Platform Guide
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ObsiKO is just as powerful whether you're on the web, desktop, or a mobile device, but there are inevitably a few small differences due to each platform's quirks. Want to find out what's different before you dive in? 😉
← Back to Home: ObsiKO 101
🌐 Light and Anywhere: Web (Browser)
- You'll need a smart browser that supports the modern File System Access API, like Chrome or Edge.
- The first time you open your folder, it'll ask, "Can I access this folder?" — just go ahead and hit Allow!
- The downside: due to browser limitations, the AI full agent (research gathering, automatic vault editing, etc.) isn't available yet. 🥲
- The upside: Korean spell check (word spacing included) works through the ObsiKO server, English spell check (the ObsiKO English server) runs great on the web too, and the ObsiKO Korean Dictionary (Standard Korean Dictionary and Urimalsam) works on the web too, no key needed. And just add an API key to unlock AI chat-only mode (conversation, reading documents, viewing images, web search, organizing notes) too! → Chat-only Mode (Mobile & Web)
- Search by meaning works on the web too! The search model runs inside your browser, so it needs no AI key and sends nothing over the internet — everything stays on your device. Just build the index once from 'Semantic search index' in Settings ▸ Convenience! (The first indexing takes a while as it downloads the model.) → Search & Navigation
- Sync between devices (GitHub) is not available in the browser version — so that a token with repository access is never kept inside a browser. Turn sync on in the desktop or phone app instead. “Share to the web” still works in the browser. → Settings & Themes
- On a shared computer, remember two things. ① “Don't remember in this browser” next to the AI key field — tick it and the key is erased when you close the tab. ② “Clear this browser's app data” in Settings ▸ below Dictionary — it wipes settings, the search index, version history, API keys and connections in one go (notes in your vault folder stay). Press it before you walk away.
.htmland.svgfiles inside the vault open as a download rather than a new tab (browser and phone). That keeps any script inside such a file from running in the same place as ObsiKO — in the desktop app they still open in your default program as before.
🖥 The Full, Powerful Experience: Desktop (Mac/Windows)
- If you want the best ObsiKO experience, the desktop app is the way to go, no question!
- With the desktop app downloaded from the website (obsiko.com) (Mac · Windows) you get a smart AI agent, Git integration for developers, and even External AI apps (MCP), which lets other AI apps read your vault! It's the environment where you can enjoy the widest range of ObsiKO's magic. 🚀
- Differences between installs — things vary a little depending on where you got the app.
| Install | What you get |
|---|---|
| Mac — downloaded from the website (DMG) | Everything: CLI AI agents (Claude · Codex · Gemini), Git, External AI apps (MCP) |
| Mac — Mac App Store | AI is API-key chat only (no CLI agents). No Git or External AI apps (MCP) |
| Windows — downloaded from the website | Everything, except that the AI agent's Gemini CLI engine is left out (Gemini in chat works) |
- What you need: macOS 12 (Monterey) or later on Mac, Windows 10 or later on PC. (That's the bar set when we moved the app onto the latest underlying engine — newer versions won't launch below it.)
- On Mac, photo background removal runs on-device too: when 'Remove background' in image editing meets a non-solid background, it switches to Apple Vision subject isolation automatically (macOS 14+) — the same engine as Finder's 'Remove Background'. Free and offline! (Windows and web handle solid backgrounds only.)
- 🎛️ Straight from the Mac Control Center (macOS 26+): Control Center ▸ Edit ▸ Add a Control ▸ ObsiKO offers Open · New note · Today's note · New mind map · Search · Start with a photo · Run routine ('Start with a photo' picks a photo and puts it at the top of today's note — it also shows on the calendar). If ObsiKO isn't listed, right-click the Desktop ▸ 'Edit Widgets…' once, close it, and look again (a known macOS bug). Once added, they open in one click from the menu bar's Control Center, and 'Run routine' runs the routine you pick (right-click the control to choose). Few note apps are there yet.
