Knowledge Import Guide

EchOS stores every note as a plain .md file with YAML frontmatter, making the knowledge base natively readable in any markdown editor and trivially importable from Obsidian vaults, Notion exports, PDFs, audio files, and RSS feeds.

Capturing content from URLs

The fastest way to import content is to ask the agent directly. EchOS includes plugins for several content types:

Content type	Plugin	Example prompt
Web article	`@echos/plugin-article`	”Save this article: [URL]“
YouTube video	`@echos/plugin-youtube`	”Save this YouTube video: [URL]“
Tweet / thread	`@echos/plugin-twitter`	”Save this tweet: [URL]“
PDF document	`@echos/plugin-pdf`	”Save this PDF: [URL]“
Podcast / audio	`@echos/plugin-audio`	”Transcribe and save this podcast: [URL]“
RSS / Atom feed	`@echos/plugin-rss`	”Subscribe to this RSS feed: [URL]”

Each plugin downloads the content, extracts the relevant text (or transcript), and saves it as a searchable markdown note. AI categorization is applied automatically when ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is configured.

PDF import

Save this paper as a note: https://example.com/paper.pdf

The agent calls save_pdf, which:

Downloads the PDF
Extracts text via pdf-parse
Creates a note with type: article and inputSource: file

Password-protected or image-only PDFs fail gracefully with a descriptive message.

Audio and podcast import

Transcribe and save this podcast episode: https://example.com/episode.mp3

The agent calls save_audio, which:

Probes the file size (HEAD, then Range: bytes=0-0 if needed)
Downloads — splitting into 24 MB chunks if the file exceeds 25 MB
Transcribes each chunk via OpenAI Whisper (whisper-1)
Saves a note with type: note and inputSource: voice

Supported formats: .mp3, .wav, .m4a, .ogg, .webm, .mp4, .flac Requirement: OPENAI_API_KEY must be configured. See Setup for details.

RSS and Atom feed subscriptions

Subscribe to this RSS feed: https://example.com/feed.xml

The agent calls manage_feeds (action: add), which:

Validates the URL (SSRF protection)
Fetches the feed to confirm it is parseable
Stores the subscription in the plugin’s SQLite database

New articles are then fetched automatically every 4 hours. For each entry the plugin:

Claims the article’s guid atomically (deduplication)
Extracts the full article text via @echos/plugin-article
Applies AI categorization (inherits feed tags plus rss)
Saves a note with type: article and inputSource: url

Manage subscriptions:

List my RSS feeds
Refresh all my RSS feeds now
Unsubscribe from https://example.com/feed.xml

See RSS Feed Plugin for full details.

Opening EchOS in Obsidian

Point Obsidian at the knowledge directory and everything works immediately:

In Obsidian: Open folder as vault → select your KNOWLEDGE_DIR (defaults to ~/echos/knowledge/, or wherever configured in your .env)
All notes open with their frontmatter properties visible in Obsidian’s Properties panel
Live edits in Obsidian are picked up automatically by EchOS’s file watcher — no restart needed

EchOS watches KNOWLEDGE_DIR for changes. Saving a file in Obsidian triggers a re-index within seconds. New files added via Obsidian are indexed the same way.

Dropping in pre-formatted files

Any .md file that already has the required EchOS frontmatter is indexed automatically:

Copy/paste the file into any folder under your knowledge directory (defaults to ~/echos/knowledge/, folder structure is free-form)
Either wait for the file watcher to pick it up (if EchOS is running), or run:
pnpm reconcile
The file appears in search results immediately

Required frontmatter fields are listed in the Frontmatter reference below.

Importing from an Obsidian vault

Use the import:obsidian script to convert an existing Obsidian vault into EchOS format.

What gets converted

Obsidian field	EchOS field	Fallback
`id` (if UUID)	skipped — file already native	—
`title` / `aliases[0]`	`title`	filename (date prefix stripped)
`created` / `date` / `dateCreated`	`created`	file birthtime
`updated` / `modified` / `dateModified`	`updated`	file mtime
`tags` (array or string)	`tags`	inline `#tags` from content
`category`	`category`	first path segment relative to vault root
`[[WikiLinks]]`	`links`	extracted from content body
`status` (if valid)	`status`	omitted

Step by step

1. Preview first (recommended)

pnpm import:obsidian --source ~/my-obsidian-vault --dry-run

This prints what would happen without writing anything:

Found 847 markdown file(s) in /Users/you/my-obsidian-vault

  [convert] daily/2024-01-15 Morning pages.md
  [convert] projects/echos/Architecture ideas.md
  [skip]    templates/Daily Note Template.md (already has EchOS id)
  ...

Summary:
  Processed : 847
  Converted : 843
  Skipped   : 4
  Errors    : 0

2. Convert in place (modifies the vault files directly)

pnpm import:obsidian --source ~/my-obsidian-vault

Each file gets EchOS frontmatter written back into it. Original content is preserved. 3. Convert to a new location (non-destructive)

pnpm import:obsidian \
  --source ~/my-obsidian-vault \
  --target $ECHOS_HOME/knowledge \
  --copy

Files are copied to $ECHOS_HOME/knowledge/{type}/{category}/{date}-{slug}.md (defaults to ~/echos/knowledge/) with EchOS frontmatter. 4. Override the default type

pnpm import:obsidian --source ~/vault --type journal

pnpm import:obsidian --source ~/vault --tags ai-corner,article

The tags are merged (not replaced) with any tags already in the file’s frontmatter or inline #hashtags. Useful when importing a folder of thematically related files that have no frontmatter. 6. Override category for every imported note

pnpm import:obsidian --source ~/vault --category articles

Overrides the category that would normally be inferred from the vault’s directory structure. 7. Re-process already-imported files (--force) If you ran the importer before and files already have an EchOS id, they are skipped by default. Use --force to re-process them: tags are merged in, --category / --type overrides are applied, and the existing id (and all other fields) is preserved.

