Linkly AI — Document Search (Local + Cloud)

Linkly AI indexes documents on the user's local machine (PDF, Markdown, Excel, CSV, DOCX, TXT, PPTX, DOC, RTF, EPUB, HTML, images, audio, video) and can also reach cloud libraries the user has linked via Linkly Web. It exposes them through a progressive disclosure workflow: search → grep or outline → read. It can also capture and list the user's local Markdown notes.

Environment Detection

Before executing any document operation, detect what's available and pick a mode. CLI and MCP are two independent access paths — check both, don't treat MCP as a CLI fallback.

1. Check what's available

Run both checks independently (skip a check if its prerequisite isn't there):

• CLI: if Bash is available, run linkly --version. Success means only that the CLI is installed. Then run linkly status to confirm the desktop app is reachable. A successful status means CLI mode is usable; desktop_unreachable in JSON or App: Unreachable in human output is inconclusive — the Desktop may be stopped, or an AI-agent network sandbox may be blocking localhost. Run linkly doctor, but do not report that the Desktop is stopped from this transport failure alone (see references/troubleshooting.md).
• MCP: check whether MCP tools named search, find_paths, list, outline, grep, read, list_libraries, explore, and note_save are accessible in the current environment. The linkly-ai server (local Desktop MCP) exposes exactly those nine. The linkly-ai-cloud server (the mcp.linkly.ai cloud gateway) exposes the same nine plus two cloud-only tools — library_search and library_link — that discover, link and unlink cloud libraries (library_link with action: "unlink" releases one); they are never advertised on a local or LAN connection. Beyond those two, the difference is reach, not the tool list — see "Know what your connection reaches" below. note_save is the one tool whose reach never varies: it always resolves to the user's Desktop, whichever server it arrived from.

2. Pick a mode