The PennyOS guide
Everything about installing PennyOS on a Beepy, using each app, and connecting it to an Obsidian vault on your own server. Start at chapter 1 or jump to an app.
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Read Install and First boot in order, then Everyday use. Everything else is reference: open it when you need it.
One word first. On the device, PennyOS calls your server the mini, because it was built against a Mac mini. Wherever a screen says "the mini", read "your server". It can be any always-on Mac or Linux computer you can reach over SSH.
1. Getting started
- Install: Card, drivers, shell
- First boot: Wi-Fi, place, PIN, card
- Everyday use: Keys, Home, Back, lock
- Offline and away: What works where
- Battery and power: Draw, charging, shutdown
- Troubleshooting: When something is off
2. The apps
- All apps: Eighteen, by what they need
- a Ask: Claude, run in your vault, drawn as a page.
- q Chat: A local model on your server, answering from your wiki.
- n Notes: Plain text files, saved on every key, synced to your inbox.
- j Journal: One page a day, behind the PIN.
- v Vault: Your wiki, read only, from a mirror on the card.
- f Field: The first twenty minutes in a city you do not know.
- r News: Your feeds, readable offline, read state shared with glasses.
- m Mail: Your inbox, read only. The account lives on your server.
- w Weather: Now, the week, air, sky and ground, for any saved place.
- g Glance: What is overdue in your vault, in three lines.
- k Keys: The keymap card, on the device.
- c Clock: The face the screen wears when you are not typing.
- x Settings: Seven groups, plus About, Reboot and Power off.
- o Search: Public records lookups, run on your server.
- t Store: Who owns and who is leasing a storefront. San Francisco only.
- i Link: Pair with G2 glasses: type on the Beepy, read on your face.
- p Solitaire: Klondike, draw one, keyboard only.
- u Usage: Your Claude limits and token counts, from your server.
3. Working with Obsidian
- Obsidian and your server: The server half
- The gate: What the device may run
- Server setup: Scripts, paths, Tailscale
4. Reference
- Keys: Every binding
- Configuration: pennyos.conf and local.conf
- Security: PIN, card, gate, loss