OmniGet

OmniGet: A Deep Dive into the Free, Open-Source Path to Offline Learning

Loop, the OmniGet mascot

OmniGet is more than a downloader. It’s a free, open-source desktop application designed to bring online courses and books into one focused, local workspace. From the moment you start it, OmniGet invites you to download content and then actually study it—without jumping between apps or streaming services. It puts the course videos, books, notes, flashcards, and progress tracking all on your computer, accessible offline, with a clean, cohesive experience. The project’s aesthetic is bright, practical, and purpose-built for learning, with a lovable mascot called Loop guiding users along the way. The home screen presents a calm, library-like interface that centers on your personal learning library.

OmniGet home screen

Getting to Know OmniGet: What It Is and What It Isn’t

OmniGet positions itself as an all-in-one offline learning companion. Its creators emphasize a few guiding principles:

• You download once, you own the file. There’s no cloud lock-in; your content lives on your device.
• The app starts as a downloader but quickly becomes a full learning environment: video playback, reading, note-taking, flashcards, and progress tracking all within a single window.
• It targets popular sources of online courses (Hotmart, Udemy, Kiwify, Skool, Teachable, and others) and common book formats (PDF, EPUB, CBZ), plus a practical approach to media and file management.
• It respects privacy and locality: no obligatory uploads or external syncing by default, with flexible options for local databases and optional integrations.

The broad goal is straightforward: empower learners to study online content offline, conveniently, and in a way that respects ownership and organization.

A Visual Identity to Match the Experience

The Loop mascot serves as a friendly, memorable symbol for OmniGet. It signals accessibility, approachability, and a looping, continuous learning journey. The hardware-like efficiency you’ll experience in the app—downloading in the background, then immediately turning downloaded folders into study-worthy courses—feels aligned with Loop’s practical spirit. The logo and visuals emphasize clarity and focus: a tool you can trust to help you actually learn, not just download.

Cross-Platform Availability: Where You Can Run OmniGet

OmniGet is built to be practical on the devices most learners already use. It is available across major desktop platforms with lightweight distribution formats:

• Windows: Portable .exe that runs without a traditional installer, designed for quick setup and background updates.
• macOS: A .dmg package for straightforward installation, with smooth updates to keep features current.
• Linux: Flatpak packaging, enabling easy installation across distributions while keeping dependencies isolated and manageable.

What you can do with OmniGet (Three Key Experiences to Start)

Three simple starting points show the breadth of what OmniGet can do beyond download:

• Download an online course and study inside the app: pick a course from supported platforms (Hotmart, Udemy, Kiwify, Gumroad, Teachable, Kajabi, Skool, Wondrium, Thinkific, Rocketseat), and watch every lesson without leaving OmniGet.
• Open a PDF or EPUB and read with advanced tools: bookmarks, highlights, focus mode, and a robust note system turn a static file into an interactive study experience.
• Paste a video link and extract an MP4 for offline viewing: YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other sites can be captured, stored, and watched inside the same interface.

Beyond these, OmniGet offers a spectrum of features that can surprise first-time users—torrents and P2P transfers, FFmpeg-based conversions, a Telegram chat browser, a browser extension, global hotkeys, and more. There are even additional extras designed to support study habits and personal knowledge management.

Watch Courses Inside OmniGet: A Built-In Media and Notes Studio

The core promise of OmniGet is to treat downloaded course material as a living, navigable learning experience. The built-in viewer tracks your progress and enriches content with interactive elements.

• Library and course lists: The Library aggregates downloaded courses into a tidy catalog, presenting covers, progress indicators, and a clear path to each lesson. You can tag, group, and filter courses to avoid a cluttered horizon of materials.
• Inside a lesson:
• Video player: Playback speed is flexible (0.5× to 2×). Keyboard shortcuts, fullscreen, picture-in-picture, and a theater mode create a cinema-like distraction-free environment. An autoplay toggle can advance to the next lesson with a brief five-second grace period you can cancel.
• Auto-resume: The player picks up exactly where you left off, even if you closed the app or switched tasks.
• Subtitles: If the course provides .vtt subtitle files, you can enable them for accessibility and comprehension.
• Notes pinned to timestamps: As you watch, you can attach notes to precise moments. The notes support Markdown, and you can click a note to jump directly to the associated timestamp.
• Attachments panel: The side panel previews PDFs, images, text, and code files included with the course, so you can view related materials without leaving the lesson.
• Lesson descriptions: Some courses include descriptive text for context; OmniGet presents these where available.
• Continue watching on the home screen: A dynamic view of the last courses you opened helps you resume with a few clicks.
• The Library’s organizational power:
• Tags and collections: Group related courses by topic (e.g., engineering, design) to keep your library navigable.
• Status filters: Distinguish between not started, in progress, and completed courses, enabling a sense of momentum.
• Health checks: The app can flag zero-byte videos, missing files, and orphan attachments to keep your library clean.
• Local data, persistent progress: All annotations and progress live in a local database, while the course folders on disk stay untouched. This means you can move folders, back them up, or open files later in other players (like VLC) without losing your place.

