16-8 Chat-only Mode (Mobile & Web) 📱💬

Up to now, the AI Agent was "desktop only," right? Now you can chat with AI on iPhone, iPad, browser, and the Mac App Store version too! Just add an API key and you're off! 🎉

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What is chat-only mode? 🤔

The desktop's full agent is a "worker" that installs and logs into the CLI (command-line tool) for Claude, Gemini, or Codex, and runs tools right on your computer. But you can't install a CLI like that on an iPhone or in a browser.

So chat-only mode skips the CLI and connects directly to each provider's (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI) API for conversation instead (this is called BYOK — Bring Your Own Key).

💡 The desktop app's engine list shows a '(Chat)' entry too. If installing a CLI feels like a hassle, you can use chat mode on desktop as well by just entering an API key.

1. Enter your API key 🔑 (just once!)

1. Click the ≡ (Agent Settings) button at the top of the right-side AI panel.
2. Expand the 'API Keys' section (it's collapsed by default) and paste in a key for whichever engine you'll use — Gemini / Claude / OpenAI.
3. That's it! The key is stored safely — Mac/Windows use the OS keychain (safeStorage), iPhone/iPad encrypt it in the iOS keychain, and Android/web keep it in the app settings. ObsiKO never peeks at your key. 🛡️
4. Bonus: the moment you save a key, that provider's model list refreshes automatically — ObsiKO pulls the latest list from the provider's API and neatly shows only the newest model of each family (no more errors from picking an outdated model! The list also auto-refreshes once a day).

Where do I get a key? (All free to sign up for — you're only billed for what you use) - Claude: console.anthropic.com → API Keys - Gemini: aistudio.google.com/apikey - OpenAI: platform.openai.com/api-keys

Click the '?' help button to get the links above as buttons (on iPhone, they appear as a nice popup in the center of the screen).

⚠️ OpenAI note: your ChatGPT Plus subscription and API usage fees are separate. The API only works once you've topped up prepaid credit in Billing. If you see a "quota" error, check your credit balance.

Token usage shown right away 📊

Right below the key input field, ObsiKO shows the total input/output tokens this app has used calling each provider. Counts are kept separately per provider, and you can reset them with the [Reset] button. (This is separate from the numbers on the provider's own billing dashboard — it's "how much I've used within ObsiKO.")

Claude   [········key········]
         Input 12,345 · Output 6,789 tokens   [Reset]

2. Just ask 💬

Once you've entered a key, you can chat right away like an ordinary AI chat. Replies appear slowly, like a typewriter, which makes them easy to read.

Example prompts - "Explain quantum computing in one paragraph a middle schooler could understand." - "Make this sentence sound more natural: …" - "Summarize the meeting into 5 key points: …"

Under each reply bubble there's a Copy button and a Save as Note button, so you can turn any reply you like straight into a note.

💡 It knows today's date: chat mode always knows the current date, so it answers accurately for questions like "this week," "recently," or "as of today."

⚡ Quick suggestion chips: above the input, chips suggest actions for the note you have open ("Summarize this note," "Find related notes," "Vault topics at a glance"). One tap when you're not sure what to ask!

3. Attach material for it to read 📎

Attach a vault file in the chat (via the reference button or drag-and-drop) or drop a file from outside, and it'll answer based on that.

Readable formats: - Text files: .md · .txt · .csv · .json, etc. - Documents: PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx) — the body text is extracted and read. - Images: see 'Viewing images' below 👀

Examples - Attach a report PDF → "Summarize this PDF in 10 lines or fewer." - Attach a spreadsheet → "Pull out the top 3 months by sales from this table."

⚠️ Note on scanned PDFs: a scanned PDF whose text exists only as an image has no extractable text. In that case ObsiKO will honestly tell you "couldn't extract text (this may be a scan)." (The OCR available in the desktop full agent isn't available in chat mode. However, if you attach it as an image instead, it can still view the page via vision.)

🖼 Viewing images (vision)

Attach an image (png, jpg, gif, webp, etc.) and the model looks at it directly. It can read and explain text in photos, handwriting, tables, screenshots, and charts. (This is on by default, no setup needed.)

Examples - A photo of a whiteboard → "Transcribe what's written on this board." - A photo of a receipt → "Turn the items and amounts into a table." - A chart screenshot → "Explain what trend this graph shows."

4. 🌐 Web search for the latest info and news

Turn on ≡ Settings → 'Allow web search' and the AI will search the internet when it needs to, then answer with source links attached. (This uses each provider's built-in search — supported by Claude, Gemini, and OpenAI.)

💡 Can I use search and note work together? — Only Claude can. With Gemini and OpenAI, turning on 'Allow note editing' drops web search from that reply (it focuses on the note tools instead). Each provider's API blocks using your own tools and their built-in web search at the same time, so there's no way around it. If you want to search for up-to-date info with Gemini or OpenAI, switch 'Allow note editing' off for a moment.

Examples - "Give me the top 5 AI industry news stories from today, with sources." - "The latest specs and price for product ○○, with source links." - "Summarize recent research trends on this topic."

⚠️ Web search is also billed to your own API key (Claude charges separately per 1,000 searches, Gemini is within its free quota, and OpenAI charges for the search model). That's why it's off by default.

5. ✏️ Read, create, and organize notes directly

Turn on ≡ Settings → 'Allow note editing' and the AI will directly use tools to work with your vault notes. (When off, it's pure chat plus attached material only.)

