (Debian/Ubuntu .deb, v0.12.17, released 2026-10-11) and Windows 64-bit (v0.12.17). macOS is coming next.
- Availability: in beta, free to download for Linux and Windows at https://reticulos.com/download. Updates arrive inside the app.
- Pricing: Free plan (the whole notes app, no time limit, 25 Ret answers a month). Pro is $20/month or $200/year and adds Ret Agent (coming soon, Linux first; 200 tasks a month), filling forms from saved notes, bring-your-own-model (the user's ChatGPT plan today; own API keys and an on-device model coming), searching PDFs and recordings page by page and moment by moment, and a daily encrypted backup at the official release. New accounts get 14 days of Pro free, no card. Student: Pro at half price ($10/month or $100/year) with a school email, 80% of Pro's monthly allowances. Founder Edition: $129 once for the first 100 backers, everything Pro will have. Existing $8/$80 Pro subscribers keep their price. Current plans: https://reticulos.com/pricing
- Storage and privacy: notes live in an encrypted database on the user's device; the key is protected by the OS keyring. The app has no analytics or tracking, and an account is optional. Core features work offline.
- AI: Ret, built into the widget (Ctrl+Shift+Space), answers from one collection or all of them and cites the source notes. Answers come from Ret AI with no setup or API key: a free ReticulOS account includes 25 answers a month, Pro 1,000, Student 800 and Founder Edition 2,500. On Pro, users who pay for ChatGPT can sign in with ChatGPT and use their own plan instead. Ret can also create and edit notes, but only after the user approves each change, and every change can be undone. Search by meaning runs on the user's computer. Claude, Cursor and other MCP apps can search the user's notes for free; any change they want needs the user's approval and can be undone.
- Features: one-shortcut capture (Ctrl+Shift+=), always-on-top widget, collections, PDFs, pictures, audio and video as cards, one-click recording (Linux for now), Reticulum workspace (grid, list, freeform canvas), Markdown editor (tables, callouts, toggles, code, to-dos), day book (tags, carry-over to-dos, AI day summary), search overlay (Ctrl+Shift+/), filling in forms from saved notes (Pro; copy, with sources), password vault with its own key, export to Markdown or JSON, signed self-updates (Linux).
- Coming (not available yet): live sync, phone capture, transcripts, Mac.
- Contact: support@reticulos.com

## Product
- [Home](https://reticulos.com/): overview and a one-minute product film
- [About](https://reticulos.com/about): what ReticulOS is, who makes it, timeline and key facts
- [Features](https://reticulos.com/features): everything ReticulOS does, and what is coming next
- [FAQ](https://reticulos.com/faq): short, direct answers about the product, platforms, privacy and AI
- [Pricing](https://reticulos.com/pricing)
- [Blog](https://reticulos.com/blog): guides and release notes
- [Download](https://reticulos.com/download)
- [Beta notice](https://reticulos.com/beta-notice): what the beta includes today, and what arrives with the official release
- [ReticulOS for Linux](https://reticulos.com/linux): what the Linux build does, installing the .deb, Wayland and other Linux questions

## Blog
- [Coming soon: use the ChatGPT plan you already pay for](https://reticulos.com/blog/sign-in-with-chatgpt): Coming soon to ReticulOS: sign in with ChatGPT and Ret will answer from your ChatGPT Plus or Pro plan, with no API key and no extra AI subscription.
- [ReticulOS for students: every lecture, reading and deadline in one place](https://reticulos.com/blog/for-students): Record lectures, save readings and slides, keep one collection per course, and ask your own notes questions before the exam.
- [ReticulOS for researchers: sources, quotes and answers that cite them](https://reticulos.com/blog/research-and-writing): Save quotes, figures, whole papers and interviews while you work, keep one collection per project, and ask for a brief where every point links to its source.
- [ReticulOS for everyday life: the things you always need and can never find](https://reticulos.com/blog/everyday-life): Warranties, receipts, bookings, manuals, the Wi-Fi password, the dentist's number: one place, and you can just ask.
- [ReticulOS for job seekers: write each application once](https://reticulos.com/blog/job-applications): Keep your résumé, bio, links and notes on each role in one collection, and fill in application forms from what you saved, with a source for every answer.
- [ReticulOS for developers: the snippet you need, one shortcut away](https://reticulos.com/blog/developers): Capture commands, errors and doc links without leaving your editor, find them in a keystroke, and let Claude Code or Cursor search them too.
- [Five apps you can stop juggling](https://reticulos.com/blog/one-place-not-five-apps): Notes, to-dos, a voice recorder, a screenshot folder and a handful of passwords: how ReticulOS keeps them in one place, and why that matters.
- [Ten habits that get the most out of ReticulOS](https://reticulos.com/blog/get-the-most-out-of-reticulos): Small habits that make ReticulOS faster to use and better at finding things: shortcuts, titles, collections, pins and the questions worth asking.
- [12 features you probably didn't know you had](https://reticulos.com/blog/hidden-features): Screen-area capture, paste-anywhere, flashcard toggles, 2× playback, undo for AI changes and more: the useful corners of ReticulOS.
- [How to manage your tasks without another to-do app](https://reticulos.com/blog/daily-planning): To-dos that live next to your notes, a page for each day, unfinished tasks that carry forward, and tags that pull a project's tasks together.
- [Every ReticulOS shortcut, explained](https://reticulos.com/blog/shortcuts-explained): The six shortcuts that work from any app, plus the ones in the widget, Reticulum and the editor, with what each one is for.
- [Collections and notes: the basics](https://reticulos.com/blog/collections-and-notes): What a note is, how collections work, the three ways to view them in Reticulum, and how to edit, pin, colour, move and delete.
- [The day book, step by step](https://reticulos.com/blog/day-book-guide): A page for every day: moving between days, adding entries, tags, the cross-day tag view, carried-forward to-dos and one-click summaries.
- [The password vault, explained](https://reticulos.com/blog/password-vault): How to set up the vault, what to keep in it, how it protects what's inside, and when a dedicated password manager is the better choice.
- [Connect your notes to Claude, Cursor and other AI apps with MCP](https://reticulos.com/blog/connect-ai-apps-mcp): Turn on MCP and the AI apps on your computer can search and read your notes. Every change they propose waits for your yes. Free on every plan.
- [How Ret finds the right note, and shows you where it came from](https://reticulos.com/blog/how-ret-finds-answers): Search by meaning that runs on your computer, combined with keyword search, then answers that cite numbered notes. Here's what happens when you ask Ret a question.
- [RetMD: a walkthrough of the format your notes are written in](https://reticulos.com/blog/retmd-walkthrough): Every note in ReticulOS is stored as RetMD, a careful subset of Markdown. Here's the full syntax, with examples you can type.
- [Security in ReticulOS: who can read your data, and who can't](https://reticulos.com/blog/security-in-reticulos): Where your notes live, how they're encrypted, why the vault can't be opened without your password (not even by us), what Ret sends to an AI and what it never does, and the technical details for security teams.
- [How your notes stay private](https://reticulos.com/blog/how-your-notes-stay-private): Encryption at rest, a key held by your operating system, a separately locked vault, AI that only sees what it needs, and no analytics.
- [Release notes, from the first beta to 0.10](https://reticulos.com/blog/release-notes): Every ReticulOS release so far, from the first beta in March 2026 to version 0.10.