- 📂 Files outside the vault, via 'Open With ▸ ObsiKO': right-click a
.mdfile in Finder or File Explorer ▸ Open With ▸ ObsiKO, and just that one file opens so you can edit and save it — no vault needed. If ObsiKO is already running, it opens as a new tab in the current window instead of a new window. - Keep search results beside you: with a wide screen you can park the result list in the right sidebar and open hits one by one. → Search & Navigation
- 🪟 A vault name bar at the top of the window: the current vault's name sits in the middle of the very top of the window. Grab anywhere on the bar to drag the window around, and click the name to open your recent folders. The Mac's red, yellow and green buttons and Windows' minimize, maximize and close buttons live on this bar too, and the taskbar shows the vault name as well. → A Tour of the Screen
📱 A Miracle in Your Hand: iPhone / iPad
- Because of Apple's strict sandbox policy, you need to pick a single folder in the Files app to use as your vault. (Any folder you like works fine!)
- If you create a new note without picking a folder, a default storage vault is made. With iCloud on it's the iCloud Drive ▸ ObsiKO folder, so devices on the same Apple account stay in step automatically; if iCloud isn't available it's made inside On My iPhone ▸ ObsiKO in the Files app.
- On every device, the 3 view modes (source/reading/focus) are gathered in one View menu (👁) at the right end of the tab bar. On a phone, just tap the same spot. → View Modes & Korean Input
- The home bar hides: the horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen (the home bar) disappears in ObsiKO once you lift your finger, so it doesn't cover your writing. Touch the screen and it shows briefly before hiding again — swiping up to go home works as always.
- Floating formatting button: When the keyboard comes up, a small round button appears in a corner of the screen. Tap it and formatting tools unfold — bold, headings, lists, checkboxes, undo, and more — tap again to collapse them. The
↑↓at the end move whatever your cursor is on up or down, taking its sub-items or whole section along — that's how you reorder without a keyboard. A tiny button that stays out of your way! (Choose Off/Auto/Always in settings → Settings & Themes) - You can quickly drop photos or files from your gallery into a document or mind map with a drag-and-drop, or a copy-paste. Really convenient!
- Added an image card to your mind map? Stretch it with two fingers to zoom in on just the image inside the card. ✌️
- ✋ Press and hold a file to pick it up: in the file tree, press and hold a file and it sticks to your finger — drag it onto the editor for a link, onto a mind map for a card, or into Reference view to open it there. The file menu opens from the ⋯ at the right of the row (Android phones and tablets work the same way). → A Tour of the Screen
- 📤 Want to send a note right away? Use 'Share': with no text selected, long-press the note body and choose Share — the current note goes to the iOS share sheet as an
.mdfile, ready for AirDrop, Mail, Messages and more (it doesn't pass through any ObsiKO server). The Share in the menu that appears when you select text sends only the selected text. - Exports are saved inside your vault: export files such as PDF and HTML aren't downloaded the way a browser would — they're safely saved as files in your vault folder. Open them from the Files app to share! (Notes are saved as HTML files.) → Export
- 🤖 AI on your phone now too!: The full agent, with research gathering and automatic vault editing, is still only in the desktop app downloaded from the website, but just add an API key and you can chat in AI chat-only mode on iPhone/iPad too — have it read documents and images, search the web, and even organize your notes! The key is stored safely, encrypted in the iOS Keychain. → Chat-only Mode (Mobile & Web)
- Search by meaning works on your phone too: it runs right on the device, so no AI key is needed. Just build the index once from 'Semantic search index' in Settings ▸ Convenience! → Search & Navigation
- 🎙️ Transcription, free of charge: When turning a recording or voice memo into a note, iPhone and iPad use Apple's on-device speech recognition. No AI key, no fees, and your audio never leaves the device (no length limit either). If you do have a key, you can pick the more accurate cloud transcription instead. While it works, a bar at the bottom shows the progress, and you can Cancel a long one at any time (the original stays as it is). On iOS 26 and later each paragraph gets a timestamp like [0:11] — tap it to jump back to that moment in the recording. → Korean Writing Tools
- 🪄 Photo background removal, on-device too: when 'Remove background' meets a non-solid background (like a photo), it switches to Apple Vision subject isolation automatically (iOS 17+) — the same engine as the Photos app's sticker lift. No AI key, no fees, and the photo never leaves the device.
