"More than storage — it's your digital shelf."
A local-first file workspace powered by your own Telegram account.
Open-source. Free to use. No third-party servers. Your files never leave your control.
"Your Saved Messages becomes your personal storage. Shelf Drive turns it into a clean, organized drive for all your files."
— Shelf Drive Onboarding Tour
Telegram gives every user unlimited cloud storage through Saved Messages and channels. Shelf Drive transforms that raw storage into a polished, organized workspace — with folders, search, streaming, sync, sharing, and a beautiful frosted-glass interface — all running locally on your device with no relay servers in between.
Think of it as your personal Google Drive, except the storage is Telegram's, the app is open-source, and everything runs on your machine.
| Feature | What It Does | |
|---|---|---|
| 📁 | File Management | Grid & list views, drag-and-drop, multi-select, bulk actions, folders, search, sort |
| 🚀 | Transfers | Durable upload/download queues that survive restarts, pause/resume, bandwidth controls |
| 🎬 | Media Streaming | Built-in video player with HLS/fMP4 streaming, audio player, image preview with zoom |
| 📄 | Document Viewer | PDF viewer, archive browser (ZIP/RAR/7z), Continue Watching shelf |
| 🔄 | Folder Sync | Bidirectional sync between a local directory and a Telegram channel |
| 🔗 | Sharing | Password-protected download links, QR codes, Telegram message links |
| 🌐 | REST API & WebDAV | Access your files programmatically or mount them as a network drive |
| 🔐 | Encryption | Optional TDENC2 envelope encryption with vault passphrase and recovery bundles |
| 📦 | Offline Packs | Download collections for trips — watch and browse without internet |
| 🎨 | 15 Themes | Dark, light, AMOLED, Nord, Monokai, Forest, Plum, and more — or create your own |
| 🌍 | 24 Languages | English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and 16 more |
| ♿ | Accessibility | WCAG 4.5:1 contrast enforcement, reduced motion support, screen reader tested |
The desktop dashboard — frosted cyan glass design with sidebar navigation, file grid, and built-in media playback.
📸 More Desktop Screenshots
| Login Screen | Dark Mode Grid | Video Playback |
|---|---|---|
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| Folder List | Image Preview | Audio Playback |
|---|---|---|
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| Upload Progress | Folder Creation | Auth Screen |
|---|---|---|
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| Platform | Download | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | .exe Installer |
Windows 10+ (NSIS installer, auto-updates) |
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | .dmg |
M1/M2/M3/M4, macOS 11+ |
| macOS (Intel) | .dmg |
macOS 11+ |
| Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) | .deb |
Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+ |
| Linux (Fedora/RHEL) | .rpm |
Fedora 38+, RHEL 9+ |
| Linux (AppImage) | .AppImage |
Any distro with FUSE |
| Linux (Arch) | .pacman |
Arch Linux, Manjaro |
"Private folders, built in. Shelf Drive uses private Telegram channels to keep your folders organized and accessible only to you."
— Shelf Drive Onboarding Tour
Shelf Drive is built with a zero-trust, local-first architecture:
- 🔒 No relay servers — Your files travel directly between your device and Telegram's servers via MTProto encryption. No third-party infrastructure touches your data.
- 🎧 Encrypted streaming — TDENC2-protected audio, video, and PDF content can stream.
- 🗝️ Credentials stay local — Your API hash is stored in your OS keychain (Windows Credential Manager, macOS Keychain, or Linux Secret Service). It never leaves your machine.
- 🛡️ Optional encryption — Enable TDENC2 envelope encryption to add a vault passphrase on top of Telegram's built-in encryption. Per-file passphrases and recovery bundle export are supported.
- 📜 Open source — Every line of code is auditable. The Rust backend, React frontend, and all IPC boundaries are fully transparent.
- 🔏 Signed updates — Desktop releases are signed with a public key embedded in the app. The signature is verified before installation.
- 🚫 No analytics by default — Crash reporting is opt-in only, with a clear consent dialog on first launch.
For the full security policy, see SECURITY.md. For the privacy policy, see PRIVACY.md.
Getting started takes under 2 minutes. You need a free Telegram API ID — no paid services, no subscriptions.
- Go to my.telegram.org and log in with your phone number
- Click "API development tools"
- Fill in the form (app title and short name can be anything)
- Copy your API ID and API Hash
- Download and install Shelf Drive for your platform (see Download above)
- Launch the app — you'll see the welcome screen
- Enter your API ID and API Hash
- Authenticate with your Telegram account (phone number + code, or QR scan)
- You're in! Your Saved Messages files appear automatically.
💡 Tip: When you first sign in, Shelf Drive shows a guided tour explaining how Telegram storage becomes your organized drive. Pay attention to the three steps — "Telegram becomes your cloud", "Private folders, built in", and "Everything in one place".
Shelf Drive runs entirely on your device. There is no backend service, no cloud relay, and no account to create.
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Your device runs the React + Tauri frontend — the UI you interact with. Available on desktop (Windows, macOS, and Linux).
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Shelf Drive Core is the Rust backend running locally inside the Tauri container. It manages a SQLite database for file metadata, runs a local REST API and WebDAV server for integrations, and handles the streaming engine for media playback.
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Telegram Cloud is the storage backend. Your Saved Messages becomes your root drive. Private channels become your folders. Files are stored, retrieved, and streamed directly via the MTProto protocol — encrypted end-to-end by Telegram.
