Pinako connects to your AI two ways. The local bridge is a small desktop download that runs on your own computer. The remote connector is hosted by Pinako, so there is nothing to install: you paste one URL into your AI app. Both give your AI the same access to your workspace, and both use your own AI subscription for the AI's reasoning.

Which one should you use?

• Using desktop agents on Windows or Linux: install the local bridge. It runs on your own machine, so responses are faster and your data never leaves your computer.
• Using desktop agents on ChromeOS or macOS, or with websites like ChatGPT.com, Claude.ai, or Grok.com: use the remote connector. It needs no install and works where a local download cannot run.

	Local bridge	Remote connector
Install	Download and run an installer	None; paste a URL into your AI app
Where it works	Windows and Linux desktops	ChromeOS, macOS, web-based AI apps, and other connector-capable apps
Speed	Fastest; nothing leaves your machine	Slightly slower; routes through Pinako's server
Your data path	Stays on your computer, with no Pinako server in between	Relays through Pinako's server to your browser
Works offline	Yes, including with a local AI model	No; needs an internet connection

Local bridge (download)

The local bridge exposes your tab trees, libraries, notes, tags, memos, browser bookmarks, and chronology to external AI clients through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Once connected, your AI assistant can read and act on everything in your Pinako workspace using natural language: search and answer questions, as well as edit metadata, reorganize tabs and libraries, and write or restructure notes.

The bridge runs locally on your machine. Your data stays on your computer and is never sent to a third-party server. The AI client's own model handles all reasoning, and edits are dispatched back to the local extension through the same channel.

How It Works

The bridge consists of two parts that run together:

1. Chrome Native Messaging host: a local process that communicates with the Pinako extension via Chrome's native messaging protocol, receiving your live tab tree data.
2. MCP server: an HTTP server on localhost:37421 that serves your data to AI clients using the standard MCP protocol.

When an AI client asks about your tabs, the MCP server responds from its in-memory cache of your latest tree data. The extension pushes updates automatically whenever your tabs change.

Quick Start

1. Download and run the installer.
   • Windows: Run the graphical installer. It detects your AI apps and displays a checklist. Select some or all of them, and it configures them automatically.
   • Linux: Download the CLI executable for your architecture (x64 or ARM64), make it executable (chmod +x), and run it from a terminal. It walks you through the same detection and configuration steps.

     chmod +x pinako-ai-bridge-cli-linux-x64
     ./pinako-ai-bridge-cli-linux-x64

2. Restart your AI apps. Close and reopen any configured apps so they pick up the new MCP settings.
3. Activate the connection. Click the Pinako icon in your browser toolbar to open the extension. This starts the bridge.
4. Ask your AI. Try something like "What tabs do I have open?" or "Find my tabs about machine learning."

Supported AI Clients

The installer auto-detects and configures the following clients:

Client	Platform	Config type
Claude Code	Win / Linux	JSON (stdio)
Claude Desktop	Win / Linux	JSON (stdio)
Codex (CLI / IDE / app)	Win / Mac / Linux	TOML (HTTP)
Cursor	Win / Linux	JSON (stdio)
Windsurf	Win / Linux	JSON (stdio)
Antigravity	Win / Linux	JSON (HTTP)
Cline (VS Code)	Win / Linux	JSON (stdio)
Roo Code (VS Code)	Win / Linux	JSON (stdio)
Continue.dev	Win / Linux	JSON (stdio)
Any HTTP MCP client	Any	URL endpoint

For clients that use the stdio transport, the installer writes to the app's MCP config file. For HTTP clients, point them at:

ChatGPT Desktop

ChatGPT Desktop isn't in the auto-configure list above. OpenAI's MCP connector system accepts only public HTTPS URLs and rejects loopback addresses like 127.0.0.1 with an "Unsafe URL" error. Since the bridge runs at http://localhost:37421/mcp on your own machine, ChatGPT Desktop can't reach it directly.