- 📎 Clip straight from the Share button: tap Share ▸ ObsiKO in any app and a card appears right there — pick New clipping, Add to today's note, or choose a note, and that's it (no jumping to the app). Web pages and selected text, plus photos, PDFs, and files. → Web Clipper
- ⌚ Quick memos from Apple Watch: Install the ObsiKO app on your watch and you can dictate a memo straight from your wrist. Even if your iPhone is off or out of range — once they reconnect, the queued memos make their way into your vault on their own (nothing gets lost!). 🎉
- Floating formatting button & input above the keyboard: When the keyboard pops up, the AI chat input box rises right above it too, so it never gets covered. Tap an input box near the bottom of the right panel and it also moves up to a visible spot above the keyboard.
- Home screen widgets: iPhone and iPad get ObsiKO Shortcuts (iOS 18+), Focus Timer, Recent Documents, Bookmarked Notes, Recent + Bookmarks, Calendar, and Schedule widgets too (including Lock Screen widgets!). The checkboxes on the Schedule widget let you tick off to-dos without even opening the app. The Focus Timer widget starts and pauses without opening the app, and the time left also shows on the Lock Screen, StandBy, and Dynamic Island → 14 Focus Timer. Widget colors follow your app theme. 🎨
- Korean word of the day 📖: each day, one beautiful native Korean word that fits the season and the solar term (words like 윤슬 and 여우비) shown large, with a one-line meaning in small type. It comes in small and medium sizes and for the Lock Screen, and tapping it opens the word in the dictionary panel (366 words — the same word on the same date every year, and every one is in the dictionary). → Korean Writing Tools
- Voice memo small widget 🎙️ (iOS 18+): one big microphone — tap to record, tap again to stop and add it to today's note (the app doesn't open). Nice to keep on a desk or bedside StandBy. It's the same recording as 'Record straight from the Lock Screen' below, so microphone access and 'Live Activities' need to be on.
- Font-app fonts work too: Tap 'Load installed fonts' in Settings ▸ Editor and the system font picker appears — letting you pick even fonts installed via font apps and use them in the editor. Importing
.ttffiles directly works as well! - Siri & the Shortcuts app 🗣️: You can use ObsiKO by voice. Three that work without opening the app — Quick Memo ("Hey Siri, take a note in ObsiKO" → what you say lands in your vault), Add to Today's Note ("Add to today's note in ObsiKO" → appended to the end of today's dated note), and Today's Schedule ("Today's schedule in ObsiKO" → Siri reads out what's left). Three that open the app — New Note, New Mind Map, and Search ("Search ObsiKO" → Siri asks "What are you looking for?" → say it and the results are right there).
- New: Add a task ("Hey Siri, add a task in ObsiKO" → "What task should I add?" → "prepare the meeting tomorrow and pay rent on friday") — saved without opening the app, then added as tasks to each date’s note when you open ObsiKO. "Tomorrow" is read from the day you said it, so it doesn’t shift if you open the app late, and an unclear time like "at 3" is kept exactly as said. Put the Task entry lock-screen widget on your lock screen to open the input bar in one tap; the Task entry shortcut can go in Control Center or on the Action Button from iOS 18.
- Saying it all in one breath — "Find my meeting notes in ObsiKO" — isn't possible yet. That's an iPhone-side limitation, so we built it as a single follow-up question instead. In the Shortcuts app you can fill the search term in advance and it runs in one step.
- New: Open a note — "Hey Siri, open Meeting Notes in ObsiKO" works in one sentence, because a note name can ride along. If several notes share the name, Siri asks which one. Typing a note title into iPhone search (Spotlight) — swipe down on the Home Screen — shows your ObsiKO notes too, and a tap opens the note (even if the app was closed).
