How to use chanio

Start in 60 seconds.
Go as deep as you want.

Three ways to use chanio, in order of commitment. Each one works on its own. Each one makes the next more powerful. You never have to climb the whole ladder — Tier 1 is enough to feel it.

TIER 01Start here · nothing to install

The Lab

Paste a stream of what you've been thinking, reading, or working on. chanio finds the question you've been circling but never asked — and fills it. Runs Claude in your browser using your own key; nothing leaves your machine except the call to Anthropic.

  1. 1Open the Lab — see a real sample first, no key required.
  2. 2Paste your Anthropic key (set a $5 cap on it; a run costs ~$0.01–0.05).
  3. 3Drop in your stream. Get a gap-fill, a 3-round Deep Dive, or patterns across sessions.
  4. 4Export your whole archive as a file you own, anytime.
What it costs
An Anthropic key + a few cents per run. 60 seconds to first value.
Who it's for
Anyone who already lives in Claude or ChatGPT and wants to feel what chanio does — right now, with zero setup.
Obsidian optionalNot needed. Your archive lives in this browser, exportable to a file whenever you want.
Open the Lab
TIER 02Automatic capture

The Extension

A quiet browser extension sits on top of Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Every prompt you send is captured to a local archive — no copy-paste, no thinking about it. Your knowledge graph compounds on its own while you work.

  1. 1Install the extension (one zip, ~13 KB, Manifest V3).
  2. 2Use your AIs exactly as you already do.
  3. 3chanio captures only what you type into an AI — never your general browsing, passwords, or private tabs.
  4. 4Your archive grows passively, stored on your device.
What it costs
A 60-second install. Free. No account required to start.
Who it's for
People who want their memory to compound without lifting a finger — capture that happens whether or not you remember to do it.
Obsidian optionalStill optional. The extension keeps your archive locally on its own.
Install the extension
TIER 03Own the whole graph

chanio-core + Obsidian

The terminal layer. chanio-core captures every Claude Code session automatically, and a nightly job compiles everything into your Obsidian vault — a morning brief plus a living state note for each project you're working on. An MCP connector exposes the whole graph to any AI that speaks the protocol. This is "storage comes home" in full.

  1. 1Point chanio-core at your Obsidian vault.
  2. 2Every terminal AI session is captured to disk automatically.
  3. 3A nightly compile turns raw sessions into briefs + per-project state notes.
  4. 4Any AI reads your graph over MCP — you bring the context, not the platform.
What it costs
Comfort with a terminal and Obsidian. This is the power-user tier — honestly more setup, much more memory.
Who it's for
Builders who live in the terminal and want a sovereign, compounding knowledge graph they fully control.
Obsidian neededThis is where Obsidian lives. The vault is your durable store — yours, on your disk, browsable forever.
See how it's built
Do I need to download Obsidian?

Only at Tier 3. The Lab and the extension store your data without it — the Lab in your browser (exportable to a file), the extension on your device. Obsidian is the upgrade for people who want their whole graph in a tool they fully control, browsable forever, with a nightly compile running on their own machine. Start without it. Add it when you want the full graph at home.

The fastest way to get it
is to feel it.

Open the Lab, paste a stream of what you've been thinking, and watch it find the question you didn't ask. No install. 60 seconds.

Open the Lab →

Compute stays rented. Storage comes home.