LinkedVault

An open-source local archive workspace

Screenshots

Click any screenshot to open the full-size image.

Course download queue

Newspaper library

LinkedIn session guide

LinkedVault is a Windows-first desktop application for collecting, organizing, reading, and studying content you are allowed to access. It combines course archiving, newspaper retrieval and offline reading, and durable clipping notes in one local workspace.

The product name is intentionally broader than the original repository slug: LinkedVault is not limited to course downloads.

What You Can Do

• Download course videos into a folder you choose.
• Save subtitles, exercise files, quiz notes, and a readable Study.md guide when available.
• Queue multiple course links and track progress in one place.
• Retry failed downloads without rebuilding the whole list.
• Save your cookie once, then reuse it for future launches.
• Keep data local to your machine.
• Download daily, weekly, and discovered special World Journal editions.
• Schedule newspaper batches with a configurable delay between editions.
• Optimize newspaper pages as high-clarity WebP while safely retaining originals when needed.
• Browse shallow front-page previews and read downloaded editions offline.
• Register an existing Newspaper Extractor archive without moving its files.
• Clip part of a newspaper page into a durable snapshot.
• Write, format, search, and autosave Markdown notes attached to clippings.
• Recover note edits across close, restart, and interrupted-save scenarios.

Supported providers

• LinkedIn Learning — course videos, subtitles, exercise files, quizzes, and study guides when the authenticated source makes them available.
• Coursera — course downloads through the native Coursera workflow.
• World Journal — edition discovery, scheduled retrieval, page optimization, offline reading, and newspaper clippings.

Provider integrations depend on upstream sites and may require maintenance as their authentication or delivery formats change.

How To Use

1. Install LinkedVault with the Windows installer.
2. Open LinkedVault.
3. Paste one or more LinkedIn Learning course URLs.
4. Choose the download folder and quality.
5. Paste your LinkedIn li_at cookie once, or use a supported browser session.
6. Click Download.

Queued courses are persisted independently of the current LinkedIn session. If the saved li_at cookie expires, LinkedVault keeps the queue and shows a Resume queue action after you paste a fresh cookie. Right-click any queued course row to copy its normalized course URL for safekeeping or retrying later.

For newspapers, open World Journal → Download editions, select editions and dates, then choose Download or Add schedule. Scheduled work appears in the Queue section (with Completed and Failed for history). There are no separate Schedule or History tabs. Completed and partial editions also appear under Newspaper library.

Your downloads are saved into the folder you picked. Your saved session is protected with Windows encryption and stored locally.

Requirements

• Node.js with npm (Node 20.19+ or 22.12+ recommended)
• Rust toolchain (MSRV 1.77.2)
• Microsoft C++ Build Tools or Visual Studio Build Tools
• Microsoft WebView2 Runtime

Technology

• Rust and Tauri for the native desktop shell, provider workflows, persistence, scheduling, downloads, and Windows integration.
• React, TypeScript, and Vite for the desktop interface.
• SQLite for durable local application state.

Documentation

Privacy and responsible use

LinkedVault is designed for local archives. Saved sessions are protected with Windows encryption and application data stays on the machine unless you copy it elsewhere. Do not use LinkedVault to bypass DRM, paid access controls, robots.txt restrictions, rate limits, or a provider's terms. Only download, scrape, archive, or share material you have permission to access.

The project is not affiliated with LinkedIn, Coursera, World Journal, or any other content provider.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md. Before changing provider behavior, read the ownership and persistence contracts in docs/architecture and the invariants in AGENTS.md. For newspaper clippings, the native Tauri window is required; the frontend-only preview cannot prove native persistence, window, tray, or input behavior.

Run Locally

Use this when you want to work on the app from source.

git clone https://github.com/Howard-Starfield/LinkVault-Linkedin-Learning-Courses-Downloader.git LinkedVault
cd LinkedVault
npm --prefix apps\desktop install
npm run dev

If PowerShell blocks npm.ps1, either run this once:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned

or use the .cmd shim:

npm.cmd run dev

The desktop app opens from Tauri. The Vite frontend runs at:

http://127.0.0.1:1420

Stop the development app with Ctrl+C in the terminal that launched it.

Developer test: Newspaper Clippings

Run this test in the native Tauri window, not the frontend-only browser preview. Desktop commands, managed snapshot files, and native input behavior require the Tauri runtime.

Before testing, make sure World Journal → Newspaper library contains at least one downloaded edition with a readable completed page.