Reading PDFs and EPUBs Inside OmniGet: A Comprehensive Reading Studio

Beyond video, OmniGet shines as a robust document reader for PDFs, EPUBs, CBZ, TXT, and HTML. It’s a complete reading environment that runs entirely locally.

• The library for documents:
• Auto-extract covers from PDF, EPUB, and CBZ when scanning folders, so your library looks polished from the start.
• ISBN metadata lookup: The app fills in the title, author, publisher, and a clean cover, helping your library stay readable and organized.
• Filters and sorts: Filter by reading status (all, reading, finished, favorites) or by format, and sort by title, author, recently added, or last opened.
• Tags and collections: Keep a large collection of books tidy and navigable.
• Multiple library roots: Treat separate folders for technical PDFs and fiction EPUBs as parts of one unified library.
• Inside a book:
• Two reading modes: Paginated (book-like) and scrolling (web-like). This flexibility mirrors how different readers like to consume content.
• Outline and table of contents: Quickly jump to sections within PDFs and EPUBs.
• Bookmarks: With one keystroke, you save bookmarks; a dedicated panel lists all bookmarks for quick navigation.
• Highlights and notes: Highlight passages in multiple colors, with an associated note for each highlight. The notes panel sits next to the page, and you can write in Markdown.
• In-book search: Search across the text with hits shown in context, so you can find where a term appears near a relevant passage.
• Zoom and typography:
  • PDFs support DPI-based zooming for sharper text when needed.
  • EPUBs allow font size and family customization for comfortable reading.
• Reader themes: A variety of themes, including clean white, sepia, dark mode, and paper-like variants to mimic e-ink.
• Cursor line guide: A line that follows your mouse helps with long lines and readability for users with dyslexia.
• Focus mode: Hides all chrome except the page for deep concentration.
• Keyboard navigation and full reading flow: Everything can be controlled via keyboard, minimizing distractions.
• Reading progress tracking: OmniGet logs reading progress automatically, giving you a sense of forward movement.
• Session timer: Log how long you read each day for productivity insights.
• Manga mode for CBZ: A right-to-left page flow option designed for comic formats.
• Annotations travel with files: Your notes and highlights are stored in a local SQLite database and travel with the files when you back up or move your library, ensuring your personal study world remains intact.

Where the Content Comes From: A Practical Download Engine

OmniGet isn’t limited to a single source. It’s designed to adapt to diverse content sources and formats. The “Where you can download from” concept in OmniGet is practical and broad:

• Online courses: Hotmart, Udemy, Kiwify, Gumroad, Teachable, Kajabi, Skool, Wondrium, Thinkific, Rocketseat. If a site is supported by yt-dlp or similar tools, OmniGet can leverage that capability to fetch content.
• Video and audio: YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, Reddit, Twitch, Pinterest, Vimeo, Bluesky, Bilibili. The downloader logic can adapt to the quirks of multimedia sites for offline viewing and archival purposes.
• Asian platforms: Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese variant), Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou, Youku, iQiyi, Tencent Video, Mango TV. OmniGet speaks the language of many regional content ecosystems, broadening what you can collect locally.
• Files and P2P: .torrent and magnet links, plus direct P2P transfers using a short four-word code between two computers. If yt-dlp supports a site, OmniGet can download from it as well.
• The underlying philosophy: The app emphasizes a seamless loop—from link, to preview, to download, to being ready for study. The design expects that you’ll drop a link or a folder and then focus on the learning task at hand.

