chatgpt-sync
Pull fresh ChatGPT conversations into an Obsidian vault on demand, the manual twin of the nightly job. Incremental and idempotent by conversation id: never clobbers enriched notes, never duplicates. T
SKILL.mdskills/chatgpt-sync/SKILL.md
GitHubOBJECTIVE: Pull ChatGPT conversations updated since the vault's newest note and fold them into the Obsidian vault (notes + MOC + SQLite), on demand. Idempotent. IDENTICAL pipeline to the scheduled ChatGPT Nightly Sync; the only difference is this fires when the operator asks.
CONTEXT (canon: memory [[chatgpt-export-pipeline]]):
- ChatGPT chats are NOT on disk - pulled via
/backend-apiwith a bearer token in$IMPORTS_ROOT/chatgpt/secrets/bearer.txt. The cookie/bearer lives ~1-2 weeks; there is NO refresh-token, so it must be hand-refreshed periodically (this is why the flow is semi-auto, not a blind cron). - ⚠️ GRABLI: the detail endpoint
/conversation/{id}403s with the bearer alone -incremental_pull.pyalready sends the required headers (OAI-Device-Id,oai-language, Referer/Origin). The LIST endpoint works without them. - Single source of truth =
$IMPORTS_ROOT/chatgpt/nightly_sync.py- it chains: vault_backup (pre) -> incremental_pull.py CUTOFF -> chatgpt_export_to_vault.py --zip -> copy staging->vault (NEVER overwrites a concept-enriched note, onlyrelated_concepts: []) -> build_chatgpt_moc.py -> vault_backup (post). CUTOFF = newest vault note date - 1 day (so a missed day leaves no gap). - Vault home:
$OBSIDIAN_VAULT/01-Conversations/ChatGPT/conversations/+_ChatGPT-MOC.md. SQLite:_imports\chatgpt\chatgpt_conversations.db. Freshness heartbeat:_imports\chatgpt\_freshness.json.
STEPS:
- Run the orchestrator (it does backup + pull + fold + MOC + backup itself):
cmd.exe /c "$IMPORTS_ROOT/chatgpt/nightly_sync.cmd"(orpython $IMPORTS_ROOT/chatgpt/nightly_sync.py). Run it foreground; it logs to_imports\chatgpt\_nightly_sync.log. - Read the tail of
$IMPORTS_ROOT/chatgpt/_nightly_sync.logfor the result line(s):copy: +N new, ~M refreshed, K enriched-preservedandnightly_sync DONE: +N new chats. - Interpret the exit code:
- 0 = success (even +0 new is fine - nothing new to pull).
- 7 = PULL FAILED, token dead/expired. nightly_sync.py now self-heals this automatically (calls
token_heal.pyon exit 7 → re-mints the bearer from the long-lived session cookie → retries the pull), so a bare exit 7 in the log usually means the automatic heal ALSO failed. DEFAULT ACTION: run skill/chatgpt-token-heal(root-cause fix: session cookie → fresh bearer, 0 browser, 0 LLM; falls back to Chrome cookie re-harvest only if the cookie itself died). Do NOT hand-do the old Chrome Blob-download dance — that is the fallback the skill handles. ESCALATE to the operator (D-type) ONLY if/chatgpt-token-healreaches L3 (Chrome logged out of chatgpt.com on the hub). - 8 = staging build failed (rare) → report the log tail, do not guess.
- (optional) Reindex for RAG so new notes are searchable now:
python $IMPORTS_ROOT/brain_embed_update.py --wait-gpu 10- OR just rely on the nightly Brain Reindex @04:00 (skip if the GPU is busy with a parallel session). - Report: how many new chats folded, the newest note date, freshness FRESH/STALE (read
_freshness.json), and BROKEN-link status if a validate ran. End with a 🧒 In plain words recap (messages TO the operator only).
CONSTRAINTS:
- ANTI-RECENTS: when hunting for ONE specific chat by hand on chatgpt.com, never conclude "the chat does not exist" from the recents list. Use the built-in SEARCH by keyword + check Projects/archive + confirm the active account by email. The scripted path (
/backend-apiLIST viaincremental_pull.py) pulls ALL chats and is more reliable than eyeballing the page. Canon: memory [[web-ui-search-not-recents]] (incident 2026-07-23). - DON'T duplicate logic - ALWAYS go through
nightly_sync.py; never re-implement the pull/convert here. Ifincremental_pull.pyor the converter needs a change, edit THOSE files (single source), not this skill. - AK-47: this skill is just this SKILL.md (a procedure). No new server/DB/service.
- WINDOWS cp1252: the log may show mojibake for Cyrillic titles - cosmetic only; the vault notes are correct UTF-8. Don't "fix" by re-encoding the notes.
- Token is a secret: never print it, never paste it into a message/vault/always-loaded layer (credential-store anti-leak boundary).
- Backup-before-write is already inside nightly_sync.py (vault_backup pre+post) - don't double-run it.
RELATION (do not duplicate):
- Scheduled twin: Windows task
ChatGPT Nightly Sync(02:00) + watchdog10:00, pings the operator on STALE via Telegram). Same scripts. Live on the always-on HUBChatGPT Vault Freshness (Daily)(HUB-1since 2026-06-25 (moved off the laptop HP17 so sync no longer depends on the laptop waking; may still be duplicated on HP17 as backup — idempotent, a double run just sees +0). - Canon + gotchas + token how-to: memory [[chatgpt-export-pipeline]].
- Sibling sync skills: [[health-sync]], [[faaa-sync]], [[claudeai-sync]], [[whatsapp-sync]].
Like this skill? It is one of 100 in second-brain-starter-kit: the second brain we built for ourselves and run every day at Palo Alto AI Research Lab. Install the whole set with npx skills add tonydzi/second-brain-starter-kit. Everything is open source and free, so take what you need.
Flagships worth a look on their own: secondop-panel (a second opinion from a panel of external models), claude-memory-tidy (stop your agent's memory from rotting), telegram-mcp-kit (your own Telegram over MCP in about 15 minutes).
Author: Anton Dziatkovskii, Palo Alto AI Research Lab. Telegram @tonydzi - WhatsApp +1 341 222 9178 - X @Tony_Stef_
Engineers: want to test-drive this setup? Message me. I hand out free starter seeds to engineers who test and report back, and custom skill requests are welcome.