June 12, 20263 min read

Why We Built anchor.md: Local-First Context for LLMs

“The story behind building a zero-dependencies context standard that works with Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini without vendor lock-in.”

Every week, a new AI tool launches claiming to optimize developer context. They want you to install heavy browser extensions, sync your codebase to their clouds, or pay monthly subscriptions.

But developers don't want another SaaS subscription or vendor lock-in. We want tools that:

  • Live inside our repository.
  • Work offline.
  • Can be read and modified with plain text editors.
  • Version-controlled via Git.

That is why we built anchor.md.