[HN Gopher] Obsidian Sync now has a headless client
___________________________________________________________________
Obsidian Sync now has a headless client
Author : adilmoujahid
Score : 561 points
Date : 2026-02-28 16:31 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (help.obsidian.md)
(TXT) w3m dump (help.obsidian.md)
| theptip wrote:
| Why would you use this over plain git in a CI pipeline?
| Presumably you need your knowledge graph versioned?
| articsputnik wrote:
| Quoting[1] kepano (CEO of Obsidian) - Why you might use
| Obsidian Sync headless:
|
| - Automate remote backups
|
| - Automate publishing a website
|
| - Give agentic tools access to a vault without access to your
| full computer
|
| - Sync a shared team vault to a server that feeds other tools
|
| - Run scheduled automations e.g. aggregate daily notes into
| weekly summaries, auto-tag, etc
|
| ...all while having the speed, privacy, customizability, end-
| to-end encryption of Obsidian Sync.
|
| [1]: https://x.com/kepano/status/2027485552451432936
| breakyerself wrote:
| I just use Dropbox with dropsync on my phone. I never use the
| knowledge graph anyway
| boomskats wrote:
| If you have automation that dumps things int your vault, that
| you built with their new CLI (which lets you create/tag docs
| etc. without running the full electron app), I guess this lets
| you sync those changes and propagate them to all of your
| obsidian sync clients also without having to open
| aforementioned full electron app.
| jatari wrote:
| Does the knowledge graph have a function other than to show off
| how big your vault is?
| kid64 wrote:
| Only in 2nd-brain mythology, which holds that you'll discover
| connections between your notes that you didn't realize was
| there. I think it started as eye candy to confuse prospective
| users considering Roam Notes. They later did something
| similar with their "Canvas" feature. So, these are features
| you get with their lack of coherent vision, rather than basic
| usability and a safe plugin ecosystem, neither of which
| Obsidian plans to deliver..
| wiether wrote:
| To enjoy the native ease of use and security of Obsidian Sync
| as a human user on your devices; while being able to automate
| things on a server.
| TheDong wrote:
| iOS makes it painful to use third-party sync protocols and
| servers, like syncthing can't run in the background, a git sync
| service can't run in the background, only iCloud gets to run in
| the background.... and whatever sync protocol the app itself
| has blessed so it can run immediately on opening the app.
|
| As such, on iOS the native sync is the only one that works
| cleanly and seamlessly, and so you're incentivized to pay for
| it.
|
| There was a little while, when dropbox was big, where it seemed
| like the future of computing would be "your data is in the
| cloud, and every app you use can share that data, and those two
| things are independent integrated through some common
| filesystem layer".
|
| And then it ended up that no, your data's in a cloud-per-
| service, where your emails live in googles cloud, your
| documents in microsoft 365's cloud, your images in "adobe
| creative cloud"'s cloud, your photos in Apple's cloud, your
| passwords in 1Password's cloud, and your knowledgebase in
| Obsidian's cloud.
|
| The dream of the filesystem API being able to expand to clouds,
| of being able to choose dropbox or google or apple as the owner
| of your data, and other applications seamlessly integrating
| with any of them, it died with apple making it impossible to
| offer any sort of generic filesystem API or even background
| sync.
|
| And so, that's why you'd use obsidian sync over git, because
| you're cursed with using a phone.
|
| Unless you're saying "why not pay for obsidian sync, but then
| sync it into a git repo in CI and commit there to see the
| diffs", not "why not use git as the underlying sync protocol",
| in which case ignore everything I wrote, you totally could do
| that.
| theptip wrote:
| Gotcha, thanks. I just use git but don't sync to my iPhone,
| this helps give context on the value prop there.
| Terretta wrote:
| > _it died with apple making it impossible to offer any sort
| of generic filesystem API or even background sync_
|
| Apple's cloud storage remained WebDAV a very very long time.
|
| Apple's iOS has a pluggable Files system. Use Working Copy to
| give other apps access to folders sync'd with git:
| https://workingcopy.app
|
| Or a dedicated app like GitSync:
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gitsync/id6744980427
| TheDong wrote:
| > Or a dedicated app like GitSync
|
| Which gates "sync" behind an expensive "premium" paywall.
|
| It feels criminal to charge that much for the sync feature
| when it also can't possibly work, iOS actively does not
| want apps to run in the background, and does not offer a
| viable method for this libgit wrapper to execute libgit on,
| for example, a filesystem inotify event or write or
| whatever.
