Driftglass

Keep a current answer to questions that outlive the news cycle. Driftglass follows the sources you choose, consolidates repeated coverage, and maintains a cited answer with the causes, strongest alternative case, and signals that would change it.

Try the frozen, read-only live example or watch a standing question move from new sources to a saved answer in the quick walkthrough.

Product tour

Today	Mission workspace

Public answer	Architecture

Quick start

1. Install on Cloudflare

Activate R2 in the target Cloudflare account, then install Git and Node.js 22 or newer:

git clone https://github.com/anotb/driftglass.git
cd driftglass
npm install
npx wrangler login
cp .deploy-secrets.example .deploy-secrets
# Replace the placeholder with the output of: openssl rand -hex 32
npm run check:deploy
npm run deploy:first

This creates the Worker resources, applies D1 migrations, and sets 30-day expiry for disposable raw/ captures. Direct public-page reading works on Workers Free. Browser Rendering, Email Routing, AI Search, the Companion, and Workers Paid are optional. See Deployment for costs, staging, and later upgrades.

2. Run the experimental local preview

The source-checkout preview requires Git and Node.js 24.4 or newer:

git clone https://github.com/anotb/driftglass.git
cd driftglass
npm install
npm run selfhost:build
node dist/selfhost/driftglass-selfhost.mjs init --data-dir "$PWD/.local-driftglass"
node dist/selfhost/driftglass-selfhost.mjs serve --data-dir "$PWD/.local-driftglass"

This starts a loopback-only instance with local SQLite and filesystem storage. It is not yet a packaged desktop or server release. See Portable Runtime for backups, restore, and current limits.

3. Connect ChatGPT or another reasoning model

After Driftglass is running, open Reasoning in the dashboard.

• ChatGPT: choose Connect ChatGPT, complete the connection, then select Driftglass from Tools in a new Work chat. The optional @Driftglass plugin gives steadier Today and Mission routing.
• Claude: add the compact remote MCP, or use the generated Agent Skill and Markdown/JSON context.
• Other agents: connect the read-only MCP at /mcp. Machine-readable discovery lives at /llms.txt, /llms-full.txt, /.well-known/mcp.json, /.well-known/driftglass.json, and /openapi.json on the running instance.

Add the separate Allow updates connection only when the agent should save answers or suggestions for your review.

WebMCP remains experimental. It needs Chrome 149 or newer, an origin-trial token for the deployed origin or chrome://flags/#enable-webmcp-testing locally, and an open, unlocked Driftglass dashboard tab. The compact remote MCP works without WebMCP.

First useful session

1. Open the dashboard with the owner secret and run the setup check.
2. Keep the Free usage profile and install one featured Intelligence Pack.
3. Collect once. Driftglass groups repeats into Stories and matches them to the Pack's Research Missions.
4. Open Today and choose a Mission with a question you care about.
5. Connect your reasoning model and ask for the current answer, what changed, and what would change it again.
6. Save the cited answer if it is worth carrying into the next update.

Start there. The Companion, AI Search, Email Routing, and Computer Power Mode can wait until a Mission needs them.

What Driftglass keeps for each question

A Research Mission holds:

• the question and current answer
• the sources and developing Stories behind it
• chronology, disagreements, and missing information
• the next event or measurement worth watching
• earlier answers, decisions, forecasts, and outcomes

Missions can cover energy flows through Hormuz, AI entering the experimental science cycle, a market thesis, a policy change, or a technical dependency. They are standing questions, not feed categories.

chosen sources → collected items → developing Stories → Research Mission
                                                           ↓
Today ← cited current answer ← chosen reasoning model ← prepared context
  ↓                                                        ↑
what changed → next event → scheduled refresh → connected memory

Quiet days do not need a briefing.

Sources and answers

Ten articles repeating one announcement are still one line of reporting. Driftglass groups sources by publisher, repository, package, author, community, and declared family, then marks their relationship to a Story:

origin · independent · same-family · update · echo

Briefs favor original reporting and independent support while retaining useful updates. They include the Mission question, source links, relevant memory, disagreements, open questions, and the requested answer shape. Each brief reports what it included and omitted; a connected model can use search, fetch, or a larger prepared context when it needs more of the source history.

The returned answer keeps its citations, model label, confidence, and source-state hash. A second model can answer from the same source state for comparison. Suggested memory changes stay pending until approved.

Driftglass does not require an OpenAI, Anthropic, or xAI model API key. It uses compatible subscription clients through MCP or portable context files.

What Driftglass includes

• Today: a finite briefing of changed Missions and Stories.
• Research Missions: standing questions with a current answer, next event, and history.
• Connected memory: links among sources, claims, findings, questions, decisions, and forecasts.
• Intelligence Packs: reusable sources, Missions, starter memory, standards, and scheduled research for a domain.
• Mission Computers: one working directory per Mission for its current source snapshot, notes, results, and exports.
• Sharing: cited web pages, downloadable copies, and credential-free Packs for following the same public question.
• Budget Governor: keeps collection, rendering, storage, and scheduled work within the selected usage profile.

The default MCP is compact and read-only. Its operations counterpart uses an independently derived capability and handles saved results, outcomes, Pack changes, workspace notes, and approved memory changes.

Sources

The cloud core supports Hacker News, Lobsters, Bluesky, arXiv, GitHub Releases and Activity, npm, PyPI, public webpages, Page Feeds, Email Workers intake, and manual capture. OpenAlex uses an optional account key.

The optional Companion adds signed-in sources and mirrors Mission workspaces to macOS, Windows, or Linux. Browser sessions stay on that machine. Public collection and Mission state continue without it.

Architecture in one minute

Layer	Role
Workers	API, dashboard, routing, MCP, and static assets
D1	Stories, Missions, memory, decisions, budgets, and run state
R2	source bodies, reasoning inputs, results, exports, and previews
Queues and Workflows	bounded ingestion, recovery, Mission refresh, and research routines
Direct HTTP; optional Kitesurf and Chromium	public-page reading and richer rendered-page fallbacks
Cloudflare Computer	one filesystem per Mission
Drop	portable answers and Intelligence Packs

Cloudflare is the full hosted profile in 0.9. The local SQLite profile is an experimental source-checkout preview. Deployment creates a dedicated per-environment OAuth KV namespace. AI Search stays off until enabled, and retained Workers traces are disabled.

Architecture details: Product Boundary · Runtime Fabric · Reasoning Interfaces · Memory Graph · Mission Computer · Intelligence Packs · Budget Governor

Docs

• 0.9.0 release notes
• Install guide
• Roadmap
• Security

Acknowledgements

Driftglass builds on and learns from open-source projects including OpenCLI and Cloudflare Computer. See Acknowledgements for the full list and each project’s role.

License

MIT. Integrated upstream tools remain separately installed under their own licenses.