- Only titles and folder names go into the search index, never the body. Notes blocked with
ai: deny, folders listed in.obsiko-ai-ignore, and chat logs stay out of it as well. Turn on screen lock and the index is wiped (it's rebuilt when you turn the lock off); you can also switch it off under Settings ▸ Convenience ▸ Find notes with Siri & Spotlight. Notes changed on another device via iCloud show up in search once you open ObsiKO.
- Only titles and folder names go into the search index, never the body. Notes blocked with
- Siri search ("find meeting notes in ObsiKO") still can't take the search term in one sentence — that's an iPhone limitation, so Siri asks once. In the Shortcuts app you can pre-fill the term and it runs in one go.
- Shortcuts opens this up a lot: automations (append to today's note every night at 10), Home Screen buttons, the Action button (iPhone 15 Pro and later), and Lock Screen widgets. Drop the
obsiko://addresses below into an "Open URL" action and you get things Siri doesn't cover (graph view, timer, and more). - On Apple Watch you can tap the mic and send a Quick Memo the same way.
- 🎤 Dictate on iPhone too: Tap the mic in the quick task bar, right-click (long-press) in a note ▸ Voice ▸ Dictate, use "Dictate into today's note" in the command palette, or the search box mic — and the words appear as you speak. When you're done, tap Done (in the task bar, tap the mic once more). iPhone has no separate speech screen, so ObsiKO listens itself — that's why it asks for microphone access the first time. Recognition happens on the device only.
- 🔴 Record straight from the Lock Screen (iOS 18+): Add "ObsiKO voice memo" to Control Center (or the Lock Screen buttons or the Action Button) once, and from the Lock Screen switch it on to record, off to save (it's a toggle, so you can see whether it's on). It also comes as a Lock Screen widget — long-press the Lock Screen ▸ Customize ▸ Add Widgets ▸ ObsiKO ▸ 'Voice memo (Lock Screen)', and each tap starts or saves a recording without opening the app. While recording, the time shows on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, where you can also Stop & save. Open ObsiKO and the recording is waiting, ready to play, in today's note for the day you started recording. Allow the microphone in the app once first (up to 30 minutes per recording). You can also put ObsiKO ▸ Record voice memo from the Shortcuts app on the Action Button. When a recording ends it is transcribed on-device into a new note like 'Recording 2026-09-16 14:03', linked from today's note (turn it off in Settings ▸ 'Transcribe recordings into a new note'). If recording can't start, the switch flips back off with a short reason, and ObsiKO repeats it once when you open the app (usually microphone access or the Live Activities setting).
- ⚡ Control Center shortcuts (iOS 18+): Edit Control Center ▸ Add a Control ▸ ObsiKO, and put Open · New note · Today's note · New mind map · Search · Start with a photo there to open them in one tap from the Lock Screen or Control Center (if locked, it continues after you unlock). Start with a photo opens the camera first and puts the shot at the top of today's note — on days with no events, the calendar shows that photo. The Home Screen widget ObsiKO Shortcuts (medium) has the same 8 on one card, and the Lock Screen (edit ▸ Add Widgets ▸ ObsiKO) offers circular widgets for Open, New note, Today's note, New mind map, Search, Start with a photo, Run routine and Voice memo (long-press ▸ Edit Widget to pick the routine). The same controls work on the Lock Screen buttons and the Action Button. The Run routine control lets you pick a routine when you add it (long-press the control) and then runs it right away — or tell Siri "Run morning cleanup routine in ObsiKO" (the list appears once you've opened ObsiKO).
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🆕 What changes with iOS 27: ① In Apple Notes, select text and choose 'Copy as Markdown' — paste it into ObsiKO and headings, lists and checkboxes come through as they are (no import wizard needed). The other way round, copy from ObsiKO and paste into Notes and Notes turns it into formatting by itself. ② 'Write with Siri' (Writing Tools) above the keyboard opens in ObsiKO as a panel that shows the result first — apply it if you like it, or close it and your text stays untouched (and one undo brings back anything you applied). ③ In the Shortcuts app you can now describe a shortcut in words ("append to today's note in ObsiKO every night at 10") and it gets built for you — the Siri actions above and the
obsiko://links below are the building blocks. The new Siri uses the same actions. ④ Tell the new Siri "append this to my Meeting Notes in ObsiKO" — no set phrase needed; Siri picks the note and keeps the text, and it lands at the end of that note when you open ObsiKO. ⑤ The calendar can sit in the new full-page extra-large (4×6) widget on the Home Screen (the Recent Documents widget comes in medium only). -
📱 Made to fit iPhone Duo (the foldable iPhone): the screen adjusts on its own when folded, unfolded or half-folded.
