Frequently Asked Questions¶
Short, honest answers to the questions people actually ask. If something here is wrong or missing, open an issue on GitHub — this page is a living document.
Glassy at a glance¶
What is Glassy?¶
Glassy is a quiet web workspace for people who think in 47 tabs, 12 notebooks, and a voice memo they forgot to label. It bundles notes, bookmarks, voice transcription, and on-device AI on one page. Files stay on your disk; nothing about your writing trains a model. The Companion browser extension is a separate tool that captures into Glassy.
Is there a desktop app?¶
No. Glassy runs in your browser at app.glassy.fyi. Install it as a PWA for a native-window experience with offline support and a dock icon. See Quick Start for the install steps.
Is there a mobile app?¶
Not yet. The web app works on mobile browsers and the PWA installs on iOS and Android. A native shell is on the long-term roadmap but is not in active development.
Where does my data live?¶
- On the cloud instance (
app.glassy.fyi): your notes, bookmarks, and uploads live on a managed SQLite database. Backups are daily and encrypted at rest. - On a self-hosted appliance: your data lives on your own machine in the
glassy-dataDocker volume. Nothing leaves the box unless you ship a backup off-machine.
You always export the same way regardless of where the data lives — Markdown and JSON, never a proprietary format.
Pricing & plans¶
How much does Glassy cost?¶
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Notes, bookmarks, captures, local AI, limited MCP usage, one account |
| Pro | $17/month or $100/year | Voice Studio, Obsidian sync, the Companion extension at full speed, 1,200 MCP queries/hour, priority sync |
| Clear | $80/month or $300/year | The Glassy membership: every current and future theme pack, the unrestricted single-user Docker build, and the founders in your feed |
| AI top-ups | $10 / $20 / $50 (one-time) | 100k / 200k / 500k cloud-AI credits, never expire |
Existing grandfathered $120/year plans remain on the books until cancelled. Existing grandfathered $0 comp plans are not affected. The single source of truth for pricing is the glassy.today/pricing page.
Can I switch between monthly and yearly?¶
Yes — upgrade or downgrade from Settings → Billing at any time. Yearly is billed up front and credited on the switch. Monthly changes take effect on the next billing date.
Can I cancel?¶
Yes, from the same screen. Cancellation is immediate; we don't make you email support to leave. Your data is preserved for 30 days in case you change your mind, then permanently deleted. Export before cancelling if you want a copy.
What about a refund?¶
Yes — full refund within 14 days of purchase, no questions asked. Email [email protected] from the address on the account.
AI features¶
Does Glassy use my notes to train AI models?¶
No. Not for cloud AI, not for on-device AI, not for anything else. Your notes are never used as training data. Cloud AI requests are routed to providers under their standard terms; providers do not retain or learn from your prompts on the plans Glassy uses.
What's the difference between local AI and cloud AI?¶
- Local AI runs in your browser via WebGPU using open-weight models (Qwen 2.5, Whisper, MXBai embeddings). Free, no key, nothing uploaded. Latency depends on your hardware.
- Cloud AI runs on the provider you choose (Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic) using your BYOK key or your monthly Pro allowance. Faster, more capable, costs credits.
Local AI is the default. Cloud AI is opt-in. You can mix them per-feature — local for grammar, cloud for a long summary — and switch the default in Settings → AI.
What is BYOK?¶
Bring Your Own Key. Paste your OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google API key in Settings → AI → Bring Your Own Key and Glassy routes cloud requests through your provider account. Your key is encrypted in the database and never sent to Glassy's infrastructure — the browser talks to the provider directly. See BYOK for setup details.
What are the MCP rate limits?¶
| Tier | Tool calls per hour | KB queries per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 120 | 30 |
| Pro | 1,200 | 300 |
The hourly window is rolling. Multiple free users behind the same NAT share the same IP-keyed rate limit on KB queries, so consider Pro if you collaborate on a shared network. MCP tool calls are keyed per-user, so each account gets its own quota.
Self-hosting¶
Can I self-host Glassy?¶
Yes. The self-hosted appliance is a single-user Docker container that runs Glassy on your own machine. Self-hosting unlocks:
- Live Obsidian vault sync (the server can reach
127.0.0.1:27124on the same machine) - Local Ollama for on-box AI
- Agent Gateway (OpenClaw, Hermes)
- Full data sovereignty
You'll need an active Clear or Pro membership — verification runs every 30 days. The full setup is in Self-Hosting Glassy; it takes about ten minutes on Linux, macOS, or Docker Desktop on Windows.
