Smart Environment FAQs

Smart Environment is the shared setup layer Smart Plugins reuse: sources, models, providers, settings, exclusions, indexing, events, and status.

The Environment status surface centralizes readiness, inspection, statistics, and maintenance actions.

Embeddings and index data are stored locally in your vault under .smart-env/. See Smart Environment settings.

If you use Syncthing or similar third-party sync, add .smart-env/ to ignore patterns to reduce duplicate writes and conflicts. See settings.

If Obsidian freezes when the smart index updates after file changes, new files, or sync activity, re-import may be running too aggressively. Increase Re-import wait time in Smart Environment settings so Smart Environment waits longer before re-importing modified files. For large or active vaults, try a value above 100 seconds. This does not disable indexing; it gives edits time to settle before automatic re-import runs. When a re-import is pending on desktop, you can still trigger it manually from the status bar by clicking the Re-import status item.

Model changes usually require reset/rebuild so vectors are regenerated. Confirm settings in Smart Environment settings.

Model and embedding controls identify the active configuration that future preparation will use.

Smart Connections Core defaults to a local embedding model and lets you switch models in Smart Environment settings. Rebuild after switching.

Use Manage excluded folders in Smart Environment settings. Pro can also expose file-level exclusions. Excluded content is not indexed, embedded, or returned. See settings.

Source controls define which vault content is eligible for preparation.

Check discovered sources, embedding progress, exclusions, and active embedding model. Smart Milestones gives a guided readiness view.

A ready status provides the fastest product-level confirmation before testing retrieval.

Embedding health adds source counts, coverage, current vectors, pending work, and vector-memory diagnostics to the ready state.

Reset data clears Smart Environment source data and triggers re-import and re-embedding. It does not delete your notes, vault files, settings, or non-source data such as chat threads.

The separate Export data action can create a diagnostic JSON snapshot of sources, blocks, and optional embedding vectors.

The completed export confirms which Smart Environment collections and vectors were included in the diagnostic file.

Embed blocks lets Smart Environment embed smaller sections of long notes for finer-grained semantic results. It can improve precision but may increase storage and compute.

Local providers run on your machine. Cloud providers call remote APIs, require keys and internet, and receive the context you explicitly send. Review settings.

No. Deferred loading on mobile is intentional. It keeps mobile startup lighter and makes Smart Environment loading explicit. See Smart Plugins on mobile.

Mobile has tighter startup constraints and no persistent desktop status bar. Deferred loading plus a dedicated status view keeps loading and embedding visible. See mobile.

Tap Load Smart Environment, then watch the mobile status view for loading collections, embedding progress, and ready state. See mobile.

Muted notices can be managed in Smart Environment settings. Muting native notices does not remove the underlying events; they remain available in the events feed.