- Folded — the vertical strip on the right of the outer screen (where the clock and Dynamic Island sit) isn't left empty: Safari-style floating glass buttons go there. The top capsule holds View (👁) · Share (plus the list of open tabs when there are more tabs than fit), and their menus open to the left of the buttons. The right panel button stays at the right end of the top tab bar. With those buttons gone from the top bar, the open note tabs get wider, and backgrounds like the graph universe and the mind map canvas run under the strip right to the screen edge.
- Favorites capsule — just below the top capsule float the menus you use most. At first they're Search · New note · Today's note · Spell check · New mind map · AI agent · Settings; in Settings ▸ Sidebar & toolbars ▸ 'Side rail favorites (foldable iPhone)' you can pick from the buttons at the top of the left sidebar and the right panels, and change their order (up to the first 7). They hide while the keyboard is up or in the app's Focus mode (Zen mode), and if you uncheck them all, the capsule disappears.
- The glass buttons appear when you hold the folded screen upright and the unfolded screen sideways (folded-sideways and unfolded-upright have no strip, so the buttons stay in their usual places). '✓ Saved' also lines up at the very bottom of the strip, in line with the buttons.
- Unfolded — the big screen gets the same layout as iPad, and you can pin the right panel with 📌 to dock it next to the editor. Run it side by side with another app and it narrows back to the phone layout (when ObsiKO is the left window, the glass buttons move to the window's left edge like other apps); fold, unfold or rotate and your writing and cursor stay right where they were. When you use the unfolded screen upright, and in the app's Focus mode, the clock and battery at the top disappear so only your writing shows.
- Half-folded and stood upright (tabletop posture) — like a laptop, the app fits in the top half and the bottom half is where the keyboard goes. Tap 'Tap here to bring up the keyboard' and the keyboard comes up in the bottom half, with the formatting buttons right above it. Unfold or fold it all the way and it goes back to normal.
- Half-folded and held sideways (book posture) — a pinned right panel fills the right half exactly up to the fold. Unfold it all the way and the panel goes back to its usual width.
- Book view shows two pages like a real book on the unfolded screen, and web novel view lets you pick two- or three-page view there too. Fold and unfold with it open and you stay on the same line → E-book & Web Novel Viewer. Buttons near the curved screen corners (the sidebar button at top left, the buttons at top right, the pin) and both sidebars sit slightly further in, so they're easy to tap and never get cut off.
- While you're in book, web novel, messenger or visual novel view, or presenting, the glass buttons in the right strip hide so only the text and the stage show. On the folded screen, the settings (⚙) and auto-play (▷) buttons of book and web novel view move to the right strip, and the settings open to their left.
- The mind map toolbar shows up as a vertical bar on the right even when you hold the unfolded screen upright, just as in landscape. Rotate it or fold and unfold, and the toolbar goes back to its place on the right → Mind Map
- 📕 A notebook cover when you fold it — turn on Settings ▸ Convenience ▸ Cover with a notebook cover when folded (shown only on a Duo, off by default) and the moment you fold the Duo, a notebook cover covers the outer screen. Folding saves what you were writing and lowers the keyboard, so fold it at a café and your writing is hidden at once. Unfold it and the cover turns away, leaving you right where you were; fold it again and it covers again.
- Five cover styles — pick from scaled-down pictures of the real covers in Cover style right below: Hardcover (cloth binding · wide elastic band) · Planner (leather · stitching · a clasp strap with a button) · Leather journal (well-worn leather · sideways elastic · a brass charm) · Spiral (a label at the top · a clear cover) · Kraft (paper grain · binding tape · a title box). The cover shows only the vault name (no dates or note titles).