|
| https://github.com/ViscousPot/GitSync/issues/807#issuecomme
| n...
|
| What do you know, people are observing it doesn't really
| work.
|
| > Apple's iOS has a pluggable Files system.
|
| Okay, excellent, maybe you can tell me how to do this.
|
| I have opened the builtin iOS notes app. It by default can
| sync notes with iCloud. I would like to have it store my
| notes in Git or Dropbox or anything else, and be able to
| also edit them on another machine and have the changes
| sync.
|
| I won't hold my breath on how to do this because like
| clearly things are not pluggable, the builtin iOS apps
| don't work with anything but iCloud and the filesystem is
| obviously not pluggable or generic.
| hrmtst93837 wrote:
| Using a headless client allows for easier management of changes
| in a structured way, especially in collaborative environments.
| While git is effective for versioning, Obsidian Sync may manage
| the graph's unique metadata and relationships more elegantly.
| kelvinjps10 wrote:
| It would be good since I don't use obsidian on my desktop but I
| do on my phone, so that way I can use it for syncing and then
| open the documents on Neovim on my desktop
| adilmoujahid wrote:
| I love this as I can now sync the research I do using an OpenClaw
| running on an EC2 instance. My setup here:
| https://x.com/AdilMouja/status/2025266443613319546
| deniskim wrote:
| Nice to see an official headless option. If anyone is looking to
| do headless syncing specifically to their own Synology NAS, I
| created an open-source alternative for that here:
| https://pypi.org/project/obsidian-synology-sync/
| mtucker502 wrote:
| I know this is headless but is there any other reason I should
| use this over the official Synology drive app?
| tigereyeTO wrote:
| Synology Drive is a file and folder syncing system.
|
| Obsidian is a note and wiki syncing system.
|
| You should use an obsidian syncing system if you want to sync
| notes and wikis. You should use a file syncing system if you
| want to sync files.
| fwn wrote:
| This reply does not address parents question at all.
|
| A key feature of Obsidian is that it stores your notes in
| an open folder structure on your file system.
|
| A very valid question is whether there are benefits to
| using a special note sync application rather than a
| standard file system sync application, and if so, what
| those benefits are.
| kepano wrote:
| The official Sync is focused on providing a more integrated
| experience in the Obsidian app
|
| - Built-in version history
|
| - Cross-platform support, especially on mobile
|
| - Fine-grained control (e.g. different theme/plugins/settings
| per device)
|
| - Sharing your vaults with other users
| mcjiggerlog wrote:
| I've been using Synology Drive to sync Obsidian between
| different machines and my android phone and it works great.
| I've never seen a need to use the official sync.
| corysama wrote:
| Also new: Obsidian joins the CLI gang
|
| https://help.obsidian.md/cli
|
| I've been having a lot of fun recently using AI CLIs with
| Obsidian. No plugins necessary because it's just a directory tree
| of markdown files.
| manmal wrote:
| I've been using iCloud to sync Obsidian, and have consistently
| run into the problem that iCloud file container access needs
| full disk permissions that I don't want to give the agent (or
| Ghostty). Does everybody use Obsidian's paid sync instead or
| what? Or SyncThing?
| typicalrunt wrote:
| I used to use SyncThing, then Dropbox, then iCloud. But then
| I just caved and paid for Obsidian Sync and it is the best
| money spent aside from Claude. I don't have to tinker with
| weird settings anymore or deal with sync issues, it just
| works.
| peterb wrote:
| Same
| FloatArtifact wrote:
| I can't wonder if that's by design to make it hard for a
| plugin to have it's own sync mechanism. Definitely not
| proof of this that I know of, but a thought.
| wiether wrote:
| Obsidian is plain Markdown and JSON files.
|
| There can't be a will from the devs to make it hard to
| sync.
|
| It's just that unlike git or Dropbox or whatever, that
| are just generic "syncing" tools, Obsidian Sync has been
| built to provide the best experience with Obsidian.
| FloatArtifact wrote:
| I'm talking more about the plugin architecture not about
| the file format or third-party applications. sync plugins
| seems to be pretty limited compared to what's offered for
| a subscription.
| febed wrote:
| I've been using Obsidian with Dropbox sync for years.
| What's so special about the Obsidian sync?
| wiether wrote:
| Obsidian with Dropbox can work on an iOS device?
|
| With Obsidian Sync you manage everything directly in
| Obsidian: sync status, activity, history, selective
| sync...
|
| And "it just works" across platform, without having to
| think about/set something else up.
