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Oyma stores your notes as plain CommonMark (.md) files in a standard directory folder on your Mac that you choose. Meeting audio files and transcripts are saved as standard media attachments directly inside that vault folder.

The File-Over-App Storage Standard

Traditional note applications hide your data inside obscure, obfuscated database containers buried in ~/Library/Application Support/ or lock them in proprietary cloud servers. If the application crashes, gets discontinued, or changes its pricing, extracting your personal thoughts becomes a painful data recovery ordeal.

Oyma adheres to the “File-Over-App” philosophy: files are primary, and applications are ephemeral viewers.

Vault Directory Structure

When you launch Oyma, you select any directory on your Mac to serve as your vault (e.g., ~/Documents/Vault). Inside that directory, your documents and recordings are stored cleanly:

~/Documents/Vault/
├── 01 Projects/
│   ├── Q4 Strategy.md
│   └── System Architecture.md
├── 02 Meetings/
│   ├── 2026-10-09 Sprint Planning.md
│   └── recordings/
│       ├── 20261009-sprint.m4a
│       └── 20261009-sprint.vtt
├── attachments/
│   └── architecture-diagram.png
└── Daily Notes/
    └── 2026-10-09.md

Key Filesystem Principles

  1. Human-Readable CommonMark: Every text document is a standard UTF-8 .md file. You can open, read, and edit these files with VS Code, Vim, TextEdit, or Obsidian at any time.
  2. Standard Audio Formats: Audio captured from meetings is saved as standard AAC-compressed .m4a files. You can play them in QuickTime or VLC without needing Oyma.
  3. Standard Subtitle & Transcript Tracks: Transcripts produced by on-device Whisper are saved alongside audio as .vtt and embedded directly in note Markdown as readable text.
  4. Transparent Attachments: Pasted screenshots and dropped PDFs are stored in an ordinary attachments/ folder on disk.

Operating System Integration

Because your vault is an ordinary folder on disk, all standard macOS tools operate seamlessly:

  • Spotlight Search: Search for note contents directly from macOS Spotlight (⌘Space).
  • Apple Time Machine: Automatic versioning and hourly backups happen without any special configuration.
  • Git Version Control: Initialize a Git repository inside your vault folder to maintain tamper-proof commit histories.
  • Terminal Utilities: Run grep, ripgrep, sed, or custom Python scripts across your entire note archive.

APFS Filesystem Invariants and Portability

By storing all data within standard Apple File System (APFS) folders, Oyma leverages advanced macOS storage capabilities without requiring complex database engines:

  • APFS Instant Cloning: Duplicating a large vault or creating a template copy consumes zero additional disk space until modified, thanks to copy-on-write cloning.
  • Fast File Renaming: Moving documents across nested folders or renaming directories executes instantaneously at the filesystem inode level.
  • Extended Attributes (xattr): Oyma uses standard macOS file attributes for non-destructive metadata without modifying your raw CommonMark prose.

Safe Disk Restoration from External Media

If you ever need to restore your notes following hardware replacement or OS reinstallation, simply drag your vault folder from your backup drive back into ~/Documents. When you point Oyma to the directory, it mounts your files instantly without rebuilding database tables or validating remote licenses.

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