SurfSense
Website
Air-gapped, privacy-focused, open-source NotebookLM alternative. AI agent that researches, transforms, and edits your documents. Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/ejRNvftDp9
Is SurfSense safe? Promising trust profile, but some evidence still deserves review.
Compare SurfSense
How does it stack up against its Research & Data neighbours?
Pick any agent to compare →In detail: SurfSense scores 56.6/100 (Grade C), ranked #759 of 1371 tracked open-source AI agent projects, on evidence coverage C (2 of 5 independent signal types). The public evidence: no package-provenance attestation found; OSSF Scorecard rates its supply-chain practices 4.7/10; 20% of recent commits are signed; last pushed 2026-10-10. Every point is earned from checkable signals — never paid placement. How scoring works →
How SurfSense could raise its score
Each line changes one public signal and recomputes with the live scoring function. The gains don't add up exactly, because the score is capped near the top.
- Raise the OSSF Scorecard from 4.7 to 9.0lowest checks: CII-Best-Practices 0, Dependency-Update-Tool 0, Fuzzing 0 +8.9 → 65.5 B · #10 of 37
- Sign every commit20% signed today +4.0 → 60.6 C · #15 of 37
Chain of custody
Scanners check what the code says. This traces who ships SurfSense and whether that has changed: from the source repository, through how changes are reviewed and released, to the code you run. These are the checks for OWASP ASI04 Agentic Supply Chain Vulnerabilities.
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Source Partly signed
github.com/MODSetter/SurfSense, NOASSERTION, last pushed 2026-10-10. 20% of the last 100 commits carry a verified signature; the rest can't be tied to a verified identity.
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Review and release Mixed
OpenSSF Scorecard rates the repository's practices 4.7/10 (scanned Oct 11, 2026). The checks that decide who can get a change released:
- Code Review6
- Branch Protection3
- Signed Releases0
- Dangerous Workflow10
- Token Permissions0
- Pinned Dependencies0
All 18 Scorecard checks
Binary-Artifacts 10Branch-Protection 3CI-Tests 10CII-Best-Practices 0Code-Review 6Contributors 10Dangerous-Workflow 10Dependency-Update-Tool 0Fuzzing 0License 9Maintained 10Packaging 10Pinned-Dependencies 0SAST 0Security-Policy 10Signed-Releases 0Token-Permissions 0Vulnerabilities 0 -
Published packages None
No registry package. SurfSense is used from its repository, so what you run is whatever you check out: pin a release tag or commit.
Changes to this chain
- 2026-07-14 OSSF Scorecard: 4.1/10
Evidence behind this score
Coverage C: 2 of 5 independent evidence types found.
- GitHub repository data
- Package downloads (missing)
- Supply-chain checks
- Public actions (missing)
- Community mentions (missing)
Verify this score yourself
Every build re-issues SurfSense’s score as an Ed25519-signed credential, valid for 7 days. You can check it offline against HVTracker’s published key; if anyone changes a number after signing, verification fails.
What this score doesn’t check
It covers who ships the code, not what the code does. It doesn’t read tool descriptions or prompts for injected instructions, watch runtime behaviour, or find bugs nobody has disclosed yet. For that, run a content scanner before you connect it, such as Cisco MCP Scanner or Snyk Agent Scan.
How SurfSense compares in Research & Data
- #16 OpenResearch 57.9 +1.3
- #17 llm-for-zotero 56.8 +0.2
- #18 SurfSense 56.6 this agent
- #19 Lumibot 56.3 −0.3
- #20 FinRobot 55.8 −0.8
Bars show each HVTrust score; the tick marks SurfSense’s 56.6.
Where the 56.6 comes from
HVTrust dimensions vs the Research & Data average
56.6 / 100 · 100.0% confidenceSurfSense Research & Data average (37 agents)
Quick Trust Read
How to read this: HVTrust (0–100) weighs supply-chain signals (provenance, OSSF Scorecard, signed commits, open license) alongside real-world adoption. Grade C reflects the trust score band: A ≥ 80, B ≥ 65, C ≥ 50, D < 50. Evidence coverage C is separate — it grades how many independent signal types back the score (2 of 5), so a high score on thin evidence stays visible. Full methodology →
Rank Trend
Activity & Reach
Analysis
Activity Inputs
90.1 / 100Common questions about SurfSense
Does SurfSense publish package provenance?
Does SurfSense have an OpenSSF Scorecard?
Is SurfSense actively maintained?
What license does SurfSense use?
Are SurfSense's commits signed?
Not a safety endorsement. HVTracker describes what public signals show, not whether a project is safe for your use case. Run your own security review before adopting in production.
AI agent surface
MCP, providers, tool surface
These runtime-trust fields — detected from public repo docs and manifests — contribute a bounded adjustment to this project's HVTrust score alongside supply-chain evidence. The exact values each field can add or subtract are documented in the methodology → Compare this surface across every listed agent in the capability matrix →
- database
- MCP signal live
- External deps live
- Tool / plugin surface live
- Package provenance drift live
Detected changes to SurfSense's runtime surface and supply-chain posture, from daily public-signal snapshots. A change here means our detectors see something different — a genuinely changed capability, or better evidence of an existing one.
Maintain SurfSense?
For maintainers
HVTrust scores SurfSense from public signals only — we never contact maintainers first. If a signal is wrong, stale, or missing (provenance you publish, a Scorecard you run, signed releases), tell us and we'll review it. Corrections are public and tracked on GitHub.
Reputation Timeline
Signal history
Embed Badge Badge guide for maintainers →
For maintainers
[](https://hvtracker.net/agents/surfsense)
<a href="https://hvtracker.net/agents/surfsense"><img src="https://hvtracker.net/badge/surfsense.svg" alt="HVTrust"></a>
Other agents in Research & Data
GitHub REST API (repo, commits, stars, forks, license) · OpenSSF Scorecard CLI
Each agent's signals refresh once daily across 6 staggered batches. Methodology v4.4 · Raw JSON