| wellthisisgreat wrote:
| it's not per-vault is it? I have multiple vaults I'd like
| to sync selectively (50% of files in one vault for one
| machine, and 100% on another etc.) No space restrictions?
| wiether wrote:
| I only use a single vault, so I'm afraid I can't answer
| to your question.
|
| So when I talk about selective sync, it's about what is
| synced within a vault, and more specifically Obsidian
| settings/plugins...
|
| I don't have the need to selectively sync only some of my
| vault's content, so never looked into it.
|
| I just know that Obsidian Sync does what I'm expecting it
| to do.
|
| And to add some context: I'd rather they just add a
| regular "Obsidian" sub that included vault sync; instead
| of giving away Obsidian for free, and selling add-ons.
| Because on itself, Obsidian Sync is quite expensive. If
| I'm willing to pay that much for that little, it's
| because, to me, I'm paying first for the development of
| Obsidian in itself.
|
| But I understand why they wanted to go this way.
|
| I don't know if it is/was the best move; because I see
| lots of people not willing to use Obsidian just because
| they are "scamming" people on their expensive Sync add-
| on.
| 4diii wrote:
| someone reverse engineered obsidian sync a couple years
| ago, but obsidian ended up "patching" it. Saw some recent
| discussion on here about it:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44768641
| wiether wrote:
| Seems fair to me.
|
| Obsidian Sync has always been presented as a paid add-on,
| here to provide income for the company building Obsidian
| and giving it for free.
|
| If they provided a direct BYOS(ync/erver) mechanism, less
| people would pay for the add-on, which is their source of
| income.
|
| Instead, they let you use your own sync mechanism by only
| relying on text files.
|
| I understand why some people could get upset about this,
| but they've always been transparent :
|
| - no proprietary format ; can migrate at anytime without
| effort
|
| - free but closed-sourced software
|
| - add-ons for income
| poglet wrote:
| Joplin has great sync support for a number of providers,
| Dropbox, Onedrive, Nextcloud, S3 etc, Obsidian supports
| none of these on iOS so I cant sync all my devices
| without having all my notes go to Obsidian servers and
| paying the fee.
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Obsidian's paid sync works great for me.
| vergessenmir wrote:
| Just pay for the sync. I used to juggle with git, rsync,
| inotify etc and other tools
|
| Its one of the few subscriptions where it actually feels like
| money well spent
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| I was using SyncThing, and it worked, but any time you have
| an Obsidian vault open on two devices, or shortly after
| another, you're always thinking about if you're going to
| have to clean up a bunch of sync conflict files later. And
| that mental overhead is not worth saving $4/mo.
|
| The conflicts are never hard: it's like a git merge
| conflict where you just take the latest of every conflict
| block.
| batisteo wrote:
| For me using SyncThing totally worth it, but I guess it's
| down to our income difference
| EchoReflection wrote:
| I used multiple sync "solutions" (terrible idea, in
| retrospect); Dropsync, Syncthing, Drivesync, _in addition
| to_ paying for Obsidian Sync, because I was delusional
| about "backing up my data". Huge mistake on my part,
| I've spent many, many, many hours deduplicating worthless
| "backups". Agree with "just pay for Obsidian Sync".
| eloop wrote:
| Mirrors my experience.
| sudhirkhanger wrote:
| What tool can be used to resolve syncthing conflicts? I
| get a lot of.stversion files.
| haltcatchfire wrote:
| I try to selfhost most of my stuff I rely on. Immich,
| Vaultwarden, etc. I gave up on trying to selfhost sync
| solutions for Obsidian - Obsidian Sync is just so damn
| frictionless compared to all other solutions. Also, it
| feels good supporting the development of Obsidian.
| poglet wrote:
| https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync
| willis936 wrote:
| I use this and a self-hosted couchdb. So far it seems to be
| good, but I haven't spent more than a few hours with it
| yet. I do have what appears to be a working setup on ios,
| macos, and linux. Obsidian's large number of plugins and
| control surfaces is a bit hazardous.
| etra0 wrote:
| I did run with this setup for a few months (I believe like,
| 5 months already?) and when it works, it's nice, but 90% of
| the time it has been extremely painful.
|
| Something breaks, one automatically updates and then it
| breaks the entire database, SCRAM mode, recovering is
| painful, and all the time I get warnings, spam and logs,
| it's anything but seamless.
|
| Which is a real pity, because when it works it feels
| magical to use within my laptop, my phone and my tablet,
| all self hosted, but the pain won and so I'm searching for
| new alternatives.
