Can I get my writing back out?+
Yes, on every plan including free. Any document exports to Markdown from its own menu - the whole page, formatting intact. Data portability is a precondition for trusting a notes app, so it is not something we hold behind the paywall.
Does offline really work, or is it read-only?+
You can read and write. Pages are cached locally, edits you make with no connection are queued, and everything syncs the moment you are back on. Creating, editing and trashing all work in the air. Worth knowing: that holds for an app that is already open, so open it before you lose signal - starting it cold with no connection is not supported yet.
Can I import my Notion or Obsidian notes?+
Yes. Export from Notion as Markdown, or zip your Obsidian vault, and drop the file in - your pages arrive with their nesting intact, and zips inside zips are unpacked for you. You pick which pages come across before anything is written. Two things do not come with them yet: Notion databases, which export as CSV, and images, which stay behind rather than arriving as broken links.
Do I have to use the coding agent part?+
No. It is a door, not a requirement. Sumibako is a notes app first; the agent feature only exists once you run a command or connect a client, and nothing in your vault changes until an agent writes into it. Most people never will, and that is fine.
Can my coding agent not just write to Notion?+
It can, and that half is good: Notion takes Markdown directly and its connection is a browser sign-in. What it cannot do is publish. No Notion endpoint and none of its agent tools turns on Share to web - the public address is a read-only field - so the agent writes the page and you still open Notion, find it, and click through Share and Publish before there is anything to send. That is the step this removes: the link is printed by the same command that files the page, and it stays pointed at the same page when the agent revises it. Checked against Notion's developer changelog on 2026-09-10.
What can a connected agent actually do to my notes?+
Write pages, read them back as Markdown, and add to or correct what is there. It cannot delete anything - there is no delete in the API - it cannot make a page findable by a search engine, and it cannot reach any account but the one that made its token or approved its connection. The last 20 versions it overwrites are kept for 14 days, and you can revoke it in Settings at any time.
Does the voice dictation need an account with anyone?+
No, and it starts writing as you speak rather than making you wait for a transcript. It uses the speech engine already in your browser, which Chrome, Edge and Safari all have. Firefox has no such engine, so dictation is not available there - the button is present but disabled and tells you why. Worth knowing: Chrome's engine transcribes by sending audio to Google, so dictation is not an offline or on-device feature.
How do I find anything once I have a few hundred notes?+
Search covers titles and body text and runs offline, and pages link to each other: type @ to point one note at another, and the note you pointed at shows what links to it. Old writing resurfaces because you referenced it, not because you filed it correctly on the way in.
What happens to my notes if I stop paying?+
They stay. Downgrading returns you to the free plan's limits for creating new things - nothing you already wrote is deleted, locked or hidden, and you can still read, edit and export all of it.
Where does my data actually live?+
In Convex, the backend this runs on, tied to your account and nobody else's. Documents are private until you explicitly publish one, and unpublishing takes it off the web again immediately.
Is there a mobile app?+
It installs as one. Sumibako is a progressive web app, so adding it to your phone's home screen gives you a real app icon and its own window - without an app store in the way.