- Opening it while folded — with Spiral and Kraft, turn the cover to the left and it bends away like paper. For Hardcover, grab the elastic band; for Planner, the button — and pull to the right. For Leather journal, grab the elastic (or the charm) and pull up or down. Don't turn or pull far enough and it springs back. Whatever the style, press and hold the cover to open it at once ('Press and hold to open' under the cover).
- Come in while folded from a widget, Control Center, Shortcuts, Siri, the share sheet or a notification and it opens straight away, no cover. If screen lock is on too, the order is cover → unfold → lock screen → Settings & Themes
- StandBy — put the Focus Timer widget on your home screen and a Duo standing on the desk becomes a desk clock; ▶ starts it right away even on the locked screen → Focus Timer
🤖 Now on Android Too! (Phone / Tablet)
- Any folder you want as a vault: Pick a folder from device storage or a cloud folder in the folder picker and use it as your vault right away. Opening an Obsidian vault folder works fine too!
- Start right away, no folder needed: Just tap 'New Note' on the welcome screen and a vault is automatically created in the device's default storage. You can always come back to it via 'Default Storage' at the top of the recent folders menu.
- 7 home screen widgets: You can place the ObsiKO Shortcuts, Focus Timer (the same dial as on iPhone — pick a time with −/+ and tap ▶ to start without opening the app; while it runs it also shows in the notification shade and on the Lock Screen → 14 Focus Timer (Pomodoro) ⏱), Recent Documents, Bookmarked Notes, Recent + Bookmarks, Calendar, and Schedule widgets on your home screen. On the Schedule widget, tap the checkbox to complete a to-do without even opening the app. Widget colors follow your app theme. 🎨
- Long-press the icon for instant actions ⚡: Press and hold the ObsiKO icon on your home screen and out unfold
New note · Search · Today's note · New mind map. On Pixel phones they also appear when you type "ObsiKO" into app drawer search (the same picture as Spotlight on iPhone). Where they show up is up to your launcher, so on some phones they may not appear in search results — long-press works just about everywhere. - Clip via Share: Tap Share ▸ ObsiKO in Chrome or elsewhere and a small card appears right there — pick New clipping, Add to today's note, or choose a note (searchable), and you're done! Photos, PDFs, HWP (.hwp/.hwpx) documents, and files work too, and it stashes them without opening the app so they land in your notes next time you open it. You can also send text straight from the menu that appears when you select it in another app. → Web Clipper
- Immersive mode: Hides the system bars at the top and bottom (status bar, gesture bar) and uses the whole screen. Want to check the time? Just swipe lightly from the edge of the screen — it appears briefly, then disappears again.
- 📸 Pulling text out of photos (OCR), right on the device: Extracting text from an image uses the same engine as Google Lens (ML Kit), running right on your phone. No AI key, no fees, and the photo never leaves the device. (If you need a more accurate result, you can still pick 'Smart (AI vision)'.)
- 🪄 Photo background removal, on-device too: when 'Remove background' meets a non-solid background, it switches to ML Kit subject isolation automatically — free, processed on the device. (On first use, Play services may take a moment to download the component — if a 'preparing' notice appears, just try again shortly.)
- ✍️ Font support: In Settings ▸ Editor you can import
.ttffont files directly, and 'Load installed fonts' lets you pick from the system fonts already on your device. (Fonts bought from the Samsung Theme Store are protected, so they can't be loaded.) - 🖼️ Insert GIFs and stickers straight from the keyboard: Tap the GIF, sticker, or image button on your keyboard and that image is inserted right into your text. It's saved as a file in your vault and dropped in at the cursor.
- 🎤 Dictate: Speak instead of typing. Right-click (or long-press) in a note ▸ Voice ▸ Dictate drops it right at your cursor, and the command palette's "Dictate into today's note" appends it to today's dated note. The search box gets a mic too, so you can search by voice. Your device's own speech screen does the listening, so ObsiKO never asks for microphone permission. (On devices with no speech app the mic button simply doesn't appear — use your keyboard's mic instead.)
