16-1 Basic Usage 🧰

If 16 AI Agent covers "what this is," from here on it's "how to squeeze 200% out of it." Let's start with the fundamentals you should learn first! (Desktop only)

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The agent isn't a 'chatbot' — it's a 'worker'

The ObsiKO agent isn't a chatbot that just talks — it's a worker that reads and writes files directly in your vault. Understanding that difference is how you get 200% out of it.

1. "Make me one" becomes a file, "let me ask" stays in chat 📄💬

• Ask it to produce a deliverable, like "organize ○○ / write me a draft / turn this into a table" → it saves a clean .md file instead of sprawling across the chat, and just gives you a one-line summary.
• Short questions or explanations, like "what is this?" or "how do I do this?", just get answered in chat.
• So if you need a deliverable, be explicit with your verb — ask it to "write it / make it / organize it."

2. Hand it reference material 📎

• Drag and drop vault notes, images, PDFs, or files from your computer into the chat box, and it's like saying "read this and take it into account." Multiple files are fine too.
• Attaching a file saves tokens and improves accuracy compared to pasting long content directly into the chat.
• Attached files serve as 'supporting material' for that conversation. (See readable file formats for which formats it can read.)

3. Choosing your engine 🧠

• Click the engine button (✨) in the tool row below the input box — the menu opens upward — and pick Claude / Gemini / Codex.
• Scanned-PDF OCR and image viewing are Claude-only; most other research and search tools work with all three.
• Even for the same request, each engine has a slightly different tone and strengths. If you get stuck, try switching engines! → engine details in 16 AI Agent

4. Continuing the conversation 🔄

• If it didn't finish in one go, say "keep going" to continue.
• The clock button at the top of the panel lets you fully restore a past conversation (handy for picking a topic back up).

5. Slash commands ⚡

• Type just / in the input box to see helpers by category (writing, study, research, structuring, etc.).
• Create a markdown file in your vault to add your own custom commands. There are two folders — .claude/commands/ (desktop agent only, Claude Code compatible) and _ObsiKO/commands/ (desktop plus phone/web chat). To use one everywhere, put it in _ObsiKO/commands/ (if both have the same name, this one wins).
• See 16 AI Agent for the full command list, and 16-3 Writing & Composition for writing commands.

6. Safeguards 🛡️

• The agent only operates inside the current vault. ObsiKO blocks it from touching files outside the vault or running dangerous commands.
• When it edits a file, the tree refreshes to show it, and it won't carelessly overwrite a file you're actively editing (unsaved) — you get a warning first.
• A safety net for reverting: if you don't like what the AI changed, use the clock icon (AI Change History) in the right sidebar to compare before/after and revert per run (per file or the whole run, for all three engines). → 16 AI Agent

Tips for getting more out of it 🍯

• The more specific your request, the better the result. Instead of "organize this," try "organize this based on ○○, in △△ format, with sources cited."
• Specify the output format — "as a table," "as a list," "within 300 characters," "as a checklist."
• If it stops partway, say "keep going" — long tasks proceed in stages.
• Token-saving mode (panel options ≡ menu, on by default): answers concisely by default, but say "in detail / deeply / at length" and it'll give you a longer answer.
• Self-review loop (Claude, panel options ≡ → 'Loop'): every time the agent saves a note, it checks and fixes its own syntax, then does a final check when done. If quality matters most, turn on the critic loop too, and for it to keep at it until the end, turn on infinite attempts (comes with a token warning). → 16 AI Agent
• Free external tools (pandoc, whisper, yt-dlp, poppler) only show a one-line install tip when you ask for that specific feature. You don't need to install them ahead of time. (Transcription works without whisper too — with an OpenAI/Gemini API key it goes through the cloud; whisper is optional!)
• If you don't like the result, just ask again in one line — like "shorter / simpler / add an example / change the tone."

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