shelff

Build your PDF bookshelf on iCloud. Organize with folders, categories, and tags. All metadata is stored as files — your data is always yours.

shelff is a reading app for browsing and managing PDFs stored in iCloud.

All your data lives in iCloud Documents. You are never locked into a proprietary database. Metadata is saved as JSON files alongside your PDFs, so even if you stop using the app, your data remains yours.

■ Library

• Organize with folders or browse in a flat list
• Filter by categories and tags
• Group multi-volume works and magazine back issues into collections, with custom ordering
• Sort by title, author, date added, or last read
• Filter by reading status (unread, reading, finished)
• Full-text search across your PDFs
• Switch between grid and list views

■ PDF Reader

• Immersive full-screen reader
• Single page, two-up, and two-up with cover layouts
• Left-to-right (LTR) and right-to-left (RTL) support
• Highlights with optional comments
• Jump from table of contents or annotation list
• In-document text search
• Brightness adjustment

■ Metadata Management

• Edit title, author, publisher, publication date, and more
• Auto-extract initial values from PDF metadata
• Automatic reading status transitions (starts reading, finishes at last page)

■ Data Transparency

• All data stored as files in iCloud Documents
• Metadata in JSON, annotations in the PDF itself
• Accessible anytime from the Files app
• You can search and organize your JSON metadata on iCloud using an AI agent and shelff-mcp on you Mac.