- This is not the same as Record voice memo next to it. That one saves an audio file into your vault (and can transcribe it with AI); this one gives you text right away, free and with no AI key.
- Speaking to ObsiKO without opening the app — the way Siri does on iPhone — isn't possible on Android yet. Google doesn't support Korean for it, so rather than half-promise, we left it out.
- 📝 Set as your default notes app (Android 14+): In Settings ▸ System integration you can register ObsiKO as the default notes app. Then system note actions — the 'Note' button on the lock screen or in Quick Settings, S Pen screen memos — all open a new ObsiKO note!
- ✋ Press and hold for ObsiKO's menu: press and hold on text in a note and a word gets selected, then a moment later ObsiKO's menu appears (the right-click menu, with copy, dictionary, translate and more). Press and hold a table cell and you get the table menu instead of the device's toolbar; while you're editing a cell, a Cut · Copy · Paste · Select all menu appears. The file tree works as on iPhone — press and hold to pick a file up, open the menu with ⋯.
- On a tablet: You can pin the right sidebar with the pin (📌) button to dock it next to the editor (same as on iPad). Drag the edge to resize its width too — it snaps with a little buzz at the default size and at the center of the screen. With it pinned you can also park a list of search results beside your note and work through them one by one. → Search & Navigation
- 📱 On a foldable like the Galaxy Fold: folded gives you the phone layout and unfolded the tablet layout, switching right away without restarting the app. Tablets also switch to the phone layout when a split-screen window gets narrow.
- Held sideways and half-folded (tabletop posture) — like a laptop, the app sits on top and the bottom becomes the keyboard area. Press 'Tap here to bring up the keyboard' and the keyboard appears below. Unfold it fully and things go back to normal.
- Held upright and half-folded (book posture) — the right panel you pinned with 📌 fits right up to the fold.
- Search by meaning works here too — it runs on the device and needs no AI key. → Search & Navigation
🌟 Tips That Apply Everywhere (This Is the Key Part!)
- Every note you create in ObsiKO is just a plain, well-behaved
.md(text) file or a.canvasfile. - So if you set your devices to share the same folder (like an iCloud Drive folder), you can experience the miracle of picking up on your iPhone in the bathroom exactly where you left off writing on your Mac!
- And of course, the last folder and tabs you had open are faithfully remembered and restored on each device. → Getting Started
- Come across great material while browsing the web? Tuck it right into your vault on the spot with the Web Clipper! On desktop browsers, use the right-click menu or toolbar (even region screen capture!); on iPhone, iPad, and Android, clip instantly with the share button. 📎 → Web Clipper
🔗 Open ObsiKO straight from another app (obsiko://)
Widgets, Siri shortcuts, Android's icon long-press, and the share button all call ObsiKO through an address. It looks like https://, except it starts with obsiko://. Drop one into the Shortcuts app or any app's "open URL" field and you can use them exactly the same way!
| Write this | And you get |
|---|---|
obsiko://daily |
Today's dated note (created if it doesn't exist) |
obsiko://capture |
Open the “Add tasks by voice or text” bar (?listen=1 starts listening right away on Android) |
obsiko://new-file |
A new note |
obsiko://new-canvas |
A new mind map |
obsiko://search?q=meeting |
Search opened for "meeting" |
obsiko://open?path=Journal/2026-07-25.md |
That exact note, opened |
obsiko://timer?minutes=25&start=1 |
A 25-minute focus timer, started (leave out start=1 to just open the timer panel with the time set · minutes 5–60) |
obsiko://dict?q=윤슬 |
Look up '윤슬' (sunlight glittering on water) in the dictionary panel |
obsiko://graph |
Graph view |
obsiko://open-folder |
The open-a-vault dialog |
obsiko://photo |
Start with a photo — take or pick a photo and put it at the top of today's note |
obsiko://routine?id=… |
Run that routine right away (without ?id= it opens the Routines panel) — the address Control Center and Siri use when you pick a routine |
There's also obsiko://clip, which the Web Clipper uses to hand its catch over to ObsiKO — the share button handles that one for you, so you'll never need to type it. → Web Clipper
💡 Ideas: automate "open
obsiko://dailyat 8am every morning" in the Shortcuts app and today's journal is waiting the moment you pick up your phone. ⏰ Or put anobsiko://timer?minutes=25&start=1icon on your home screen for one-tap pomodoro. 🍅🔒 Only the actions listed here work. Opening, creating, searching, timers — the fixed set — and a link can't edit or delete the contents of a note. Hand ObsiKO an address it doesn't recognize and it simply does nothing. 😌
☁️ Sync across devices with a cloud folder (iCloud · Dropbox · Google Drive)
ObsiKO can use any cloud folder as its vault (you don't need to turn on any separate sync feature — just open that same folder on multiple devices and that is your sync). It also quietly handles the little quirks of cloud folders for you.
