Lumen
in the works — edition no. 001

Open it in any browser now — Chrome & Firefox extension coming soon

Your browser's new tab, but it actually has something worth reading.

Lumen is a calm, magazine-style RSS feed reader for the open web — full of the writers and sites you actually chose. No algorithm. No ads elbowing in. Everything runs locally, or in a cloud you control. Ready to use right now, right in your browser.

Open the web app

● works in any browser · no install · no account · start reading in a minute

The Lumen reader in dark mode: a sources sidebar with folders and unread counts, an article list with thumbnails and read times, and an open article in a wide serif column.
screenshot pending — drop the PNG at public/assets/lumen-reader-dark.png
The Lumen new tab in dark mode: a centered greeting, a search bar, site shortcuts, and a magazine-style grid of today's articles with cover images.
screenshot pending — drop the PNG at public/assets/lumen-newtab-dark.png

the reader, lamp mode — sources · list · article, all in one tab

RSS, Atom & JSON Feed runs locally or in your own cloud device sync — coming soon AI tagging, your own key Chrome, Firefox & the web

01 — why we're building this

A short, honest pitch.

Here's the thing about a new tab: you open it more than any other page on the internet, and it gives you back nothing. A search box. Maybe some thumbnails of sites you visited last Tuesday. It's the most valuable real estate in your browser, and it's a parking lot.

Meanwhile, the good stuff — the newsletters, the niche blogs, the one researcher who posts twice a month and is always worth it — is scattered across a dozen inboxes and feeds you keep meaning to check. You don't need another app for that. You need it to be where you already are.

So that's Lumen. Open a tab, and there's your reading: today's unread pieces from the sources you picked, laid out like a quiet front page. Click one and read it right there, in a clean serif column with a read-time estimate and nothing tugging at your sleeve. Done? Open another tab and get on with your day. The reading comes to you, instead of you going hunting for it.

Underneath, it's just RSS — the open, thirty-year-old web standard that never went away. We just made it feel like it was designed this decade.

02 — what you get

Seven reasons this beats your current tab.

None of them involve the word "supercharge."

№ 1

Subscribe to anything in seconds.

Paste a link, or add a site from the sources sidebar, and Lumen sniffs out its feed — RSS, Atom, JSON Feed, even a raw OPML file. In the browser extension, the toolbar icon and right-click add the page you're on. Shortcuts for Reddit, YouTube, Substack, and Hacker News are built in.

№ 2

Reading that respects your eyes.

A proper serif, a measured column, generous line-height, and a "4 min" label so you know what you're getting into. Warm paper by day, lamplight by dark — and the dark mode loads with zero white flash.

№ 3

Tags that sort themselves.

Write a tag in plain English — "is about climate," "mentions a launch" — and Lumen's AI files new articles under it automatically. Bring your own OpenRouter or Straico key; pick any model; nothing is sent anywhere without your say-so.

№ 4

Local by default, private by design.

Your feeds and articles live on your device — or in a cloud you control — never a reading-habits dossier for someone else to mine. Your API key is encrypted with AES-256, and every kind of data sharing is opt-in, and revocable.

№ 5

It keeps itself fresh.

Feeds sync quietly in the background on your schedule. Unread counts stay live, a thin progress bar tracks every refresh, and old articles tidy themselves away — except the ones you've saved. (The extension adds a toolbar unread badge, too.)

№ 6

Leave whenever you like.

Import your existing subscriptions from any reader via OPML — folders intact — and export them back out the same way, any time. Lumen earns your mornings; it doesn't lock them in.

№ 7

Sync across your devices soon

On the way: read on your laptop, pick up on your phone. Your feeds, saves, and reading position will follow you across every browser and device you use — through storage you control, with no account and no logins to create.

03 — a feel for it

Built for hands that never leave the keyboard.

Three resizable panes — sources, list, article — that remember exactly how you left them. Collapse the lot for a full-width read. And the shortcuts you'd hope for are already there:

04 — where we stand

A few things we've decided not to budge on.

No algorithm.

Your feed is the sources you chose, newest first, every feed getting a fair share. Nothing is "surfaced." Nothing is "for you." It already is.

No logins.

Nothing to sign into — not to read, not to sync. Add a feed and start; when you want Lumen on another device, it just follows you. Your setup lives with you.

No selling your attention.

Lumen has no ad model and no appetite for your reading habits. The AI features run on your own key, with your consent, against your rules — nowhere else.

No hostage-taking.

Open standards in, open standards out. If a better reader comes along someday, your OPML export is one click away. We intend to make sure it doesn't.

The next tab you open could be the best thing you read today.

No install, no account, no waiting. Open Lumen in your browser and add your first feed in under a minute.

Open the web app
Open the web app