Extras and Optional Tools: Features You Discover Over Time

OmniGet is built with a modular mindset. There are several features you may find handy as you explore, which are easy to ignore if you don’t need them:

• Pomodoro focus timer: The timer can pause your video when a study session ends, helping you manage study blocks.
• Spaced repetition flashcards: Implemented with SM2 (the same algorithm used by Anki), with .apkg import and AnkiWeb sync options.
• Notes app with knowledge graph: Bi-directional links between pages, a daily journal, templates, and an evolving knowledge graph to map ideas.
• Progress dashboard: A visual overview of progress, including a streak counter, daily goals, a GitHub-style heatmap, and weekly minutes.
• FFmpeg converter: Local file conversion to adapt files for your preferred devices—no internet required for the conversion.
• Telegram chat browser: A built-in means to read your Telegram account and save media from chats.
• Browser extension: Chrome and Firefox extensions allow you to share the current page with OmniGet with one click.
• Global hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+D triggers a download of the URL in your clipboard, streamlining the capture of new content.
• Language and theme options: Eight languages (English, Portuguese, Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, Greek) and 14 themes, including Catppuccin variants (mocha, macchiato, frappé, latte), Dracula, One Dark Pro, NyxVamp, and three e-ink styles.

Important notes about the experience

• The feel of OmniGet is tactile and efficient. Copy a link anywhere, press a global hotkey, and the app quietly handles the download in the background. You can even paste a link into the omnibox, peek at a preview, and initiate download—without opening a separate browser window each time.
• For courses, log in once on the platform, browse your library, and pick what you want. Omniget takes care of downloading and organizing the whole lesson and its attachments.
• For books, drop files into a folder you already use, scan once, and your library discovers covers and metadata automatically. It’s a frictionless transition from file system to book-reading workflow.
• The local-first approach ensures content remains under your control. You can back up or move your library, and you’ll still access your notes, highlights, and progress.

Build from Source: A Note for Developers and Enthusiasts

If you’re a developer or curious about how OmniGet works, the project outlines a straightforward build path:

• Basic steps:
• git clone https://github.com/tonhowtf/omniget.git
• cd omniget
• pnpm install
• pnpm tauri dev
• Prerequisites:
• Rust
• Node.js (version 18+)
• pnpm
• Linux build dependencies (example list): libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev, build-essential, curl, wget, file, libxdo-dev, libssl-dev, libayatana-appindicator3-dev, librsvg2-dev, patchelf.
• Windows and macOS considerations: Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper can prompt users; OmniGet provides guidance on running through these prompts for first-time use.
• Production builds: pnpm tauri build

Contributing to OmniGet

The project embraces community involvement:

• Bug reports or feature ideas: Open an issue on the GitHub repository.
• Pull requests: Welcome and reviewed according to project guidelines.
• Translation and localization: OmniGet is translated through Weblate. You can pick a language, translate in your browser, and Weblate will open a pull request automatically.

A Note on Platform Ownership and Legalities

• If you represent a listed platform and have concerns, you can email tonhowtf@gmail.com from a company address. The project maintains a policy to respond promptly to platform concerns.
• Legal use: OmniGet is meant for personal use. Respect copyright laws and each platform’s terms of service. You are responsible for what you download.
• Licensing: OmniGet is released under the GPL-3.0 license. The OmniGet name, logo, and Loop mascot are project trademarks and are not covered by the code license.

A Final View: Why OmniGet Is Worth Exploring

OmniGet invites you to rethink how you consume online education and reading material. It is a practical, privacy-minded tool that consolidates download, local storage, and study workflows into one cohesive experience. The focus on offline access means you can study without relying on a steady internet connection, and the local database ensures that your progress, highlights, and notes remain under your control. The user interface emphasizes clarity and calm, not overwhelm—an important factor for sustained learning.

If you’re a student, professional upskiller, or lifelong learner who frequently collects courses and books, OmniGet can become your personal learning laboratory. The combination of built-in video playback, robust book reading features, and extensible extras makes it more than a downloader; it’s a learning environment designed to respect your time, attention, and privacy. The Loop mascot stands as a friendly reminder: learning is a journey that loops back to you, every time you open the app.

Images from the Input, Wired into the Narrative

• The Loop mascot image accompanies the opening—an icon of the brand identity and a cue to the friendly, practical experience OmniGet aims to provide.
• The OmniGet home screen image anchors the article in the real interface, illustrating how the library and reading experiences look in practice.

In Short

OmniGet positions itself as a complete, offline-first learning companion: a downloader that becomes a study hub, a reader for PDFs/EPUBs, and a productivity suite for note-taking, flashcards, and progress tracking. It supports a wide range of content sources, emphasizes local control and privacy, and provides a polished, approachable interface with a thoughtful set of features. If your learning habits include collecting courses and books and you want to keep everything organized on your own machine, OmniGet is a project worth exploring. Loop in, download what you need, and start studying—inside a single, cohesive app.