| kcrwfrd_ wrote:
| I just pay for the sync.
|
| I like that I can have some vaults that sync to both my
| personal and work laptops and other vaults that only sync to
| one or the other.
|
| It's awfully convenient without any vendor lock in since I
| can just take my plain markdown files and leave anytime.
| ozlikethewizard wrote:
| Another option is obsidian lets you set which folders
| should sync. So I have everything in one vault, and in my
| trusted environment I let have everything synced, work
| machine only gets the work folder, and windows gaming
| machine only gets required non-confidential stuff (i.e
| notes about stuff that isnt me).
|
| Its nice to be able to review it all from one machine
| though
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| I use both and I prefer their builtin sync, since I also code
| on Linux.
| codybontecou wrote:
| I built a one-time purchase solution that might help you.
|
| - https://isolated.tech/apps/syncmd
|
| - https://isolated.tech/apps/syncmd/blog/obsidian-git-ios-
| setu...
|
| You can git clone directly to your iOS file system which
| fixes the Obsidian git plugin issue so you can use the
| Obsidian git plugin on your computer and mobile devices.
| seabrookmx wrote:
| I've had good luck with syncthing. But I only sync between
| laptop and desktop.. the mobile story with syncthing isn't
| ideal.
| bossyTeacher wrote:
| I use syncthing on mobile with no problems. Depending on
| your settings it might not work on low battery though.
| dexterdog wrote:
| Why not? I've used it between my desktops and my phone with
| no problem for years.
| qaq wrote:
| github private repo works fine
| vorticalbox wrote:
| I have been using remotely save and a free bucket from
| backblaze. It as a s3 compatible api so works using the s3
| feature.
| yard2010 wrote:
| I'm doing the same since this is the only method I found I
| can let my bot access the files, something I couldn't
| achieve with Obsidian Sync.. until now!
| rafaquintanilha wrote:
| Definitely one of the biggest ROI is to pay for the sync. I
| regret all years I tried git-based alternatives (it's still
| useful to have it in git for backup, but not as the main
| syncing mechanism).
| vulkoingim wrote:
| I used iCloud in the past, but found that syncing between a
| few devices sometimes left my notes in a weird state -
| sometimes overwritten, missing, etc. I switched some time ago
| to https://github.com/remotely-save/remotely-save with
| backblaze and I periodically sync to a git repo for a second
| backup. No issues since then.
| mk12 wrote:
| I use Syncthing (with Synctrain client on iOS) and it works
| great.
| 369548684892826 wrote:
| protip: You can make synctrain sync with an iOS shortcut,
| with the shortcut being triggered when Obsidian is opened
| or closed. This means you're always in sync, even if iOS
| hasn't allowed synctrain to run in the background.
| brnt wrote:
| Resilio.
| JimmyBiscuit wrote:
| Im just running a Nextcloud on a raspberry pi to sync
| everything. Works flawlessly for multiple years now.
| sylens wrote:
| I just pay for the sync. It probably helps I jumped on board
| when they still had early bird pricing for the sync
| kace91 wrote:
| I use git. push to private repo, you can use a cron in your
| machine to push regularly and so on.
|
| The only limitation comes if you use the vault in a closed
| system like iOS, where you can't run terminal commands. other
| than that, flawless.
| bossyTeacher wrote:
| If you mostly use single-vault Obsidian in two devices,
| SyncThing is perfect imo.
| iaresee wrote:
| I gave up on iCloud sync.
|
| After the tenth time iCloud absolutely destroyed my vault's
| file layout and scattered copies of my files all over my
| iCloud Drive, I just gave up and shell out for paid sync now.
| It's fine. I don't mind paying for things I get actual value
| from.
| tibbon wrote:
| Same. I lost data this way. It wasn't worth it. Happy to
| support Obsidian
| zeta0134 wrote:
| I've had no trouble with syncthing on Android. It just has
| access to the sync folders, as far as I can tell. Seems to
| work great, even if I've got the same file open
| simultaneously on several devices. I use a tablet in my
| kitchen to show my TODO at all times.
| jorgejiro wrote:
| I've been using Obsidian since the beginning, and it's the
| best money I can spend annually. It works perfectly, and I've
| never had any problems.
| bccdee wrote:
| Syncthing has worked flawlessly for me.
| Cpoll wrote:
| I first used the Obsidian git-sync plugin. That worked fine,
| but but when I couldn't get it operable with my phone I caved
| and paid for sync.