If you already run a tunneling service that gives the bridge a public HTTPS URL (Cloudflare Tunnel, ngrok, Tailscale Funnel, or similar), you can connect ChatGPT manually:

1. Start your tunnel pointing at 127.0.0.1:37421. You will get a public HTTPS URL such as https://your-tunnel.example/mcp.
2. Open ChatGPT Desktop and turn on Developer Mode under Settings → Apps & Connectors → Advanced. This requires a ChatGPT Pro, Team, Enterprise, or Edu plan.
3. Go to Settings → Connectors → Create. Paste your tunnel URL and save.
4. Open the Pinako extension popup so the bridge starts running.
5. Ask ChatGPT a question that uses Pinako (for example, "List my Pinako libraries").

Important

The tunnel URL acts as a credential for your tab data, so keep it private. We do not bundle a tunneling service or auto-configure ChatGPT for this reason. If OpenAI begins accepting loopback connections in the future, we will add ChatGPT to the auto-configure list.

Remote connector (no install)

The remote connector is hosted by Pinako. You add one URL to your AI app, sign in to approve the connection, and your AI can read and act on your Pinako workspace, including from a Chromebook or a web-based AI app. There is nothing to download.

Works with online AIs like ChatGPT, Claude, or Grok, and desktop apps like Claude Desktop. Any AI app that supports custom connectors can connect by pasting the URL above. Some apps require a paid plan to add your own connector.

To connect:

1. In your AI app, add a custom connector (sometimes called a remote MCP server or app).
2. Paste the connector URL above. Leave any token or header fields blank.
3. Your AI app sends you to pinako.pro to sign in and approve the connection.
4. Open Pinako in a browser on your account, then ask your AI something like "List my Pinako libraries."

What your AI can see

Your AI client has access to your Pinako workspace through these capabilities:

• See your full tab tree (get_tree). Every window, group, and tab, including titles, URLs, favicons, your memos, your tags, opened-dates, and which tabs are ghost (closed) versus live.
• Search your tabs by keyword or tag (search_tabs). Matches against titles, URLs, memo text, and tags. Prompts like "find my tabs tagged science" or "which tabs mention machine learning" work directly.
• Search across every scope at once (search_pinako). Literal full-text search over your main tree, libraries, browser bookmarks, and notes in a single call, with an optional exact-tag filter for tag-only matches.
• List your saved libraries (list_libraries). Names, descriptions, and tab counts.
• Read inside a specific library (get_library). Folders, tabs, your memos, your tags, and any notes attached to that library.
• Read your Main Notes (get_main_tree_notes). The top-level notebook documents that aren't attached to any library.
• See which browsers you're running (list_browsers). When Pinako is open in more than one browser, the AI can target a specific one ("my Brave tabs", "list libraries from Chrome").
• Read your browser bookmarks (get_bookmarks). Folder hierarchy, titles, and URLs from your browser's native bookmark tree, so the AI can suggest reorganizations or pull bookmarks into a library.
• Find duplicates across scopes (find_duplicates). Scans your tree, libraries, bookmarks, or any combination for URLs that appear in more than one place, so the AI can suggest cleanups.

The bridge exposes only your tab-tree, library, notes, and bookmark data. Subscription, billing, and account history aren't accessible.

What your AI can do

Beyond reading and answering questions, your AI can act on your Pinako workspace through a full set of write tools, using requests such as: "organize my AI research tabs into a new library", "tag every Tailwind tab with #design", "clean up the duplicate bookmarks in my Design Library", or "create a Note document summarizing the tabs in my Market Research Library by topic"

• Tag, color, rename, annotate. The AI can set or add tags, edit memos, change a node's star color, change row color of folders and groups, and rename tabs or windows.
• Reorganize the tree. Move tabs and windows around, indent to nest, or outdent, create groups, ghost tabs (close in browser, keep in tree), or remove ghost-only branches.
• Manage libraries and library groups. Create new libraries, rename or describe them, add tabs from your tree or another library or your bookmarks, delete an entire library, create or rename library groups, reorder cards in the panel, dissolve groups, or delete library groups along with their libraries.
• Reorganize your browser bookmarks. Move bookmarks and bookmark folders, rename them, delete them, create new folders, or push tabs from elsewhere in Pinako into a bookmark location. Bookmark writes round-trip into your browser's native bookmark manager.
• Write and edit notes. Create new Main Notes or library notes, append to or replace existing notes, or delete a note entirely, with tier-based content limits (50K Pro / 150K Pro+ / 250K Premium / 500K Enterprise per note).
• Run multi-step plans atomically. A single bulk_apply can chain up to 250 operations into one undo entry, so a complex reorganization either fully succeeds or leaves your tree unchanged.

