Breathe · Focus · Read

Papers, without the fight.

A guide for wandering eyes, a spotlight for busy pages, notes beside the paragraph, and spaced review that keeps what you understood. Calm by design — and your library quietly stays your own.

01Paste a PDF link, drop a file, or pick one from a private GitHub folder.
02Page notes, highlights, and AI questions stay attached to the paper.
03Shared tags reveal a small network instead of another filing cabinet.
Ninety seconds, no narration: a paper opens, the guide follows your pointer, a column snaps to full width, and the same page reflows to read like a book on a phone.

Your library

Phloem is part of houfu72.com ↗

Add a text

Paper details

Add a PDF from a link

Paste a direct PDF link. Phloem downloads one local copy, so the link is not needed again on this device.

Desk settings

Choose how this reading desk syncs, thinks with you, and moves between devices. Your reading settings stay calm and local by default.

Sync with Google Drive

One tap connects your own Google Drive. Notes and the library live in a hidden app folder only this app can see — and your PDFs (up to 30 MB each) ride along, so a paper added on one device opens on the others. No tokens, no repos, no passphrase.

Encrypted GitHub sync

Notes and library metadata become one AES-GCM encrypted file in a private repo. The passphrase and fine-grained token stay in this browser unless you explicitly make a private device setup link. PDFs remain in your repo’s papers/ folder or on each device. If sync ever needs attention, saving here again resets it.

AI assistant

Automatic uses Gemini Nano inside compatible desktop Chrome, with no account or API key. You can instead bring a Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, or other OpenAI-compatible key. Cloud providers receive only the extracted text you choose—never the PDF or screenshot itself.

Set up another device

Make a private setup link containing your AI provider settings and every saved API key, plus GitHub sync credentials when configured. Open it only on a device you trust. Google Drive still asks you to sign in separately and its session is never placed in the link.

Install as an app

Phloem works offline once installed — papers already on this device open with no network.

Library backup

Portable JSON contains notes and metadata, but not local PDF files or your API credentials.

About & credits

Phloem is a calm, local-first paper reading desk built by Houfu Chen.

Phloem icon artwork by Promma ↗.

NotebookLM export

Review your package

These are the exact files Phloem will put in the ZIP. Read or edit the guide and instructions below before downloading.

Edits here affect this export only. Your saved notes, highlights, and original PDF stay unchanged. To change the reading trail permanently, edit it in Phloem and reopen this review.

PDF
Original paper · untouched
MD
Paper text + your notes, highlights, and prompts · editable below
TXT
README — OPEN FIRST.txtUnzip and NotebookLM upload instructions · editable below

Phloem guide (.md)Full generated content
README (.txt)Instructions included in the ZIP

Pick a GitHub paper

Browse the papers/ folder of your connected private repo, including any folders you keep inside it. Choosing a PDF downloads a local copy for fast reading on this device.

Open Phloem as a local site

You opened the HTML file directly. The library itself can appear this way, but browsers block the PDF reader and OCR workers on file:// pages.

Use the local web address below while developing, or the normal houfu72.com address after publishing. Your notes still stay in this browser.

Open the working local version →

Contents

Install Phloem

Could not open that paper