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What Is a Cloud Library

A library lives only on your own computer by default — if the app isn’t running or the machine is offline, nothing can search it. A cloud library is a copy of one local library pushed to Linkly AI’s servers: it stays online around the clock, doesn’t depend on your computer, can be searched directly by any MCP-capable AI tool, and can be shared with other people.

Online Without Your Machine

Your AI assistant can still search the content with the computer shut down and the app closed

Shareable

Publish it openly, or invite specific people by email

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How This Differs from Remote Access

The two features have similar names but solve opposite problems, which makes them easy to confuse: A quick way to decide: want ChatGPT to read all the documents on your computer → use remote access; want one specific set of material to be online permanently and usable by others → use a cloud library. The two work fine side by side.

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When to Use It

  • You need it available around the clock: on your phone, while traveling, or with the computer switched off
  • You’re supplying material to a team or client: turn product docs, specs, or a case library into one shareable library
  • You’re publishing a knowledge base: a curated collection anyone can search with their own AI assistant
  • You use several machines: push once, search everywhere, without re-indexing on every computer

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Create and Push (Owner’s View)

A cloud library starts as an empty shell created on the web, which you then fill by pushing local content from the desktop app.
1

Create a cloud library on the web

Sign in at linkly.ai, go to Dashboard → My Libraries, and click New (direct link: https://linkly.ai/libraries/new).The first time you create one, you’ll be asked to set a username — a cloud library’s address looks like linkly.ai/<username>/<slug>, so the account needs a unique username.Fill in the New cloud library form:
  • Library title: the display name, in any language you like
  • Slug: the segment that appears in the address — 6–60 characters, lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only
  • Description (optional): one line on who the library is for and what’s in it
  • Category: makes the library easier to discover; changeable at any time
  • Visibility: see Sharing with Others below
2

Bind it in the desktop app

Once it’s created you’ll see a Bind in Linkly Desktop button, which launches the desktop app.If nothing launches, use Copy library URL on the page and bind manually in the desktop app: open Settings → Libraries, select the local library you want to push, click Already created one? Paste the library URL in the Cloud Library panel, paste it in, and click Bind.
Binding is a one-to-one relationship between a local library and a cloud library. The cloud library is a copy of the local one, and the local side is the source of truth.
3

Push the content

After binding, the Cloud Library panel shows how many documents are waiting to be pushed. Click Push to start uploading — you can pause, resume, and inspect processing details along the way, and clicking again after an interruption resumes from where it stopped.When the push finishes, the card reads Synced to cloud along with the document count. Whenever you add or change something locally, the card switches to Local has changes — push once more and you’re up to date.
4

Turn on auto sync (recommended)

Switch on Auto sync in the Cloud Library panel and the app checks for changes every 5 minutes and pushes them for you, so there’s nothing left to click.

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Unbinding

Choose Unbind this cloud library from the menu in the library’s Cloud Library panel and the local side stops pushing. Content already in the cloud is kept, and you can re-bind at any time. To delete the cloud copy entirely, go to the library’s settings page on the web → Danger zone → delete the library. Deleting also clears the files, invitations, stars, and everyone’s links — it cannot be undone.

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Linking a Library (User’s View)

Before an AI assistant can search a cloud library, you have to link it to your account: open the library’s web address and click the Link button in the top-right corner. The button turns into Linked when it succeeds.
Even a library you created yourself has to be linked once. What MCP can search is decided by the link relationship, not by ownership — an unlinked library is invisible to your AI assistant, even if it’s your own.
A link is a relationship between your account and that library, independent of the owner:
  • The owner can see who has linked their library (library settings → Users)
  • You can click again at any time to unlink, which doesn’t affect the library itself
  • Each link occupies one slot: free accounts get 1, Pro gets 99

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Using It with an AI Assistant

Cloud libraries are exposed for retrieval through Linkly AI’s cloud MCP gateway, at a fixed endpoint:
When adding it in an AI client, name the server linkly-ai-cloud. That name keeps it distinct from linkly-ai, the local desktop app — the two can be configured at the same time without interfering, whereas sharing one name means they overwrite each other.

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Three Ways to Connect

Claude Code, for example:
API keys are created in the API Keys section of the dashboard and start with lkai_. For the exact configuration format per client, see the Integration Guide.
Don’t feel like configuring it by hand? Click Use in AI on any cloud library page and send the line from the dialog to your AI assistant — it will read the setup guide and walk you through the whole thing.

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How to Specify a Library

A cloud library’s identifier looks like cloud://<owner>/<slug> — the same two segments that appear in the web address:
list_libraries lists every library you’ve linked, along with its exact identifier.
Every search has to name the library explicitly. Leave the library parameter out and the request is routed to your own machine by default (through the remote tunnel), and the tunnel is a Pro feature — free accounts get an error straight away. Cloud libraries are never pulled in implicitly: name the one you want, and call twice if you want to search two.
You don’t need to remember any of this syntax when talking to an AI assistant — just name the library:

Search a Cloud Library

“Search the blueeon/linkly-init-example cloud library for material about RAG”

See Which Libraries You Have

“List the libraries I’ve linked”

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Using It in the Desktop App

If you have the Linkly AI desktop app, cloud libraries work with no MCP configuration at all:
  • Open Settings → Libraries; the Connected cloud libraries section lists every library you’ve linked, with a per-library toggle for whether it’s available in Chat
  • Mention a cloud library with @ in the app’s Chat and you can search it just like a local library
This section is read-only — linking and unlinking both happen on the web. If the list is empty, go link a library on the web first.

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Sharing with Others

A cloud library has three visibility levels, switchable at any time on the library settings page: Inviting people: go to the library settings page → Sharing and send an invitation to their email address. Once accepted, they become a reader and can link and search the library from their own account.
Tightening visibility (Public → Private, for example) immediately removes the links and stars of everyone who isn’t a reader, and cannot be undone. Readers who have accepted an invitation are always kept. The page spells out exactly how many relationships will be cleared before you confirm.

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Quotas and Limits

Libraries created on a free account can only be Private, meaning only you and the people you invite can use them. Publishing openly or building a showcase library requires an upgrade to Pro. Hitting a quota doesn’t affect what’s already there — existing libraries and documents you’ve already pushed are untouched; you just can’t create anything new.

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FAQ

Only the libraries you explicitly push are uploaded. Document text, vectors, and metadata are encrypted in transit and at rest on the server, and visibility is entirely under your control — Private by default. When you no longer want the content in the cloud, deleting the cloud library removes all of it.
Not in real time. By default you click Push yourself; with Auto sync turned on, the app checks for changes every 5 minutes and pushes them automatically. The cloud copy mirrors the local one, and the direction is one-way — content can’t be edited in the cloud.
The usual reason is that Link was never clicked. Search scope follows the link relationship rather than ownership, so your own libraries need one click on Link on the library page too.
You’re most likely connected to the local MCP server (127.0.0.1:60606, server name linkly-ai). Cloud libraries are unreachable on that path. Add a separate connection to the cloud gateway: URL https://mcp.linkly.ai/mcp, server name linkly-ai-cloud. The two can coexist.
No. Unbinding only stops pushing; the cloud content is kept and you can re-bind at any time. To delete the cloud copy, you have to do it explicitly on the web, under the library settings page → Danger zone.
No. Creation and linking are two separate quotas: someone else’s library only takes up one of your link slots and never counts toward the libraries you can create.

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Further reading