| eloop wrote:
| Paying for sync is my way of supporting the developers of
| this excellent application. The sync works well, it's less
| hassle, and more secure than using the usual cloud services,
| particularly for iOS and Android. Obsidian and Tailscale are
| the two pieces of software I gladly pay for, I don't ever
| want them enshittified!
| mihaelm wrote:
| I love that CLIs are getting a second wind.
| AbstractH24 wrote:
| > I love that CLIs are getting a second wind.
|
| I just wish there were more solutions to add simple things
| like copy and paste to them.
|
| As though they were more a derivative of the text box I type
| in right now. And less to MS-DOS I grew up with.
|
| Outside of that, agreed. Eliminate GUI as a blocker.
| halJordan wrote:
| It's surprising how that odds still an unsolved problem.
| That and trashcan integration
| jiehong wrote:
| On MacOS, this is actually solved with the following
| native clis: pbcopy, pbpaste, trash.
| stingraycharles wrote:
| I must be a fossil living under a rock, but: were they ever
| gone? As the amount of new CLI based applications I install
| on a monthly basis is always far more than the amount of new
| GUI based applications.
| DetroitThrow wrote:
| I think a lot of new developers used GUIs very exclusively
| for a very long time. Agentic workflows and Claude code
| have brought CLI tools to the forefront again.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| A good example of this that I've noticed is a lot of
| newer devs were using GitHub Desktop or VS Code to manage
| git operations, but Claude gave them peek under the hood
| and now they're using it directly a bit more. Claude Code
| is a great gateway drug to CLI and TUI addiction
| jadbox wrote:
| It's not super useful yet- you can't really view notes in the
| CLI but you can can trigger features like search.
| WNWceAJ9R9Ezc4 wrote:
| Notes are stored in Markdown files. Why do you need Obsidian
| CLI to view notes when `cat` will do?
| goodmythical wrote:
| Okay, so my command line fu is not what it perhaps should
| be, but if I could use obsidian without the bloated app,
| I'd be even more in love.
|
| How would I be able to search obsidian links from the
| command line?
|
| Like, to travel between notes in the app of course I can
| just click on connecting links or search, but I wouldn't
| have the faintest idea how to do that in a cli.
|
| Is there some handy way to search the current folder and
| subfolders for text in a file with regex? Like some kind of
| >find _term_ for all of my [[term]] entries in markdown
| files ?
| toddmorey wrote:
| What is obsidian beyond a pile of markdown files without
| the app?
| chrisweekly wrote:
| ripgrep?
| xnyan wrote:
| Hackernews is accessed using http. Why do you need a web
| browser when curl exists?
| fredoliveira wrote:
| Not gp, but because the way hackernews would render in a
| web browser versus curl is dramatically different, of
| course. There's a clear separation of presentation and
| content, and curl shows you presentation.
|
| Notes being plain text files means that what you get by
| showing via a CLI is essentially the same as just `cat
| whatever-it-is.md`. Viewing a note via the CLI interface
| could have its merits (it could apply its own flavor of
| presentation), but come on now. Your example doesn't
| hold.
| kepano wrote:
| You can view notes with Obsidian CLI. See the "read"
| commands. But also you can do that with your built-in command
| line tools.
|
| https://help.obsidian.md/cli
| tibbon wrote:
| I've used it with Claude Code for refactoring and helping
| write a really in depth D&D campaign. Using frontmatter, I
| can keep metadata about NPCs and characters synced across all
| files.
|
| Fixes all the problems I've had about "In what order do I put
| this data" and flipping back and forth in a huge stack of
| papers.
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| Oh snap! Thanks for that, I can really make good use of this!
| dSebastien wrote:
| The Obsidian CLI enables many scenarios not possible with the
| Markdown files alone: building and debugging plugins, running
| commands, controlling Obsidian, querying bases, accessing the
| Obsidian index, ...
| neutralx wrote:
| This got me thinking if it's possible to use Obsidian as
| taskwarrior. I've used taskwarrior in the past but it's CLI
| interface which is fine for simpler tasks. Lately, I've been
| trying to use Obsidian as task manager and addition of Bases
| paved path for taskwarrior like usage, but in GUI. Having
| options to use it as CLI and as GUI offers flexibility.
|
| I also used some plugins like bugwarrior to sync Jira/GitHub
| tickets locally. This is perfect when working on multiple
| projects/repos.