1. Open an edition, choose Clip, and drag over part of one newspaper page. Confirm that the selection follows the pointer, then choose Save clipping. The reader must remain open and offer Open note after the save succeeds.
2. Open World Journal → Clippings. At the default desktop width, confirm that four thumbnails fit on each row. Resize the window and confirm that the responsive column count changes without stretching the crop. Thumbnails should replace their placeholders without flashing back to an empty image.
3. Hover a thumbnail. Only its image should enlarge slightly; the card must not jump upward. Select the thumbnail to open its separate note page.
4. Confirm the detail page has a compact Back action with the editable note title beside it, no search box, and no boxed editor card. The saved crop should be the large read-only header above its provenance and note body. Save state plus Undo/Redo belong in the bottom-right note footer.
5. At the start of a paragraph or after a space, type /. Confirm the popup is visible above the note, then filter it and exercise Text, To-do list, Heading 1–4, Bullet list, Numbered list, Quote, and Divider with both pointer selection and the arrow keys plus Enter. Confirm /h selects Heading 1, /todo selects To-do list, /hr selects Divider, and a close typo such as /heding still ranks Heading 1 first without executing it automatically.
6. Drag across note text with the left mouse button. No formatting toolbar should appear during the drag. After release, it should appear above the selection, aligned with the first selected word. Check Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, and Link.
7. Paste plain text, then try pasting an image or file. Text must remain usable; image/file paste must be rejected without replacing the saved clipping.
8. Edit the title and note, wait for Saved, choose Back, and reopen the clipping. Confirm that the title, Markdown formatting, and note content were persisted. Optionally repeat typing with a Chinese IME to verify native composition does not duplicate or lose committed text.
9. Open that clipping's snapshot directory. Confirm note.md sits beside clipping-v1.webp and contains the saved Markdown. SQLite remains canonical: editing note.md externally is not imported and may be overwritten by the next save or startup repair.
10. Use the Clippings search box. Search separately for words found in the title, note, edition, date, and page. Confirm the matching field tags are correct, lower-confidence results are separated as Possible matches, and more results load while scrolling. The search box must remain exclusive to the gallery/search surface.
11. In Settings → Snapshot locations, confirm the derived root is connected. On disk, the clipping belongs under the same newspaper download destination at Newspaper snapshots/<edition>/; Settings must not offer an arbitrary global snapshot-folder override.
12. Add a unique title/body suffix and click the window X before the footer reaches Saved. The window should hide instead of exiting. Choose Show LinkedVault from the tray, reopen the clipping, and confirm the exact suffix is canonical or appears in the explicit recovery state. There must still be only one main window.
13. Type continuously, click X while the footer says Saving…, then show LinkedVault from the tray. Confirm the newest text—not an earlier keystroke—is present. Repeat the hide/show cycle once to catch duplicate close handlers.
14. While LinkedVault is running, launch it again from the Start menu or installed executable. Confirm the existing window is shown and focused, Task Manager still reports one linkvault.exe, and the current clipping note remains visible after its durability flush/refresh.
15. Add another unique suffix and immediately choose Quit from the tray. Relaunch LinkedVault and confirm the exact latest text is saved or explicitly offered for recovery. Tray Quit must exit; window X must only hide.
16. Do not use Task Manager against a real user database to test crash recovery. Forced-termination and injected save/checkpoint failures belong to the isolated automated harness or a disposable test profile.

Focused automated checks for this workflow:

npm --prefix apps\desktop run verify:clipping-note-editor-markdown
npm --prefix apps\desktop run verify:clipping-note-editor
npm --prefix apps\desktop run verify:clipping-note-autosave
npm --prefix apps\desktop run verify:clipping-note-lifecycle
npm --prefix apps\desktop run verify:clipping-note-durability-structure
npm --prefix apps\desktop run verify:clipping-note-durability-browser
npm --prefix apps\desktop run verify:newspaper-clipping-library

Architecture

Backend ownership, the unified workflow decision, and the provider migration roadmap live only under docs/architecture — that directory is the source of truth (there is no separate root ARCHITECTURE.md). Read that contract before adding a provider, queue, scheduler, background worker, or persisted job state.

Build The App

Use this when you want a production executable or Windows installer.

npm run tauri -- build

Production outputs:

apps\desktop\src-tauri\target\release\linkvault.exe
apps\desktop\src-tauri\target\release\bundle\nsis\LinkedVault_<version>_x64-setup.exe

Publish An Update

The release workflow runs when you push a version tag like vX.Y.Z. It builds the Windows installer, creates a GitHub release, and uploads latest.json for the in-app updater. Tags with a prerelease suffix, such as vX.Y.Z-rc.1, are published as GitHub prereleases and do not replace the stable latest release.

1. Bump the version in apps/desktop/package.json, apps/desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml, and apps/desktop/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json.
2. Run:

npm run build
npm run cargo:test

3. Commit and push the version bump.
4. Create and push the tag:

git tag vX.Y.Z
git push origin main
git push origin vX.Y.Z

Users on older signed builds can use the in-app update button after the GitHub release finishes.

Frontend-Only Preview

This is useful for UI work, but desktop-only features need Tauri.

npm run web:dev
# open:
http://127.0.0.1:1420

Verify A Release

Useful checks before sharing a build:

npm run cargo:test
npm run verify:visual
npm run verify:ui
npm run verify:release
npm run verify:installer
npm run verify:release-manifest

License

LinkedVault's original code is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for the full text. Third-party dependencies retain their own licenses; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md and the committed npm and Cargo lockfiles for dependency-specific information. Copyright (c) 2026 Howard Deng.