---
title: Minne and OpenHistory — which one is for you?
description: Both are free, open-source Mac apps that remember your work through the Accessibility APIs, never screenshots. One builds a timeline of your day; the other a wiki that writes for you.
---


[OpenHistory](https://openhistory.sh) and Minne agree on the things most
memory apps get wrong. Both are free and MIT-licensed. Both run on macOS 14
and later. Both learn what you work on through the Accessibility APIs — window
names, document context, visible text — and both refuse screenshots, audio
and keystrokes on principle. Both keep everything in a local folder and hand
it to an AI agent over MCP. If you are choosing between them, you have
already made the important decision.

What is left is the shape of the memory. OpenHistory builds a **timeline**:
your day grouped into work episodes, with hourly and daily recaps. Minne
builds a **wiki**: one page per person, project and topic, distilled from the
same kind of captures — and then writes from it wherever you type.

> A timeline answers "what did I do on Tuesday?" A wiki answers "where does
> the Oslo move stand?" Which question you ask more often is the whole
> comparison.

## What OpenHistory does well

From OpenHistory's own site and repository, checked at the date in the
footer:

- **An automatic work timeline.** Foreground activity you have permitted —
  apps, window names, document context, browser domains, clicks, visible
  interface text — becomes a private timeline of your day, with concise
  summaries of completed work and decisions.
- **Recaps by the hour and by the day.** The product's centre is the recap:
  a readable account of what happened, produced without you writing it.
- **Apple's on-device model.** On macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence, summaries
  can run on Apple's own model without any cloud provider. OpenAI, Anthropic
  and Kimi are available with your own API keys; nothing is sent by default,
  and automatic summaries can be switched off entirely.
- **The same privacy posture as Minne.** No screenshots, no audio, no camera
  or microphone, password fields and private browser windows excluded. Raw
  activity, summaries and settings live in a permission-restricted local
  directory as JSONL files.
- **An MCP server for agents**, so a local AI agent can query the history,
  and redacted projections of the activity for external tools.
- **Open source.** MIT-licensed, built with Electron and React on top of a
  Swift layer for the Accessibility work.

## Where Minne differs

- **The memory is a wiki, not a log.** OpenHistory stores episodes in time
  order. Minne's agent distils captures into pages — *Ingrid Berg*, *Oslo
  move*, *retry logic* — each citing the raw captures it came from, and keeps
  them current as the work moves. You read the page, not the day.
- **It writes where you type.** Tap right-Option in any text field and Minne
  drafts the reply, the update or the answer from the memory and the text on
  screen, in your tone, and inserts it when you say so. OpenHistory's site
  describes no drafting; it is a memory you consult, not one that writes.
- **Plain markdown, in a folder you own.** `~/Minne` opens in Obsidian as it
  stands, and a `SCHEMA.md` you edit tells the agent what is worth keeping.
  OpenHistory's data is JSONL in a protected directory — designed to be
  queried, not read like notes. [The folder is the product](/second-brain).
- **More ways to bring a model.** Both accept OpenAI and Anthropic keys.
  Minne also signs in with a Claude or ChatGPT subscription, and runs against
  [Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible server on your own machine](/local-ai-writing).
  OpenHistory's fully-local path is Apple's on-device model, which needs
  macOS 26; Minne's works on macOS 14.
- **Native, small.** A Swift menu-bar app with a compiled sidecar for the
  agent, rather than an Electron app. The trade-off is Mac only, forever.

## Side by side

| | Minne | OpenHistory |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Captures | Focused window text via Accessibility | Permitted foreground activity via Accessibility |
| Never captures | Screenshots, audio, password fields, private windows | Screenshots, audio, camera, mic, passwords, private windows, keystrokes |
| Memory shape | A wiki: pages per person, project, topic | A timeline: episodes, hourly and daily recaps |
| Stored as | Markdown files in `~/Minne` | JSONL in a permission-restricted local directory |
| Writes into your apps | Yes — right-Option in any text field | No |
| Local model | Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible server, macOS 14+ | Apple on-device model, macOS 26+ |
| Cloud model | Anthropic, OpenAI — key or subscription | OpenAI, Anthropic, Kimi — your keys |
| Agent access | Read-only [MCP server over stdio](/mcp-memory) | Authenticated MCP server |
| Price and license | Free, MIT | Free, MIT |

## Choose OpenHistory if…

- You want a timeline — the shape of your day, with recaps you can scroll.
- You are on macOS 26 and want summaries on Apple's own model, no keys at all.
- You want a memory to consult and do not need it to write anything.

## Choose Minne if…

- You ask your memory questions about *things* — people, projects, decisions —
  more often than about days.
- You want the answer written into the reply you are typing, not looked up.
- You want the memory as markdown you can open, edit and carry, and you want
  a local model without waiting for macOS 26.

Two open-source apps arriving at the same privacy stance is good news for
anyone choosing either. For the recorder-shaped alternatives they both
reject, see [a Screenpipe alternative that doesn't record all day](/screenpipe-alternative);
for the nearest product to Minne's *drafting* side, see
[Minne and Goldfish](/vs/goldfish). What any of them should be measured
against starts at [what is a personal AI memory?](/what-is-ai-memory).