|
| But I guess moving from Unix one tool for each job to swiss
| knife tool makes Obsidian overwhelming. Maybe it's better to
| bridge these two tools in some way (plugins) rather than misuse
| Obsidian features.
| input_sh wrote:
| Look at the video, it explicitly starts with dealing with
| tasks in Markdown files. Unintuitively if I might say so, but
| it does.
|
| I agree that now that this is a possibility, some sort of a
| wrapper would be great to see.
| desireco42 wrote:
| This is huge. I built SidianSidekicks and it is based on git
| because we don't want to lose your notes and thoughts, but
| convenience of Obsidan Sync are something that makes everything
| easy. I get this is in beta, and we will stick to git, but love
| what they are doing and looking forward to it.
|
| Essentially Sync while you can emulate it on desktop, for mobile
| it is not good experience without Sync. And we want to have and
| record our thoughts with us all the time.
| pdntspa wrote:
| Now make Dropbox sync work with iPhone
| system2 wrote:
| That will never happen; their only money-making method is to
| limit the iOS app to sell their cloud. Otherwise, the desktop
| is already free with your own vault folder.
|
| They are trying their hardest to prevent users from using
| Google Drive or other services natively. While it is just a
| small option to add, it will make everyone drop their $4 cloud
| subscription.
| kepano wrote:
| If that were true Obsidian would not allow third-party sync
| plugins in the official directory, and wouldn't mention
| third-party options in the official docs:
|
| https://help.obsidian.md/sync-notes
|
| The goal for Obsidian Sync is to be the best option, not the
| only option.
| system2 wrote:
| I just tried just to see if something changed, and I get
| this message when selecting Other:
|
| ###############
|
| Other Syncing Methods:
|
| Obsidian officially supports two syncing methods: Obsidian
| Sync and iCloud.
|
| However, because obsidian gives you control over your data
| there are other sync options you can use.
|
| These options include third-party plugins and other tools
| which may require more advanced setup.
|
| To use an alternative sync method, create a vault and
| follow the instructions provided by the plugin or third-
| party sync provider.
|
| ###############
|
| I went ahead and created a vault specifically to test this
| out, but I wasn't able to find any way to open Google Drive
| from within the app.
|
| To give some context, I use KeePassium with a KeePass vault
| stored in my Google Drive, and it works seamlessly, I can
| browse to the directory and select my database right from
| the file picker. Unfortunately, that same experience
| doesn't seem to be available in Obsidian.
|
| I'm a Windows user for work and don't use iCloud for
| anything, so Google Drive is really my go-to. I've tried
| multiple times to make it work, but it doesn't appear to be
| an option. As I understand it, Google Drive isn't natively
| selectable from Obsidian's iOS menu, and this wouldn't be a
| trivial thing to add since Google Drive appears as a folder
| in the native iOS file browser, which is exactly how I use
| it with other apps like KeePassium.
|
| I've submitted this as a request on GitHub several times,
| and even mentioned that I'd happily pay a one-time fee to
| unlock this functionality. I'm not a fan of subscriptions
| personally, but I do believe in supporting developers for
| their work.
|
| That said, if there truly is a way to use Google Drive with
| Obsidian on iOS, I'd genuinely love to see a step-by-step
| guide, could you share one?
| kepano wrote:
| There are several community plugins for Google Drive. Did
| you try those?
| system2 wrote:
| Yeah, I figured as much. They don't work natively on iOS.
| And honestly, I get it. Sync is a key part of the revenue
| model, and a simple "select your vault from files"
| option, while it would solve the problem completely,
| isn't something that makes business sense to just give
| away. No judgment there. If I'd built something as great
| as Obsidian, I'd probably make the same call.
|
| Since my only ask was really for a workaround or a link
| to a solution, I'm guessing there isn't one available,
| and the suggestion is more about exploring community
| plugins?
| pdntspa wrote:
| Fuck this business sense bullshit. If the feature can be
| built, it should be built. The is business at the expense
| of product, aka the reason everything sucks so much
| nowadays
| system2 wrote:
| We can't do much. He is the CEO of Obsidian, and he won't
| respond either. I guess it is time to build an
| alternative with these functions in place.
| kepano wrote:
| There's isn't an official one yet, but there are
| community options, or you could make your own. If you're
| wondering why this or that feature hasn't been added to
| Obsidian, remember we only have three full-time
| developers (and not trying to grow the team).
| abnry wrote:
| Fantastic! Now I don't need to run it in a headless xorg session.