Things you can do once it's on:

📖 Read & find - "Find every note that mentions to-dos" (note search) - "What's in the Materials folder?" (list contents) - "Summarize ○○.md" (read it directly — including PDF, Word, Excel)

🆕 Create & fix - "Make me a new meeting note for today" → creates a new .md file - "Add a line to the end of my diary" with this content → appends only to the end rather than rewriting the whole thing - "Change 'tomorrow's meeting' to 'Friday's meeting' in this note" → replaces** just that part (safe and token-efficient)

🗂 Organize & view structure - "Show me this note's table of contents" (heading outline) - "Find the notes that point to this one" (backlinks) - "Show my vault's most-used tags / gather notes tagged #project" - "What topics is my vault made of?" → answers with topic clusters computed from your link-and-tag network - "Expand the notes connected to this one" → explores neighbors along links and relations - "Find notes with content similar to 'flow'" → semantic search finds them even when the words differ (index required → Search & Navigation) - "Rename this memo and move it to the Archive folder" → rename/move (missing folders are created automatically) - "Make a 2024 Materials folder"

🛡️ Safety: there's deliberately no delete tool (too hard to undo). And the AI only ever operates within the current vault. It won't overwrite a file you're currently editing (unsaved) without care.

↩️ Undo (AI Change History): every file the chat AI creates or edits is snapshotted per run. Open the 'AI Change History' panel in the right sidebar to see line-by-line diffs and revert per file or per run — now on iPhone, Android, and web too.

✅ Auto-check after saving: whenever the AI saves a note, ObsiKO instantly lints it (unclosed code fences, broken tables…) and the AI fixes problems on the spot. A safety net with no extra cost.

🗺️ Mind maps, data tables, and story scripts too: ask "make a mind map of the World Cup," "turn my reading log into a kanban board," or "convert this story into a messenger script" — ObsiKO teaches the AI the exact file formats, so it produces proper .canvas mind maps, .base tables, and story-view documents. A lightweight LLM wiki works too — say "build me an LLM wiki" and it sets up the rulebook, index, and folder skeleton; in a vault that already is a wiki it follows the rules on its own. → 16-4 Building an LLM Wiki Ontology organizing works too — say "organize this folder as an ontology" and it follows the kind & relation rules (dictionary first, frontmatter only, plan approval before bulk edits). → 16-5 Zettelkasten & Ontology

🔎 Sources shown: when it answers from your vault, sentences carry source numbers like [S1], and a collapsible 'Sources for this answer' under the reply shows exactly which notes were read. Numbers the AI makes up are removed from the display automatically. → AI Sources & Privacy

💡 Order tip: for something like "go through all the PDFs in the Materials folder and summarize them onto one page," where you need it to read multiple files directly, it's easier to turn on 'Allow note editing' rather than attaching every file one by one (the AI can see the list and open them itself).

6. What works / doesn't work in chat mode ✅🚫

✅ Works - Conversation, reading attached/vault documents (PDF, Word, Excel), viewing images (vision) - Saving replies as notes - Creating mind maps (.canvas), data tables (.base), story scripts, and a lightweight LLM wiki (note-editing toggle) - AI Change History with revert, source numbers ([S1]) with "sources of this answer," auto lint check after saving - Memory (memory proposals, auto-capture, conversation logs) at parity with desktop → Personal Memory - Web search (toggle) - Reading, creating, editing, and moving notes, creating folders (toggle) - Semantic search · vault topic clusters · connection-graph exploration (toggle, index required) - Slash commands: type / in the input to see the built-in helper commands. You can also make your own — create _ObsiKO/commands/name.md in your vault with your prompt as the body ($ARGUMENTS is replaced with what you type after the command; a description: between --- lines shows in the list) and /name works on phone and web too. Desktop .claude/commands are picked up as well. - AI image generation, read-aloud (TTS), and audio/video transcription — these aren't in chat but are used directly from right-click in the editor or the command palette (uses your OpenAI/Gemini key, available on every platform including iPhone and web). → Details - Awareness of the current date

🚫 Not available in chat mode (desktop full agent only) - Large-scale material collection (roaming the web and automatically piling up many notes), fetching YouTube captions - Automatic Git integration - Scanned PDF OCR (recognizing text in PDFs with no text layer)

The desktop app is a full agent that uses file tools via a CLI/SDK. If you need that, go to 16 AI Agent, 16-1 Basic Usage

7. When you're stuck ❓

• The '?' button at the top of the panel: sign-up links, feature limits, and differences from desktop, all at a glance. (Pops up centered on screen on iPhone.)
• Entered a key but it's not working: check that the selected engine matches the key (e.g. a Gemini key needs the Gemini engine), and for OpenAI, check whether you've topped up credit.
• The reply says "the vault is empty": pure chat can't see the vault → attach material, or turn on 'Allow note editing'.
• On iPhone the input box is hidden behind the keyboard: the latest version raises the input line above the keyboard (please update).
• Does Enter send the message on my phone?: nope — on phones, Enter makes a new line, and you send with the Send button (no more accidental half-typed sends!). On iPad and desktop, Enter = send and Shift+Enter = new line.

At a glance 🗺️

• Enter a key: ≡ → API Keys (stored encrypted) · token usage shown right below the key
• Pure conversation: just enter a key · replies appear gradually
• Material: attach (md/PDF/Word/Excel) · images = vision
• Web search: ≡ toggle (billed) · source links
• Note tools: ≡ 'Allow note editing' → read, create, append, replace, organize, move

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