What's the difference between self-hosting and Clear?¶
Cloud (app.glassy.fyi) |
Self-hosted appliance | Clear community instance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | Public users | One person, their machine | The Clear membership community |
| Notes, AI, capture, Companion | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live Obsidian sync | No | Yes | Yes (member runs it) |
| Multi-user | No | No (single-owner by design) | Yes |
| Membership required | Free works | Pro or Clear | Clear |
| Commerce / upgrade flow | Yes | Disabled | Clear-tier only |
Where do I get the Docker image?¶
From GitHub Container Registry:
The :latest tag always points to the most recent release. The full docker-compose.yml, .env.example, and the appliance mirror live in 0Reliance/glassy-selfhost.
Is the self-host repo private?¶
Yes, during the beta. Request access on GitHub, then docker login ghcr.io before pulling. The repo and image become public at general availability.
The Companion extension¶
What is the Glassy Companion?¶
The Glassy Companion browser extension lets you capture web content — bookmarks, articles, screenshots, highlights, page elements — directly into your Glassy library. It runs in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Brave, and Arc.
What version is current?¶
v2.15.0, released 2026-07-27. The v2.15.0 release ships the Obsidian Vault Companion — a new Vault tab for browsing your vault, reading notes with backlinks and tags, appending to your daily note, creating new notes pushed to the vault, finding related vault content when saving, and merging vault + Glassy tags in autocomplete. The v2.14.0 release shipped the Obsidian Bridge deep-fix — broadened localhost host permissions, offscreen doc existence verified via getContexts, peekToken prevents silent auth loss, SSE auth migrated to one-time tickets, and bridge-first routing on self-host (server-side). See the Companion page for the full release notes.
Where do I download it?¶
From the latest GitHub release. The release page has both the .zip (Chrome / Edge / Opera / Brave / Arc) and the signed .xpi (Firefox 121+). Or open app.glassy.fyi/#/extension inside Glassy — the authenticated extension page always shows the live download link.
Does Companion work on my phone?¶
No. Browser extensions are a desktop feature. On mobile, save URLs through the share sheet using the PWA install, or paste into the Glassy dashboard directly.
Obsidian integration¶
Does Glassy replace Obsidian?¶
No — it's a complement. Glassy adds the things Obsidian intentionally doesn't ship: a clean web client, browser capture, semantic search across the vault, and local AI on top. Your vault stays on your disk; Glassy reads it via the Local REST API plugin.
Why doesn't live Obsidian sync work on the cloud?¶
A network limitation, not a bug. The cloud server at app.glassy.fyi runs on a remote VM and cannot reach 127.0.0.1 on your machine. Live sync requires the Glassy server to live on the same machine as Obsidian — which means self-hosting.
You can still import a vault ZIP on the cloud. Live bidirectional sync is the only feature that requires self-host.
How does the Obsidian Bridge work on Windows + WSL2 + Docker Desktop?¶
The Companion extension runs on the Windows host and proxies Obsidian traffic for the containerized Glassy server. The server pushes proxy requests via Server-Sent Events; the extension calls Obsidian on 127.0.0.1:27124 and returns the result. No WSL2 networking workarounds, no port forwarding. Full setup in the Obsidian Vault guide.
Security & privacy¶
Is my data encrypted?¶
- In transit: TLS 1.3 on every cloud endpoint. The self-hosted appliance uses whatever you put in front of it (Caddy, Cloudflare, Tailscale).
- At rest: Cloud database backups are encrypted (AES-256-GCM). The live database itself is not field-level encrypted; if that matters to your threat model, self-host.
- API keys: Your BYOK keys are encrypted in the database using
API_KEY_ENCRYPTION_KEY. - Obsidian: Glassy never sees your vault contents when using the Companion Bridge — the extension holds the API token and returns only the result.
Can I delete my account?¶
Yes. Settings → Account → Delete account permanently removes your data. The deletion is irreversible — there is no 30-day undo for account deletion (unlike subscription cancellation). Export first if you want a copy.
Does Glassy have a bug bounty?¶
Not yet. Report security issues to [email protected] and we'll respond within 48 hours. A formal bug bounty is on the post-beta roadmap.
Getting help¶
Where do I get help?¶
| Where | When to use it |
|---|---|
| docs.glassy.today | You're reading it. Reference docs, deep dives, troubleshooting. |
| learn.glassy.today | Video lessons and guided tours. Best for first-time setup. |
| In-app Help Center | Searchable answers, context-aware of the screen you're on. |
[email protected] |
Billing, account, anything not covered above. |
| GitHub Issues | Bug reports and feature requests. |
Is there a community?¶
Yes — a private Discord for the Clear membership, plus a public GitHub Discussions board for everything else. The Discord link lives in the footer of your Glassy dashboard.