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Import & export

The vault

Export (Settings › Vault, or the search palette) writes a zip of plain .md files — one per note, a project as a directory, wiki links as [[links]], and each note's own created/updated dates in a small frontmatter block. Unzip it into any markdown app and it opens. That zip is the whole lock-in story: there is none.

What comes in

  • .md / .markdown / .txt — single files or a whole folder/vault, its folders arriving as projects. Frontmatter dates (created/updated/date/modified and friends) are honored; without them, the file's own modified time is used.
  • .html / .htm — the shape Apple Notes, Evernote, Bear and Notion hand you when not handing you markdown. Converted through the app's own editor: real headings, lists, bold, links. The document's title names the note; scripts and styles are stripped.

Imported notes keep the day they were written, so your map and timeline arrive as your history — not as one very busy afternoon.

The paths from specific apps

Every app below can hand you one of the formats above; import the result via Settings › Vault. Folders arrive as projects, and dates come along wherever the source keeps them.

  • Apple Notes — recent macOS and iOS export Markdown natively: select your notes, export as Markdown, import the folder.
  • Obsidian — the vault already is a folder of markdown. Import it as it sits; [[wiki links]] are the same syntax here and keep working.
  • Logseq — the graph folder is markdown too; journals arrive as ordinary dated notes.
  • Notion — Export → Markdown & CSV, unzip, import the folder. Pages and database entries arrive as notes; the CSV index files themselves are skipped.
  • Bear, Craft, Roam — each exports Markdown (Roam as a zip; unzip it first), and the result imports whole.
  • Evernote — export notes as HTML (not .enex) and import those; the editor-grade HTML reader keeps headings, lists and links.
  • Google Keep — Takeout delivers one HTML file per note; import them the same way.
  • Simplenote — its export zip is plain text files; unzip and import.

Loose notes and link proposals

Notes that link to nothing can get link proposals from your own device's relatedness engine — the same one the mind map uses — with the shared words shown as evidence. Each proposal waits in the bell for your click; nothing writes to a note by itself. A switch in Settings › Vault decides whether this runs right after an import or only when you ask.

What does not exist

  • Sync is the Cloud plan's job — the vault export works the same with or without it.
  • No .enex reader — Evernote comes in through its HTML export instead.
  • No audio or video import. Images in an imported folder do come in: each becomes an attachment, and the notes that referenced it keep pointing at it.
  • No duplicate-merging on import: a re-imported note with changed text lands beside the old one rather than overwriting it — the only behavior that never loses writing.