Frequently Asked Questions

General

Is OV free?

Yes — completely free and open source. MIT-licensed, downloadable from GitHub. The source repo (ouomoxo/ov) is currently private, but release artifacts and documentation are public.

How is OV different from Obsidian / Notion?

vs Obsidian: OV ships with a Notion-style slash menu, database views (Table / Kanban / Calendar), and an AI Copilot built in. Obsidian's strength is its plugin ecosystem.
vs Notion: OV stores notes as local markdown files — your data sits on your computer and is readable by other tools like Obsidian. Notion's strength is its cloud sync and collaboration.
In common: all three use the "block-based writing" paradigm.

Does OV send telemetry?

No. OV sends no usage data anywhere. The only external network activity:

AI Copilot calls — direct to the OpenAI API, using your key
Update check at launch from GitHub Releases (auto-update — togglable)

See Privacy for details.

Mobile

Is there a mobile app?

iOS and Android apps are coming soon. They sync the same vault over iCloud Drive, so the notes you write on desktop carry straight over to your phone. Watch the download page for launch news.

How does it sync with desktop?

Put your vault folder in iCloud Drive. Because every note is a plain .md file, it travels between devices through Apple's iCloud — never through OV's servers. Do the one-time "move vault to iCloud" in desktop settings and it stays in step automatically.

Can I use AI on mobile?

Yes. Add your OpenAI key and Copilot works just like desktop; on iPhone you also get on-device Apple Intelligence for offline summaries and to-do suggestions with no key at all.

Vault & data

Where are my notes stored?

Default: ~/Documents/OV/ (macOS/Linux) or C:\Users\<you>\Documents\OV\ (Windows). Every note is a plain .md file inside that folder. You can open them in Finder/Explorer directly.

Can I use multiple vaults?

Only one vault at a time, but you can switch freely. Open another vault from the sidebar's "Open vault" button. The Command Palette (⌘K) gives you a quick list of recently used vaults.

Yes. OV happily shares a folder with Obsidian. OV uses chokidar to watch for external changes and auto-refreshes. Sync folders like iCloud Drive work too — if you edit on two devices at once a conflict dialog appears (no silent overwrites).

Where do attachments (images / videos) go?

In a .attachments/ folder inside your vault. When you drag-drop or paste an image or use a slash command like /image, the file is copied into that folder and the note body references it via an ov-asset:// URL or [file](path).

How do I back up?

Your vault folder is the unit of backup. Use Time Machine, Dropbox, Git, anything — we deliberately don't ship a built-in backup feature. Plain files just work better with standard OS tools.

Markdown & editor

Do I need to memorize markdown?

No. Type / on an empty line and the slash menu lets you pick any block type. Common shortcuts like #, ##, -, > do auto-convert if you prefer typing them.

How do wiki links work?

Type [[ in a note and an autocomplete popup appears. Type the note name and press Enter. Example: [[Welcome]]. Backlinks appear in the right-hand info panel.

What's frontmatter?

A YAML block at the very top of a note:

---
status: in-progress
date: 2026-01-15
tags: [work, urgent]
---

When present, those fields automatically become columns in the database view (⌘2), and a date field puts the note on the calendar. You can edit them from the gray PropertyBar at the top of the note as well as in raw YAML.

How do I insert a table?

Slash menu (/) → "Table". Or just type with | cell separators — that works too.

AI Copilot

Which model does it use?

OpenAI's gpt-5.4-mini by default. You can switch to any other supported model in settings. Anthropic Claude support is planned.

Where is my API key stored?

In the OS keychain (macOS Keychain / Windows DPAPI / Linux libsecret), encrypted. It is never written to a plaintext location like localStorage. See the security guide for details.

Does Copilot modify my vault files directly?

No. The AI only proposes changes; you confirm the diff and press Approve before anything is written. Six of the fifteen tools are propose tools (create / edit / rename / delete) — every one of them passes through the approval gate.

What does Copilot see?

The system prompt (how to use OV)
A vault summary (file list, folder structure — not contents)
The active note's metadata (name, size — not contents)
Whatever you type into the chat box
Specific note fragments only when the AI explicitly calls read_note

By default note contents are never attached automatically — the AI has to ask.

Can I use OV without Copilot?

Of course. Leave the API key blank and the Copilot panel stays in "no key" state; the rest of OV works normally.

Security & privacy

App password vs File password?

App password: prompted once at every launch. After unlocking, every note in the vault behaves normally.
File password: locks notes individually. Right-click a note in the sidebar → "Lock" → that note is AES-GCM-256 encrypted. The same password locks/unlocks all of them.

The two are independent. With both on, you enter the app password at launch and the file password when you open a locked note.

macOS: see the setup guide's section on "Apple cannot verify the developer"
Windows: SmartScreen → "More info" → "Run anyway"
Linux: check chmod +x execute permission

For more troubleshooting see the full documentation.

Conflicts when editing in an external editor

If a file is changed externally while OV has it open, OV raises an mtime-conflict modal:

Keep my changes — OV's version wins
Load external changes — overwritten by the external editor's version
Cancel — defer the choice

No silent data loss, ever.