Your files and privacy

Free. Everyone gets this.

I built Reading Vault so your reading belongs to you. Here’s where everything goes, and when Reading Vault ever talks to the internet.

Where your things are kept

Everything is a regular note or file in your vault. You can open any of it in Obsidian like any other note.

• A note for each book. It holds the title, author, your reading progress and your own notes.
• A note for each highlight. It holds the passage, its color and any note you added.
• Book files and covers. The EPUB and PDF files themselves, and their cover pictures.
• Topic notes. The notes you link highlights to (with Pro).
• Saved words. One note per word you save (with Pro).

You choose these folders yourself. See Settings and folders.

Text that comes from a book or an AI service (passages, chapter names, a book’s description, summaries and answers) is saved into your notes as plain words. It reads the same, but it can’t run as code in other plugins such as Dataview or Templater.

What stays on your computer

Your reading history for the Reading Dashboard and your settings are stored with the plugin, in your vault’s settings folder. They never leave your computer unless your own vault sync copies them.

When Reading Vault goes online

Reading Vault doesn’t go online by itself. It only goes online when you ask it to, in these cases:

1. Downloading the natural voices (Pro). This happens once, when you press Download: the voice model from Hugging Face and pronunciation lists from Reading Vault’s public voices repository, saved on your computer outside your vault.
2. Playing a voice sample with ▶ in Settings. The first time, a short clip is fetched from Reading Vault’s public voices repository and kept on your computer; after that it plays offline.
3. Downloading a dictionary for Word lookup. This also happens once, when you press Download.
4. Ask the book, the AI summary and “Explain in this sentence” (Pro). These only work after you turn on Ask and add your own AI key. Only then do they send a question to the AI service you picked.

Checking your Pro key happens on your computer. It never goes online.

If you stop using Reading Vault

Your notes, highlights and book files all stay where they are. They’re plain notes and files, so they still open in Obsidian or any other app.