## Comparisons
- [ReticulOS vs Obsidian](https://reticulos.com/compare/obsidian): ReticulOS vs Obsidian: save from any app with one shortcut and search by meaning, versus Obsidian's Markdown vault and plugins. When to pick which.
- [ReticulOS vs Notion](https://reticulos.com/compare/notion): ReticulOS vs Notion: a private desktop app for your own notes and saved material, versus Notion's cloud workspace for team docs. When to pick which.
- [ReticulOS vs NotebookLM](https://reticulos.com/compare/notebooklm): ReticulOS vs Google NotebookLM: both answer with citations. ReticulOS saves from any app on your desktop and keeps your notes encrypted on your computer.
- [ReticulOS vs clipboard managers](https://reticulos.com/compare/clipboard-managers): ReticulOS vs clipboard managers like CopyQ, Ditto and Maccy: save what you choose into collections, edit it, and find it again by meaning.

## Documentation
- [Overview](https://reticulos.com/docs): The complete ReticulOS documentation — installation, the capture widget, the Reticulum workspace, the cell editor, and full reference guides.
- [Installation](https://reticulos.com/docs/installation): How to install ReticulOS on Linux — requirements, installing the .deb package, launching, updating, and uninstalling.
- [Quick Start](https://reticulos.com/docs/quickstart): From first launch to an organized collection in five minutes — capture, summon, organize, and edit with ReticulOS.
- [The Widget](https://reticulos.com/docs/widget): The ReticulOS widget in depth — window behavior, collections, adding items, item actions, selection capture, settings, and the system tray.
- [Reticulum](https://reticulos.com/docs/reticulum): The Reticulum workspace in depth — layout, view modes, cell cards, colors, pinning, search, the freeform canvas, and resizing.
- [Schedules](https://reticulos.com/docs/schedules): The ReticulOS day book — a date-navigated daily journal with tags, carry-over todos, and one-click AI day summaries.
- [Capturing Content](https://reticulos.com/docs/capturing): Every way to get content into ReticulOS — widget input, image paste, on-screen selection capture, quick-add, and global paste — and how types are detected.
- [The Cell Editor](https://reticulos.com/docs/editor): The ReticulOS cell editor — slash commands, type-to-format Markdown, tables, callouts, toggles, drag-to-reorder, and autosave.
- [AI Mode](https://reticulos.com/docs/ai-mode): Ask Ret about your notes and get answers that cite them: Ret AI or your ChatGPT plan, on-device search, changes you approve, and connecting other AI apps.
- [Formatting (RetMD)](https://reticulos.com/docs/formatting): RetMD reference — the portable Markdown subset ReticulOS stores cells in: headings, nested lists, checklists, tables, callouts, toggles, code, and inline formatting.
- [Keyboard Shortcuts](https://reticulos.com/docs/shortcuts): The complete ReticulOS shortcut reference — global system-wide shortcuts plus widget, Reticulum, and editor shortcuts.
- [Data & Storage](https://reticulos.com/docs/storage): How ReticulOS keeps your data private — your data lives on your device, encrypted at rest, and we never see your content.
- [Troubleshooting](https://reticulos.com/docs/troubleshooting): Fixes for common ReticulOS issues — shortcuts on Wayland, the hidden widget, quitting fully, selection capture, and database unlock errors.

## Optional
- [Full text for LLMs](https://reticulos.com/llms-full.txt): every FAQ answer, comparison and blog post in one file
- [Privacy policy](https://reticulos.com/privacy)

Last reviewed 2026-10-10.