Escape Hatches

Ownership means the ability to leave. Open pipelines out of proprietary silos.

Ownership is only real if you can leave. These runbooks show how to move your records out of proprietary services into plain, durable files on your own disk.

Every recipe uses open command-line tools, so you can run it offline and repeat it whenever you need a fresh export.

Move your notes out of Notion

From: Notion and other cloud wikis
To: Plain Markdown files (Obsidian, Logseq)

Export your workspace, then convert it into ordinary Markdown files you can keep in a folder and back up with Git.

Convert an HTML or Docx export to Markdown

pandoc input_export.html -f html -t commonmark_x --wrap=none -o note.md

Notion also has a built-in Markdown & CSV export. Expect to tidy filenames and internal links by hand.

Move your budget out of YNAB

From: YNAB and other cloud budgeting apps
To: A plain-text ledger (Beancount, hledger)

Export your transactions as CSV, convert them into a double-entry journal, and keep that file in Git.

Check the ledger and print balances

bean-check personal_ledger.beancount && bean-report personal_ledger.beancount balances

Run this after you have converted your CSV into a Beancount file.

Keep a local copy of your email

From: Webmail that only lives online
To: Local Maildir folders (isync + notmuch)

Download your mailbox so every message is a plain file on your disk, then search it offline.

Sync, index, then search

mbsync -a && notmuch new && notmuch search "tag:inbox AND date:2026.."

Needs a one-time ~/.mbsyncrc and 'notmuch setup' first.

Own your CAD and electronics designs

From: Cloud CAD and proprietary EDA tools
To: OpenSCAD, CadQuery, KiCad (plain-text files)

Export existing models as STEP files to keep them, and write new parts as code so they rebuild the same way every time.

Build a parametric part offline

openscad -o enclosure_rev2.stl -D 'wall_thickness=2.4' enclosure.scad

OpenSCAD cannot import STEP. Use FreeCAD or CadQuery to edit existing STEP geometry.