Open SourceOffline FirstmacOS & Android
What if the internet disappeared tomorrow?
Preserve, access, and share human knowledge using the devices you already own. No cloud dependency. No internet required to access downloaded content.
The problem
Most of what we know how to do now lives on remote servers, reached through networks we don't control. That works — until it doesn't.
Keeping local copies of essential information is a simple, old idea: libraries have done it for centuries. The internet shouldn't be the only place knowledge lives.
Courses, textbooks and reference sites stop working the moment a connection drops.
Repair guides and manuals increasingly live only online — out of reach exactly when something breaks.
Technical documentation moves, gets paywalled, or disappears when a company or website does.
Without connectivity, getting the same information to a group of people is slow and unreliable.
The approach
Your library. Your device. No internet required.
Keep local copies of encyclopedias, books, maps and manuals on a device you control. Nothing depends on a remote server staying online.
Read everything in an ordinary web browser, with no internet connection. Search Wikipedia, open books, browse maps.
Nearby phones, laptops and tablets connect over local Wi-Fi and read the same library — no app to install.
How it works
A Mac, or a 64-bit Android phone or tablet with Termux. Readers only need a web browser, so older phones can still be useful.
While you're online, download the collections you want — Wikipedia, maps, books, manuals — and organise them into sections.
Start the library. Use it on the device itself, or turn on a hotspot so others nearby can read it too.
Supported platforms
Both platforms run the same open-source server. Here's exactly what has been tested on each — and what hasn't yet.
Run the full library on a Mac and share it with devices on the same Wi-Fi.
Turn a phone or tablet into a portable library that nearby devices reach over its hotspot.
Use cases
An old phone can still be useful. So can a library that never needs a signal.
Reference material for classrooms with limited or expensive connectivity.
A shared local library where the network is slow, costly or absent.
Your own copy of the material you rely on, under your control.
Outages happen. Useful information shouldn't go down with the network.
Maps, guides and encyclopedias that work in the field, on a single device.
One device serves a room — a workshop, a clinic, a community hall.
Open source
RTW is community-driven and built in the open. It stands on proven projects — Kiwix, OpenStreetMap, nginx — instead of reinventing them, and it's meant to be extended.
Build your offline library today. Make it available when it matters.
Preserve what we know · Share what we've learned · Keep knowledge alive