Open-source SurfSense agent edits your Word, Excel and PDF files with tracked changes
FurtiveMirth · reddit · 2026-11-01
SurfSense is an Apache-2.0 open-source desktop app (Windows/macOS/Linux) positioning itself as "NotebookLM with an agent", runnable on local models, any OpenAI-compatible API, or your ChatGPT/Claude plans.
What it does
- Searches and reads your sources, producing real files with citations
- Writes Word docs, PDFs, slides, spreadsheets and web pages, or works from your own .docx/.pptx templates
- Edits copies, never originals: Word edits return as tracked changes and comments; it updates Excel formulas and fills PDF forms
- Supports MCP plugins (Notion, DeepWiki, or any server URL)
Architecture
- Two engines: opencode runs the agent for any model; with a Claude plan, your own Claude Code executes instead, sharing the same tools and rules
- No shell, code execution, subagents, or web access — only search, document and PDF tools
- "Documents as versioned scripts": each doc is a script run in a separate process, with all versions kept and page previews fed back for self-review
- One folder per task so sources can be grepped directly
- Configurable tool approvals; agent mode requires tool-calling models with ≥32K context
The maintainer seeks feedback on the scripts-with-self-review pattern and approval design.
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