User guide

Getting started

Blogmarks is a progressive web app (PWA) that saves URLs you care about, then enriches them with summaries and semantic tags so your feed stays scannable.

After you sign in, Home shows your private bookmarks by default. Add ?view=public to the URL (or use the in-app control when available) to browse the public discovery feed alongside your own saves.

The fastest first win: share any article link to Blogmarks from your phone, or tap Add in the header and paste a URL. You will land on /add briefly while the save completes, then return to your feed.

Saving bookmarks

You can capture a link in four complementary ways:

• Share Target (mobile)

  From almost any app, use the system Share action and pick Blogmarks. The /add page opens, saves the URL (and title when provided), and can auto-close after success.

• Chrome extension

  Install the Blogmarks extension from the Chrome Web Store (or load unpacked from the open-source repo). Click the toolbar icon to save the active tab’s URL and title in one step.

• Clipboard paste (installed PWA)

  When Blogmarks runs in standalone / installed mode, a floating action button can read a URL from your clipboard and save it. Add ?paste=1 to the URL to try the flow in a normal browser tab.

• Manual add

  Open /add anytime to type or paste a URL and optional title. This path is ideal on desktop or when Share Target is not available.

Installing the PWA

Installing Blogmarks to your home screen or dock unlocks Share Target integration, a dedicated window, and optional clipboard capture.

• Android (Chrome)

  Open blogmarks.dev, tap the menu (⋮), then Install app or Add to Home screen. Follow the prompts; launch Blogmarks from the new icon.

• iOS (Safari)

  Open blogmarks.dev in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Launch Blogmarks from the icon for the full-screen experience.

• Desktop (Chrome, Edge, and others)

  Look for the install icon in the address bar or use the app menu Install option. Installed PWAs open in their own window and receive update banners when a new build ships.

Browser extension

The Chrome extension is the quickest path when you are already in the browser: one click saves the active tab without leaving the page.

Sign in from the extension popup using the same email or phone OTP flow as the website. Tokens stay in extension storage until you sign out.

Unlike the mobile Share Target flow, the extension always saves the current browser tab. Use Share Target when you are in another app (podcasts, news apps, email clients).

When the listing is live, install from the Chrome Web Store by searching for Blogmarks. Until then, build and load unpacked from: Extension source on GitHub

Tags and filtering

After each save, the background enrichment pipeline proposes semantic tags. Tags appear as chips on bookmark cards and in the tag sidebar on large screens.

Visit /tags to browse the public tag cloud and jump into a tag. Tag links use /?tag=slug deep links; pick a tag in the sidebar or from a card to filter your feed.

Shortcut routes /tools and /references redirect to curated tag filters for common collections.

AI enrichment

Behind the scenes, Blogmarks fetches each page, extracts readable content, summarizes it, and assigns tags. Cards show summaries, tags, and optional preview images when available.

Bookmarks move through processing states such as PROCESSING, DONE, and ERROR while the pipeline runs. Failures are retried automatically on a schedule so transient site issues can recover without action from you.

Enrichment runs in Blogmarks infrastructure so your browser stays light. Only URLs you choose to save are processed; see the Privacy page for how that data is handled.

Offline mode and sync

If you save while offline, Blogmarks queues the bookmark locally and shows a pending sync banner on /add. When connectivity returns, queued items sync automatically.

You can export the local queue as JSON from the add page for backup or debugging.

If you open a page that is not cached yet, /offline explains the situation and links back home once you are online.

Notifications

Release notifications (optional): during install or from prompts in the app, you can allow browser notifications when a new Blogmarks version is ready—often with a link to the changelog.

Bookmark completion: when enrichment finishes, a push notification can let you know the bookmark is ready to read in the feed.

The in-app banner also alerts you when a newer frontend build is available; refresh to pick up the latest shell and bug fixes.

RSS feed

Public bookmarks are available as RSS at https://api.blogmarks.dev/public/feed.xml — ideal for feed readers, syndication, or wiring into automation tools.

Only content marked for the public feed appears there; your private saves stay in authenticated APIs.

Tips and tricks

• Theme and language

  Use the header controls to switch light/dark themes or change locale (English, Português, Español). Preferences apply immediately.

• Fast share flow

  After a successful Share Target save, the app can count down and close automatically so you land right back in the app you came from.

• Tag shortcuts

  Remember /tools and /references for quick jumps into commonly used tag filters.

Troubleshooting

My bookmark stays in PROCESSING forever.

The enrichment worker retries on a timer. Wait a few minutes, refresh Home, and check again. Persistent errors may mean the source site blocked automated access.

I saved offline but nothing appeared after I reconnected.

Open /add and confirm the pending sync banner cleared. If items remain, toggle airplane mode off, refresh, and use Export JSON if you need a backup before retrying.

The app looks outdated.

Tap Refresh on the update banner or perform a hard reload. Installed PWAs sometimes cache aggressively; reopening the app after refresh ensures you are on the latest build.

I cannot sign in.

Blogmarks is invite-only during early access. Request an invite from the marketing home page, then sign in with the email or phone that was approved.

Push notifications never appear.

Check OS and browser notification permissions for Blogmarks. Re-open the install prompt flow to re-enable release notifications, and confirm you are signed in.

The clipboard save button is missing.

Clipboard capture is optimized for installed PWAs. Install Blogmarks or append ?paste=1 while testing in a browser tab.

A /?tag= link does not filter my feed.

Pick the tag once from /tags or a card chip after landing; URL query syncing may require a follow-up interaction on some builds.