# Add tags + fix category on files that were already imported
pnpm import:obsidian \
  --source ~/Documents/ai-corner \
  --tags ai-corner,article \
  --category articles \
  --force

pnpm reconcile

--force works with --copy too: the patched file is written to the target directory. Combining flags — real-world example Importing a fresh folder of AI articles (no frontmatter), tagging them consistently and copying to the knowledge base without touching the originals:

pnpm import:obsidian \
  --source ~/Documents/ai-corner \
  --type article \
  --tags ai-corner,article \
  --category articles \
  --copy

pnpm reconcile

7. Index the imported notes

pnpm reconcile

Or just restart EchOS — it reconciles on startup.

Importing from Notion

Notion’s markdown export has a few quirks the import:notion script handles automatically:

Filename UUID suffix — Notion appends a short hex ID: My Note abc123def456.md → title becomes My Note
Date formats — Created: January 1, 2023 or ISO 8601; script tries multiple field names
Comma-separated tags — Tags: ai, productivity → ['ai', 'productivity']
No type field — all imported as 'note'

Notion export format

To export from Notion: Settings → Export content → Markdown & CSV → Export. Unzip the export. The folder contains one .md per page plus sub-folders for nested pages.

Step by step

1. Preview

pnpm import:notion --source ~/Downloads/notion-export --dry-run

2. Convert and write to EchOS

pnpm import:notion \
  --source ~/Downloads/notion-export \
  --target ~/echos/knowledge

Files are always written to --target (not modified in place), at: {target}/note/{category}/{date}-{slug}.md 3. Index

pnpm reconcile

Before/after example

Notion export (My Ideas abc123.md):

---
Created: January 1, 2023
Last Edited Time: March 15, 2023
Tags: ai, tools, productivity
Category: Research
---

# My Ideas

Some content here...

After import:notion:

---
id: f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479
type: note
title: My Ideas
created: '2023-01-01T00:00:00.000Z'
updated: '2023-03-15T00:00:00.000Z'
tags:
  - ai
  - tools
  - productivity
links: []
category: Research
---

# My Ideas

Some content here...

Frontmatter reference

All fields EchOS reads from .md files:

Field	Required	Type	Valid values / notes
`id`	Yes	`string`	UUID v4 — generated by import scripts
`type`	Yes	`string`	`note` \| `journal` \| `article` \| `youtube` \| `tweet` \| `reminder` \| `conversation` \| `image`
`title`	Yes	`string`	Free text
`created`	Yes	`string`	ISO 8601 datetime, e.g. `'2024-01-15T09:30:00.000Z'`
`updated`	Yes	`string`	ISO 8601 datetime
`tags`	Yes	`string[]`	YAML list; may be empty `[]`
`links`	Yes	`string[]`	Related note titles or IDs; may be empty `[]`
`category`	Yes	`string`	Free text, e.g. `programming`, `health`
`status`	No	`string`	`saved` \| `read` \| `archived`
`inputSource`	No	`string`	`text` \| `voice` \| `url` \| `file` \| `image` — audio/podcast notes use `voice`; PDF notes use `file`; image notes use `image`
`source_url`	No	`string`	Original URL for articles/YouTube notes
`gist`	No	`string`	Short summary / AI-generated abstract
`author`	No	`string`	Author name for articles

Files missing id are silently skipped by the reconciler. The import scripts ensure id is always written. If you create notes manually, you must add a UUID id field.

After import: run `pnpm reconcile`

pnpm reconcile

This syncs all markdown files in KNOWLEDGE_DIR into:

SQLite (metadata + FTS5 full-text index)
LanceDB (placeholder vector embeddings — real embeddings generated when EchOS runs)

Output looks like:

Results:
  Scanned : 850
  Added   : 843
  Updated : 0
  Skipped : 7
  Deleted : 0

Alternatively, just start EchOS (pnpm start) — it reconciles on every startup.

Getting Started

Architecture

Features

Operations

Knowledge Import

Knowledge Import Guide

Capturing content from URLs

PDF import

Audio and podcast import

RSS and Atom feed subscriptions

Opening EchOS in Obsidian

Dropping in pre-formatted files

Importing from an Obsidian vault

What gets converted

Step by step

Importing from Notion

Notion export format

Step by step

Before/after example

Frontmatter reference

After import: run `pnpm reconcile`

​Knowledge Import Guide

​Capturing content from URLs

​PDF import

​Audio and podcast import

​RSS and Atom feed subscriptions

​Opening EchOS in Obsidian

​Dropping in pre-formatted files

​Importing from an Obsidian vault

​What gets converted

​Step by step

​Importing from Notion

​Notion export format

​Step by step

​Before/after example

​Frontmatter reference

​After import: run pnpm reconcile

Knowledge Import Guide

Capturing content from URLs

PDF import

Audio and podcast import

RSS and Atom feed subscriptions

Opening EchOS in Obsidian

Dropping in pre-formatted files

Importing from an Obsidian vault

What gets converted

Step by step

Importing from Notion

Notion export format

Step by step

Before/after example

Frontmatter reference

After import: run `pnpm reconcile`