You can bring existing Obsidian notes into Penny without changing the source vault. Open Import → Obsidian in the dashboard.
- Find your Obsidian vault folder in your file manager.
- Create a ZIP archive of the folder.
- In Penny, choose Choose a vault zip or drop the ZIP onto the upload area.
- Watch the import progress and its Inserted, Already imported, and Failed counts.
Markdown notes become archival memories. Penny extracts frontmatter and inline tags. It skips the .obsidian/ configuration folder, trash, empty notes, attachments such as PDFs and images, and Canvas files. Hashtags inside code fences are not extracted as tags.
Each note is identified by its path within the vault. Running the same import again adds missing notes rather than duplicating paths already imported. Renaming a file gives it a new path, so it can be imported as a new note.
If the ZIP contains no eligible Markdown notes, Penny reports that before uploading. If it exceeds the per-import row limit, split it into smaller vault archives or contact support. A partial result means some notes were imported successfully; check the counters before deciding what to retry.