Every write your AI performs is logged to your private Pinako audit table, scoped to your account. You can review what an agent did to your data after the fact.

Approving destructive actions

Some operations close live tabs or remove persistent content. Every agent edit is undoable from Pinako's in-session undo stack, but once the popup closes the destruction is final, so Pinako requires the AI to obtain your explicit approval before these can run. The flag is set by your AI client after it asks you in chat; Pinako enforces that the flag is present, and rejects ops without it.

If you'd rather pre-approve destructive ops for a session rather than confirm each one, see Granting standing approval below for the bypass toggle in each AI client.

Operations that require confirmation:

• Closing live tabs and removing the saved nodes too (delete_live_node). The browser tabs close and the tree record is removed in one step.
• Deleting a saved node from the tree (delete_node). The node's tags, memo, custom title, and any nested children are lost permanently. Only ghost (closed) nodes are eligible; live tabs are refused here and need delete_live_node instead.
• Deleting an entire library (delete_library). The library's tabs, metadata, and notes are removed.
• Deleting a library group AND all its libraries (delete_library_group with cascade). One-way at the library-content level: the group structure can be recovered via undo, but the cascaded libraries' contents cannot.
• Deleting a note (delete_note). The note's content is removed; the library or main tree it was attached to is unaffected.

Closing live tabs while keeping the saved tree node (ghost_node) and plain dissolve of a library group (libraries kept) do not require confirmation. Both are fully undoable from Pinako's undo stack.

Granting standing approval

By default, AI clients prompt you for approval per tool call. If you trust the AI for a session and want it to stop asking, every major client supports a "trust" or "auto-approve" mode:

• Claude Desktop: Settings → Developer → toggle Auto-approve tools, or per-server allowlist.
• Cursor: Agent settings → Auto-run or Yolo mode, optionally per-tool.
• Cline: auto-approve toggle in the panel header, with a tool-specific allowlist.
• Roo Code: approval mode dropdown (manual / auto / auto-approve-safe).
• Continue.dev: per-tool allowlist in config.json.

Pinako has snapshot history, undo, and a permanent audit log per account, so granting standing approval is reasonable for everyday use. If something goes sideways, the safety nets recover it.

Troubleshooting

AI client can't connect

1. Make sure the Pinako extension is open (click the toolbar icon).
2. Check that the bridge process is running:
   • Windows: Look for pinako-mcp-service.exe in Task Manager.
   • Linux: Run pgrep -f pinako-mcp-service.
3. Verify the MCP config entry exists in your AI client's settings.
4. Restart the AI client after configuration changes.

Bridge stops when extension closes

The bridge runs as a Chrome native messaging host — it starts when the extension opens and stops when it closes. Keep the Pinako popup open while using AI tools.

Port conflict

If port 37421 is already in use, the bridge will fail to start. Check for other processes using that port and stop them.

Uninstalling

Windows

Run Add or Remove Programs and uninstall Pinako AI Bridge. This removes the native host, the MCP server, and the native messaging manifest. You may also want to remove the "pinako" entry from each AI app's MCP config file.

Linux

1. Delete the ~/.local/share/pinako/ folder (contains the MCP service and native host manifest).
2. Remove the "pinako" entry from the MCP config file of each AI app you configured.
3. (Optional) Delete the native messaging host symlinks:
   ~/.config/google-chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/com.pinako.mcp.json
~/.config/chromium/NativeMessagingHosts/com.pinako.mcp.json