macOS
Apple Silicon & Intel
v3.39 · Inspector Tags
Every PDF tool you’ll
ever need.
A complete PDF toolkit for macOS, Windows, and Linux that runs entirely on your computer. Merge, OCR, redact, sign, and automate — with on-device AI and zero telemetry. Free forever, open source, no accounts.
Built in the open
GitHubTauriRustSvelteDocker
0PDF tools
0Platforms
0Trackers
$0Forever
01 — The toolkit
Everything a PDF suite does.
None of what it costs.
Sixty-five tools, one ⌘K palette to reach them all. The short list:
MergeSplitCompressOCRRedactSignEncryptWatermarkFlattenSanitizeBates numberingN-upDiffCropExtract textExtract tablesGrayscalePage labelsHeaders & footersRepairMarkdown → PDFOffice → PDFePub → PDFEdit textPresenter modeVim modeLibrary & tags+ more
Try it
One palette.
Every tool.
The real ⌘K palette from the app, running right here. Type to filter all 65 tools.
⌘K
65 tools
02 — Beacon
An AI that can’t reach
the internet.
Chat with citations, summaries, semantic search, PII redaction, study mode, voice — running on-device by default. No API keys, no quotas, no “AI plan.” Unplug the network and keep working.
- Beacon Chat
- Summary
- Semantic Search
- PII Redact
- Smart Outline
- Citations
- Study Mode
- Glossary
- Voice Mode
03 — Hopper
Teach your folders to
file themselves.
Point Hopper at a folder — ~/Downloads, a scanner, a shared inbox — and attach a recipe. New PDFs get flattened, OCR’d, redacted, watermarked, renamed by Beacon, and filed away. A live log streams every run. ⇧⌘H to open it.
Rules you write once
Six predicate kinds route each file — first match wins, the rest fall through.
- filename glob
- regex
- text contents
- page count
- file size
- catch-all
Preview before it runs
Edit a predicate and green ✓ chips light up beside your actual recent files, showing what each rule would catch.
The incumbents, priced out
Hazel is $42 and can’t read PDFs. Adobe’s automation needs an enterprise license and phones home. Hopper is free and local.
04 — Slab Server
The same engine,
in 80 megabytes.
Headless Slab: an HTTP API plus a drag-and-drop web UI in a single Docker image. Put it on your NAS, script it, hide it behind a reverse proxy. Same Rust core as the desktop app.
05 — Foundry
Yours, down to the theme.
A declarative plugin system — themes, locales, commands, AI providers, PDF actions — without writing Rust. A typed TypeScript SDK ships three working examples inside the app, and Bench is the signed marketplace.
Screenshots
Looks like this.
The honest table
Why you’d switch.
| Slab | Adobe Acrobat | Hazel | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, GPL-3.0 | Subscription | $42 |
| Files stay on your machine | Yes | Cloud round-trips | Yes |
| Offline AI inside PDFs | Yes, on-device | — | Can’t read PDFs |
| Watched-folder PDF automation | Hopper, free | Enterprise license | Rules, no PDF content |
| 65 PDF tools | Yes | Yes | — |
| Plugin marketplace | Foundry, signed | — | — |
| Telemetry | None | Yes | None |
Prices as publicly listed.
Questions
Asked often.
Is Slab really free?
Yes — free software under the GPL-3.0, free forever. No accounts, no trials, no upsells, no “pro” tier.
Does it work offline?
Completely. Every tool runs on your machine — including Beacon, the AI. Unplug the network and keep working.
Which platforms are supported?
macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows, and Linux. Slab Server ships as a Docker image for your NAS or homelab.
Where do my files go?
Nowhere. They never leave your computer — no cloud round-trips, no telemetry, no analytics. This site sets zero cookies too.
How is this different from Adobe Acrobat?
It’s free, local-first, and open source. No subscription, no cloud lock-in, and your documents are never uploaded anywhere.
Who builds Slab?
It’s built in the open on GitHub — star the repo, file issues, send pull requests. That’s the whole business model: there isn’t one.
Download
Free. Take it.
v3.39.0 — Inspector Tags. Release notes →
Windows
Installer & MSI
Linux
AppImage & Debian
Docker
Self-host Slab Server