Omphalis

Omphalis is a workspace for understanding. It's built for what you do with a source once you've saved it: working through a difficult paper, putting several sources together on one topic, or picking up a question where you left it.

Bring in what you're working from. Omphalis takes web articles and newsletters, PDFs, EPUBs and Word documents, podcast episodes and YouTube videos, plus your own notes and voice notes. Save a link from the browser extension or your phone's share sheet, upload a file, or subscribe to Substack or any publication with a feed. Everything sits together in one Library.

A difficult paper. Columns, footnotes and figures are pulled into one reading order, and a section map shows how the piece is laid out. Some passages carry a dotted underline: a term defined, a claim traced to its source, an idea expanded. Open one and the explanation appears beside the passage, written for it from the text around it. Highlight any part you don't follow and an explanation opens beside it, so you never leave the piece to look it up.

A topic across several sources. Put the pieces in a notebook and ask one question. The answer says what each source contributes, and every point links to the passage it came from. You can ask about one piece, a notebook or your whole Library, and in the web app you can ask out loud.

An open question. Highlight the line that matters and write what you mean to do next. The note stays with the highlight, your notes are grouped by source and searchable, and each one opens the piece at that passage. Export is on every plan.

Who it's for: researchers, students, writers, podcasters and pastors who work from sources they need to understand, and anyone who wants to check where an answer came from.

Omphalis runs in any modern browser and in the iPhone and Android apps, all sharing one Library. The Chrome and Firefox extensions bring the clean reading view and section map to the page you're on.

There's a free plan. Reading your Library and writing notes never draw on its allowance. On the free plan, PDFs are saved but not opened as a readable page. Reading PDFs comes with the trial and paid plans: 30-day trial, no card required, with 600 comprehension units, 200 Ask voice minutes and 15 assistant answers a day.