Welcome to Obvious

Obvious is a workspace where you bring your data, your documents, and your ideas — and an AI agent helps you turn them into real work, fast.

The short version

Most tools make you choose. Spreadsheets for data. Docs for writing. A separate app for automations. Then you spend half your day copying things between them and the other half wishing they'd talk to each other.

Obvious puts all of that in one place. You work with data, write documents, build workflows, and get AI help — without switching tabs, exporting CSVs, or duct-taping tools together. Everything lives in one workspace, and everything connects.

How the pieces fit together

Obvious has a handful of core building blocks. Here's what each one does and why you'll care.

Workbooks & Sheets

This is where your data lives. A workbook holds one or more sheets — think of it like a spreadsheet, but smarter. Sheets have typed fields (text, numbers, dates, dropdowns), so your data stays structured from the start. You can import data, enter it manually, or let an agent build it for you.

Documents

Documents are where you write, plan, and think. They support rich formatting, embedded charts, and collaboration. Use them for reports, meeting notes, project briefs — anything that's better as prose than as rows and columns.

Agents

This is where AI agents unlock new possibilities. Obvious has a built-in AI agent that works alongside you in the same workspace. It can analyze your data, draft documents, clean up messy spreadsheets, research topics on the web, build visualizations, and automate repetitive tasks. You don't need to describe your data to it or upload files to a separate tool — the agent already sees what you're working on and can act on it directly.

Think of it less like a chatbot and more like a very fast coworker who never loses context.

Views

Views let you see your sheet data differently without changing the data itself. Turn a task list into a Kanban board. See deadlines on a calendar. Map out a project on a timeline. Same data, different lens — whatever helps you work.

Automations

Tasks and schedules let you set up work that runs on its own. A daily data quality check. A weekly report that writes itself. A webhook that triggers a workflow when something happens in another tool. You define it once, and Obvious handles the rest.

Who it's for

Obvious is built for anyone who works with information — which is pretty much everyone.

Customer success teams track accounts and spot risks. Ops managers clean and transform data without writing code. Founders build dashboards and investor updates. Teachers organize curricula. Students manage research. Small business owners keep track of inventory, clients, and everything in between.

You don't need to be technical. You don't need a background in data. If you can describe what you want to accomplish, you can get it done in Obvious.

Next steps

• Quickstart — Create your first workbook, add data, and see Obvious in action. Takes about five minutes.
• Key Concepts — A closer look at workbooks, documents, agents, and how they work together.
• Your First Workbook — A step-by-step guide to building and configuring a workbook from scratch.