Tessera guide

1Getting started

Tick each step as you go — progress is kept only in this browser.

• Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store (Edge coming soon) and pin the mosaic icon to the toolbar.
• Let the AI model download once (~200 MB) on first launch. With a compatible graphics card it uses EmbeddingGemma; without one, a smaller model that runs on the processor. The panel shows the progress.
• Bring your bookmarks in Library → Import. The browser's tree is never modified. If you allow site access, Tessera reads each page's content to understand what it is about; you can pause and resume anytime.
• Save a page: Save this page in the popup, Alt+Shift+S, or right-click → Save to Tessera (works on links too).

2Related to the open page

Open the side panel (Tessera icon → Side panel, or the browser's side menu). Under Related to this page you see the bookmarks about the same subject as the open tab — without typing anything. Switch tabs and the list follows.

It is search by meaning working for you: while reading a service's docs, you see the guides, alternatives and tutorials you had already saved about it.

3Search by describing

Type it the way you remember it: “that cheese bread recipe”, “how to publish a site without a server”, “short home workout”. Results come by meaning, with the matching excerpt highlighted.

4Topics

In Topics, Tessera groups your bookmarks by what they have in common. Topics emerge from your own bookmarks, with no predefined category list, and their names come from the members themselves.

• Click a topic to see its bookmarks in the side panel: Open all in tabs or View in Library.
• No topic: what doesn't fit yet. Each item shows Looks like: … when a close topic exists — one click adds it.
• New topic…: create your own topic (at the top, from a bookmark without topic, or by selecting several in the Library). It keeps the name you gave it, even when topics are recalculated.
• Similar: in each topic's panel, bookmarks from outside that resemble it, ready to add.
• Recalculate groups rebuilds topics from everything that is ready and shows the result (before → after).

5Appearances

In Settings → Appearance: Calm (space and reading), Dense (many bookmarks per screen) and Visual (tiles in the topic color and large icons), each in light, dark or following the system.

6AI with your own key (optional)

With nothing configured, Tessera already organizes and searches with local AI. For richer tags and summaries and answers based on your bookmarks, connect a service with your own key:

1. Settings → AI services → Add service and pick Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama (on your computer) or Compatible — any service in the OpenAI or Anthropic format (DeepSeek, Groq, OpenRouter, LM Studio…), entering its address.
2. Paste the key and click Load models from the service: the model fields start suggesting names.
3. Set the monthly limit (US$ 5 by default). If the model is not in the price table, enter its price.
4. For each purpose, click Allow…: you see the exact address and what will be sent, and only then authorize. Revoke stops immediately, including queued work.
5. Test connection confirms everything works.

Which model for what?

To organize, a fast and cheap model — it runs once per bookmark (e.g. DeepSeek chat, Claude Haiku, GPT-4o mini). To answer, a stronger model, since it has to combine sources and cite correctly. Tessera asks for a direct answer, without reasoning mode, so the limit isn't wasted.

Answer based on my bookmarks

Search in the Library or the popup and click Answer based on my bookmarks. The bookmarks used as sources show up right away; then the answer, with [1] citations that open the bookmark. Without enough basis, it says so instead of making things up.

7Suggestions and history (optional)

In Settings → Privacy:

• Suggest pages worth saving: when you return to a page on 3 different days, or read it for more than 3 minutes, a + shows on the icon. In the popup: Save, Not now (one week) or Never for this site. Tessera keeps only counters, without the address, for up to 30 days.
• Include my history in search: pages visited in the last 90 days show up in search marked as History, with Save in one click. Only title and address; turning it off deletes everything.

8Maintenance

• Broken links: checks your bookmarks and shows the reason (page gone, domain for sale…). You confirm before anything goes to the trash.
• Trash: kept for 30 days; Empty trash deletes right away.
• Export / Import (Settings → Data): everything as JSON, for backup or to move to another computer.
• Pause / resume processing anytime from the progress bar.

9Privacy in one minute

• Bookmarks, page text, organization and the AI model stay on your computer.
• No account, no server, no ads, no telemetry.
• The internet is only used to download the pages you saved, download the model once, check links when you ask and — only if you turn them on — the search engine lookup for pages without content and the AI services you configured.

Read the full privacy policy

10Troubleshooting

Shortcuts