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Usage

Export - ONA.UNO Docs

Export items as Markdown files for sharing and external tools

ONA.UNO can export items as plain Markdown files. This is useful when you want to share a subset of your library, archive a snapshot, or upload notes into external tools (for example NotebookLM).

The sea trade port in Matosinhos, Porto.

What export creates

  • One .md file per item
  • Each file starts with two links:
    • Open original — best-effort link to the original source (web URL, local file, Mail, Obsidian, … depending on the item)
    • Open in ONA.UNO — a deep link into the desktop app (ona-uno://item/...)
  • After the links, the file contains the item’s saved text content

Example:

[Open original](<https://example.com>)
[Open in ONA.UNO](ona-uno://item/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000)

ONA.UNO also supports exporting the current chat transcript as one Markdown file from the chat header.

Export chat transcript

  1. Open the Chat tab.
  2. Click the export icon (square.and.arrow.up) in the chat header.
  3. Choose:
    • Export Chat
    • Export Chat with Sources
  4. Pick filename/location in the save dialog.
    • Suggested filename: <chat session title> YYYY-MM-DD.md (fallback: ona-uno-chat YYYY-MM-DD.md).

Chat transcript format:

  • # ONA.UNO Chat
  • date line (Appearance date format)
  • linear message blocks:
    • ## Prompt for user messages
    • ## Response for assistant messages
  • --- before each new prompt after the first prompt

Export Chat removes citation markers and writes transcript only.

Export Chat with Sources keeps citation markers and appends a # Sources section for cited items. Source blocks use ## Source #NN - Title plus optional ## Summary / ## Content subsections (with a blank line after each heading) when those sections are non-empty. ONA.UNO inserts a blank-line / --- / blank-line separator between transcript and # Sources.

Export from the timeline

Export a single item

  1. Right-click the item in the timeline.
  2. Choose Export as Markdown File.
  3. Pick a filename and location.

Export multiple items

  1. Select multiple items in the timeline.
  2. Right-click the selection.
  3. Choose Export as Markdown Files.
  4. Pick a folder — ONA.UNO writes one file per item.

When exporting many items, ONA.UNO shows a progress window with Cancel.

Drag from timeline (quick export)

You can also drag selected timeline items directly into other apps.

  • Drop into Finder or a browser upload zone (for example ChatGPT/Claude) to send a single .md file.
  • Drop into a text field/editor (Notes, Word, Sheets, browser text inputs) to paste markdown inline.

Both behaviors come from one drag action. ONA.UNO puts multiple representations on the drag pasteboard, and the target app picks what it supports best:

  • NSFilePromiseProvider for native file-promise targets (Finder and similar apps)
  • temporary .fileURL for browser upload targets
  • .string for inline text targets

For drag export, ONA.UNO combines the selected items into one markdown payload. For each item:

  • ## Title
  • ## Summary
  • blank line, then ---, then blank line
  • ## Content

If summary/content is missing, placeholder text is inserted.

Export from search and chat

Export buttons also appear when the timeline is filtered:

  • Search mode: after you run a search, an Export button appears near the top-right of the timeline.
  • Chat view: when the timeline is filtered to the items used for chat retrieval, an Export button appears next to the chat controls.

These exports are great for creating a “research bundle” of the exact notes used in a search or chat.

Export everything

Use File → Export All as Markdown… to export your entire library to a folder.

Note

Exporting all items can create a lot of files. ONA.UNO will show a confirmation prompt with the number of items before it starts.

File names

ONA.UNO generates safe filenames automatically:

  • Normal export: YYYY-MM-DD-<title>.md
  • Semantic search / chat bundles: 0-781-YYYY-MM-DD-<title>.md (includes a similarity score prefix)

If two items would produce the same name, ONA.UNO adds a suffix (-2, -3, …).

Similarity score prefix (semantic search / chat export)

When you export from Semantic (AI) search results or from a chat retrieval set, ONA.UNO adds a similarity prefix like 0-781-.

  • The score is a number from 0.000 to 1.000 where higher means “more semantically relevant” to the query/context.
  • It’s included so you can sort the exported files by name in Finder and quickly find the most relevant notes.
    • If you want the most relevant notes at the top, sort by Name and use descending order.
Note

The similarity score is a relevance signal, not a guarantee that an item is “correct” or “the best” — it just indicates that the content is closer to your query in meaning.

Notes and limitations

  • “Open original” depends on the source and your device. A message:// link only makes sense on Apple devices, and local-file links won’t work if the file isn’t on that device.
  • “Open in ONA.UNO” only works where ONA.UNO is installed and where the item exists in that device’s local database.
  • Exported files are plain text files on disk. Treat them like any other sensitive document you might share.