| madmod wrote:
| For some reason obsidian sync consitently empties random recently
| opened notes for me. I think it might be some kind of race
| condition between icloud sync and obsidian sync. File gets
| touched before obsidian gets to it so the empty note is seen as a
| new file. That theory doesn't quite hold up though because the
| same thing happens to me using the android client. Has anyone
| here had this problem?
| _neil wrote:
| I had this happen a bunch when I was using iCloud sync on
| multiple devices. I think it was mostly solved by setting the
| directory to "keep downloaded" (right click on it in finder and
| it's the second option).
|
| That said, I've switched one vault to git and have had no
| issues there.
| dispersed wrote:
| This is great, but as convenient as Obsidian Sync is, it'll never
| replace plain Git (for me) until it has unlimited version
| history:
|
| > The retention period for your version history depends on your
| Obsidian Sync plan. On the Standard plan, notes are retained for
| 1 month, while on the Plus plan, they are kept for 12 months.
| After this period, older versions of your notes are deleted.
| jon-wood wrote:
| You can use this to sync changes in (near) realtime and then
| either commit them to git, or use some other mechanism to
| increase retention.
| willis936 wrote:
| Then you have two solutions to maintain when one would
| suffice.
| qwertox wrote:
| It also won't replace Postgres, because that is also a
| different thing.
| dispersed wrote:
| What do you mean? Version history is explicitly a feature of
| Obsidian Sync:
| https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian+Sync/Version+history
| qwertox wrote:
| Yes, but just because it has version history doesn't mean
| it is closer to git than to Postgres. You can also do
| versioning in Postgres. You can even search more easily in
| the history.
| happytoexplain wrote:
| I assume they meant "it will never replace Git _for
| syncing Obsidian_ ".
| shminge wrote:
| I have sync to support the amazing devs, and for convenience,
| and an automatic git-based backup that runs in the background.
| It's good to double dip sometimes
| sciencesama wrote:
| what does this mean ? can i self host stuff ?
| kepano wrote:
| Oh! I worked on this project. If anyone has questions, I'll do my
| best to answer them!
| Mountain_Skies wrote:
| No questions, just thanks for helping with a great product.
| 8cvor6j844qw_d6 wrote:
| Are there plans to support scoped token permissions (specific
| folders or even specific notes)? I'd love to try setting up
| something that automatically updates a specific Obsidian note
| on a state change or cronjob, but I'd want to avoid giving
| access to the rest of the vault.
|
| also, thanks for the great product, bought the vip catalyst as
| a show of support.
| kepano wrote:
| Thanks for your support! Sync is end-to-end encrypted so the
| server doesn't know about specific paths in your vault. You
| would have to set those permissions at the filesystem level,
| or with the tool you're using.
| johnmaguire wrote:
| I'm not sure how to make it work but like others in this
| thread I have an interest in sharing some - but not all -
| of my notes with some AI agents. Would love a solution that
| is built in to Obsidian / Obsidian Sync.
| chrisweekly wrote:
| Related tangent: "Relay" (https://relay.md") lets you sync /
| share files based on directory (vs. the whole vault). That
| enables things like "my private vault contains a subdir for
| work, and my work machine syncs to only that child subdir".
| surgical_fire wrote:
| No question. Just wanted to drop by and say Obsidian is
| actually pretty cool. An absolute joy to use, and I only wish I
| learned about it earlier than I did.
| Veen wrote:
| It would be nice if one could sync dot files in the vault. For
| example, the .claude or .pi folder containing skills and
| whatnot.
| kepano wrote:
| Yes, we're looking into that!
| lukasb wrote:
| How are sync conflicts handled in the filesystem? Say I write
| to a file and another client's edit wins and mine is rejected.
| kepano wrote:
| The headless Obsidian Sync client works the same way as
| desktop and mobile clients, see:
|
| https://help.obsidian.md/sync/troubleshoot
|
| - Markdown files: Obsidian Sync merges the changes using
| Google's diff-match-patch algorithm.
|
| - Other file types: For all other files, including canvases,
| Obsidian uses a "last modified wins" approach. The most
| recently modified version replaces earlier versions.
|
| For conflicts in Obsidian settings, such as plugin settings,
| Obsidian Sync merges the JSON files. It applies keys from the
| local JSON on top of the remote JSON.
| Langley wrote:
| Wanted to say thanks. We were literally talking about the lack
| of a cli sync at work last week and I had moved to Syncthing
| because of that gap.
|
| Definitely will be looking at the official Obsidian sync plan
| now.