- Files not downloaded yet? No worries ☁️: iCloud and friends sometimes evict the contents of files you haven't used to save space. Such files show up in the file tree with a small ☁️ badge, and tapping (opening) one automatically re-downloads it. (They never vanish from the tree!)
- Pre-download entire vault: hit Settings ▸ Convenience ▸ 'Pre-download entire vault · Download now' to fetch every not-yet-downloaded file at once. It's a good idea to pre-download so the graph view and full-text search work properly.
- Keep files downloaded: turn on 'Keep files downloaded' in the same Settings ▸ Convenience, and whenever a file gets evicted it's automatically re-downloaded, keeping your vault fully local. (Intact even offline!)
- Edited the same note on two devices? — Conflict notice: if you edit the same note on two devices, the cloud sometimes creates a conflict copy. ObsiKO detects this and shows a small banner at the top, letting you choose [Merge] · [Compare] · [Keep mine] · [Take theirs] (it never overwrites your edits without asking).
- Bases (
.base) get handled a little differently. The table is drawn from your vault notes, so the original and the conflict copy look identical. For Bases the button becomes [Compare sources], and it opens both sides as the raw file (YAML) so you can actually see the difference. [Merge] is the one to reach for here — if you hit [Take theirs] just because they look the same, the filters and columns you tweaked on this side can quietly disappear. - AI chat transcript (
_ObsiKO/chats/) conflicts take one press of [Merge]. Transcripts are only ever added to, so both devices' conversations are all kept in one file and the copy goes to the trash after the result is checked. If the same turn differs, both are kept; if it's unclear, you get the side-by-side comparison above instead. → Personal Memory
- Bases (
- ✨ Don't throw either side away — [Merge]: "Keep mine" and "Take theirs" both mean discarding one side's work entirely. If you wrote one paragraph on your phone and five on your laptop, either button hurts. So hit [Merge] and pick what to keep line by line.
- If you edited different places, there's almost nothing to do. Lines that exist on only one side are kept from both automatically, and ObsiKO tells you: "You edited different places. Both sides are kept — just review and apply." Skim it, press [Merge as shown], done!
- You're only asked about spots edited differently on both sides. Each one offers [Mine] · [Theirs] · [Both] · [Neither], and your choice is highlighted immediately so you can see which side wins. The default is the safe one: yours.
- Long stretches of identical text are folded away as ⋯ 12 identical lines ⋯ — so you can focus on what actually differs. 😉
- The merged result is saved into the original note and the conflict copy is cleaned up. Changed your mind? [Cancel] or
Escbacks out with nothing touched.
- 💡 Open a file that hasn't downloaded yet (because you're offline) and it tells you "This file isn't downloaded yet" — so don't mistake it for an empty note! Open it again when you're online and it downloads normally.
These work on iPhone, iPad, and Mac when using a cloud folder (on Android and the web, the folder provider handles it). → For how to open a folder, see Getting Started
🎉 Wow, thanks so much for following along all the way here. You're now a full-fledged ObsiKO master! 👏
One last page, just in case → Emergency Guide
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