Why there's a working directory

This is the most important idea in Hyo, so it’s worth a minute.

Your agent works from a folder. Everything inside that folder is what it can see, read, and change. Everything outside it, it can’t touch. That folder is called the working directory.

So the working directory isn’t a settings detail. It’s the decision that defines what your agent can actually do for you.

What “can see and work in” really means

When your agent has a working directory, it can do all of this inside it, on its own, without you copying anything in or out:

• Read anything in there. Ask a question and it can go and look through your notes to answer, instead of you pasting them in.
• Write and edit. It can draft a new note, rewrite an existing one, fix things up, or reorganise.
• Work across many files at once. Pull three project notes together into a summary, find every mention of a client, tidy a whole folder.
• Use what’s in there as memory. A CLAUDE.md file, your existing notes, your structure — it all becomes context your agent works from.

Outside the working directory, none of that is possible. If a note lives in a folder your agent can’t see, it may as well not exist as far as your agent is concerned.

What goes in a working directory

For most people, the working directory is their Obsidian vault — so what’s “in” it is simply everything in your vault. Your daily notes, your projects, your reference material, your writing, your CLAUDE.md. All of it.

That’s the point. Your vault is your second brain, and pointing your agent at the whole thing means it can work with everything you know.

If you’d rather your agent only see part of your vault — or a project that lives in a completely separate folder — you can point it somewhere narrower. That’s the next page. But the mental model stays the same: whatever’s in the working directory is your agent’s world.

Why this matters more than it sounds

Think of it like the difference between an assistant who can walk into your office and one who’s standing outside the building. Same assistant, completely different amount of help.

If your agent can see your notes, it can answer using what you actually know, draft from your real material, and keep your notes in order. If it can’t, you’re back to copying and pasting into a chat box — which is the exact thing Hyo exists to get you out of.

It also cuts both ways, which is worth knowing. A wider working directory means your agent can do more, but it can also change more. A narrower one means it’s more focused and can touch less. Neither is right or wrong — it depends what you’re doing. That trade-off is what the next page is about.

The default is your whole vault

Out of the box, Hyo uses your entire Obsidian vault as the working directory. For most people that’s exactly right, and you don’t need to change a thing.

If you want something different, read on: what should you point Hyo at?