Import

Capture is for a single thought. Import is for an existing library you already have, brought in all at once. Point it at a folder or drop a pile of files in, and the Oracle reads through them quietly, one at a time, after the files are in. Open it from the Import entry in the sidebar.

Bringing files in

Import opens a dialog with one dropzone. You can:

• Drop files or a whole folder onto it.
• Choose a folder, and everything inside it comes in.
• Choose individual files.

Markdown, plain text, PDF, and EPUB are read in full. Other files are kept alongside your notes, but as elsewhere in Existential, images and other non-text files are stored without being read.

Reference material or your writing

Before it begins, Import asks one question: is this reference material or your own writing. Reference material, articles, books, and other people's writing, is the default. Your writing means journals, notes, and essays in your own voice. The answer sets how the Oracle treats what it reads, so the sources you draw on and your own thinking are not weighed the same way.

What happens next

When you begin, the files come in, and then the Oracle starts reading. A large import keeps it reading for a while: your machine may run warm, and a big library can take hours or days to finish. It works in the background, so you can keep using everything in the meantime.

You can watch the progress without staying on the dialog. Home shows how far along the reading is, and the presence indicator in the sidebar reads "Reading your library" while it works. When the reading is done, Activity notes that it has finished. Each file moves through the same twelve-stage pipeline as anything you capture, so once it is read it is scored, placed, and woven into the graph alongside the rest of your notes.

The dialog also keeps a short list of recent imports, so you can see what has come in and what is still being read.