📂 File Management
- Grid and list views with adjustable card sizing (50% to 200%)
- Virtualized rendering via TanStack Virtual for smooth scrolling with thousands of files
- Drag-and-drop uploads, folder organization, and file reordering
- Multi-select with Ctrl+click, Shift+click range selection, and bulk actions
- Filename search with debounced input and highlighted results
- Persistent sorting by name, date, size, or type
- Whole-folder uploads with optional ZIP compression
- Remote URL uploads — paste a URL and Shelf Drive downloads it to your storage
- Context menus with keyboard shortcut hints
🚀 Transfer Engine
- Durable queues — uploads and downloads survive app restarts
- Independent concurrency controls — set separate limits for uploads and downloads
- Bandwidth throttling — cap upload/download speed to keep your connection usable
- Pause, resume, retry, cancel — full control over every transfer
- Background operation — minimize to system tray and transfers continue
- Native OS notifications — get notified when transfers complete
- Telegram flood-wait handling — automatic backoff and retry when Telegram rate-limits
🎬 Media & Documents
- Video streaming with HLS and fragmented MP4, adaptive quality
- Audio player with waveform visualization
- Image preview with pinch-to-zoom and pan
- PDF viewer powered by PDF.js
- Archive browser — browse ZIP, RAR, and 7z contents without downloading
- Continue Watching shelf — pick up where you left off
- Playback history tracking across sessions
- Offline trip packs — download collections for offline access
🔄 Folder Sync
- Bidirectional sync between a local directory and a Telegram channel
- Conflict resolution with visual diff preview
- Safety guards — sync plan preview before execution, with undo window
- File watcher — automatic detection of local changes via OS filesystem events
- Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux
See the full Sync Guide for configuration details.
🔗 Sharing & Integrations
- Password-protected local download links — share files with anyone on your network
- QR code generation for quick mobile access
- Telegram message links — jump to the original Telegram message
- REST API — full programmatic access to your files (API Documentation)
- WebDAV server — mount your Telegram storage as a network drive (WebDAV Guide)
🎨 Themes & Personalization
15 built-in presets designed with WCAG 4.5:1 contrast enforcement:
| Dark Themes | Light Themes |
|---|---|
| Default Dark (Frosted Cyan) | Default Light |
| Charcoal | Solarized Light |
| Nord | Paper |
| Monokai | Rose |
| Cyber Teal | Mint |
| AMOLED | Sky |
| Ocean | |
| Forest | |
| Plum |
Create your own theme with the built-in theme engine — pick colors and the engine automatically enforces accessible contrast ratios.
🌍 Language Support
Shelf Drive speaks 24 languages with locale-aware dates, numbers, file sizes, and full RTL support:
| Language | Native Name | Language | Native Name | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | English | Indonesian | Bahasa Indonesia | |
| Spanish | Español | Filipino | Filipino (Pilipinas) | |
| French | Français | Turkish | Türkçe | |
| German | Deutsch | Thai | ไทย (ประเทศไทย) | |
| Italian | Italiano | Japanese | 日本語 | |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Português (Brasil) | Korean | 한국어 | |
| Russian | Русский | Vietnamese | Tiếng Việt | |
| Ukrainian | Українська | Chinese (Simplified) | 简体中文 | |
| Polish | Polski | Chinese (Traditional) | 繁體中文 | |
| Arabic | العربية | Malay | Bahasa Melayu | |
| Persian | فارسی | Bengali | বাংলা (বাংলাদেশ) | |
| Hindi | हिन्दी | Urdu | اردو |
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Search files | Ctrl + K |
| Upload files | Ctrl + U |
| Create folder | Ctrl + N |
| Toggle view (grid/list) | Ctrl + Shift + V |
| Select all | Ctrl + A |
| Delete selected | Delete |
| Open settings | Ctrl + , |
| Zoom in/out | Ctrl + + / Ctrl + - |
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/hellocloudwebdev/shelf-drive.git
cd shelf-drive/app
# Install frontend dependencies
npm install
# Run in development mode (hot-reload)
npm run tauri dev
# Build for production
npm run tauri build| Layer | Technology | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend | React 19, TypeScript 5.8, Tailwind CSS 4 | UI components and styling |
| Animations | Framer Motion | Smooth transitions and gestures |
| State | TanStack Query, React Context | Server state and app state |
| Bundler | Vite 7 | Fast builds and hot module replacement |
| Desktop Framework | Tauri 2 | Native desktop container with web frontend |
| Backend | Rust (Tokio async runtime) | High-performance local services |
| Telegram | Grammers (MTProto client) | Direct Telegram API communication |
| Local Server | Actix Web | REST API and WebDAV endpoints |
| Database | SQLite | File metadata and workspace state |
| Encryption | XChaCha20-Poly1305 + Argon2 | Optional file-level encryption |
| Internationalization | i18next | 24-locale support with RTL |
| Testing | Vitest, Playwright, Testing Library | Unit, integration, and visual regression |
Shelf Drive is free and open-source. Every feature works without payment.
If you find it useful, consider a $5 one-time lifetime supporter license — it removes sponsor placements and helps fund continued development.
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.
Before submitting a PR, make sure the following pass:
npm run test # Unit tests
npm run build:verify # Build + bundle budget check
npm run i18n:check # Locale validation| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| REST API Documentation | Full API reference for programmatic file access |
| WebDAV Guide | Mount your storage as a network drive |
| Sync Guide | Bidirectional folder sync configuration |
| Privacy Policy | What data is and isn't collected |
| Security Policy | Vulnerability reporting and security model |
| Changelog | Version history and release notes |
Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.
Shelf Drive
More than storage — it's your digital shelf.
Built with ❤️ by Neeraj Singh
Website · Releases · Issues
"Telegram becomes your cloud. Shelf Drive turns it into a clean, organized drive for all your files."
"Photos, videos, documents, and more — organized, searchable, and available wherever you use Shelf Drive."