| Vaslo wrote:
| I'm using a couchdb instance to sync a bunch of local obsidian
| installs and use an obsidian plugin to keep them synced- would
| this change that or make it easier?
| ewidar wrote:
| Do you have a good starting point or explanation to share about
| using obsidian for a team, where we all change/sync files?
| kepano wrote:
| Depends on the size of the team and your requirements. The
| Obsidian team uses a shared Sync vault, which works well for
| us:
|
| https://help.obsidian.md/teams/sync
|
| If your team is more technical Git is an option. If you want
| completely control over permissions and configuration then a
| shared drive is probably better.
|
| https://help.obsidian.md/teams/deploy
| armsaw wrote:
| Thank you for making Obsidian! I am wondering if you have any
| plans to package the headless sync client up for container use
| in Docker or Podman?
|
| Also, is the Obsidian CLI available when obsidian-headless is
| installed? Or is obsidian-headless only a sync client at this
| time?
| kepano wrote:
| Obsidian Headless and Obsidian CLI are two separate things.
| CLI requires running the full app, and lets you do anything
| Obsidian can do. Headless doesn't require the app but for now
| it is just a Sync client.
|
| https://help.obsidian.md/headless
|
| https://help.obsidian.md/cli
| zoul wrote:
| Is there or do you plan to add some kind of webhook to notify
| interested parties that a vault has changed? I think it would
| go together nicely with the headless sync.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Any plans of providing an official obsidian-cli Skill for LLMs?
|
| Because this is 99% going to be used by AI Agents =)
| TheGRS wrote:
| Interesting...I've been thinking for a while that doing
| instructions and logs through my obsidian notes would be really
| helpful and a great way to do more agentic work. I've paid for
| obsidian sync as a way to support their team for the last 3
| years, but color me impressed that there are some more tangible
| benefits to it!
| eric-p7 wrote:
| I wish I could use Obsidian to edit single markdown files.
|
| If my project has a readme.md I don't want to create an obsidian
| vault with its configuration files in my project, just to open
| it.
| kepano wrote:
| Yeah we'll add that at some point.
|
| It's a bit trickier than it seems because a lot of Obsidian
| configuration and app functionality is vault-specific. E.g.
| what theme should be used? What plugins should be available?
| Does autocomplete for [[links]] or properties do anything? Etc.
| toddmorey wrote:
| VSCode opens single files outside of projects. What do they
| do? Personally I wouldn't mind if it just defaulted to the
| settings of the last-used vault.
| ezfe wrote:
| If you don't have a window open, then VSCode opens with no
| active workspace. There are no workspace settings at all,
| and there is no file tree. But since VSCode has user level
| settings, these are what is used, including theming/etc.
|
| If you have a window open, the file is opened to the
| workspace for that window. You can see this in action
| because the "Trust" dialog specifically says that you're
| trying to open untrusted files into a trusted workspace.
| random3 wrote:
| maybe you're overthinking it a little. You could make it of a
| default setup like the one you use for the sandbox, or some
| curated fast-loading one
| aaronharding wrote:
| i am not sure its that tricky, just have some user settings
| that are loaded when you open individual markdown files. show
| a different ui or hide some parts of the ui if need be!
| eric-p7 wrote:
| Just put the default settings in the same place other apps
| put their settings. With an option for a custom path so I can
| sync it between my devices via syncthing.
| krlx wrote:
| Yeah I often find myself with this need too and I really didn't
| want to open a huge Electron app each time I need to visualize
| or edit a simple md file.
|
| Claude helped me vibe code a small rust editor :
| https://github.com/Karalix/markzap it's tuned to my usage, you
| should make your own too !
| aerhardt wrote:
| Please.
| rubslopes wrote:
| Ha! Just yesterday I set up a git repo to sync my Obsidian vault
| with my Ubuntu VPS for LLM use. Part of me wishes this had come
| out one day sooner, though honestly, I've grown to like the git
| workflow. The deal-breaker is mobile: it just doesn't play nicely
| there, so I'll keep using native sync for that.
| RyanShook wrote:
| What's the best way to sync Obsidian without upgrading to their
| paid tier?
| us-merul wrote:
| GitHub: https://dev.to/padiazg/how-to-sync-your-obsidian-vault-
| using...
| setopt wrote:
| If you're on Apple devices only, then iCloud sync is free and
| works on all devices.
|
| I no longer use Obsidian, so not sure what's the best option
| for e.g. Linux <-> iOS sync except their service.
| xRyen wrote:
| I'm quite fond of the obsidian-gut plugin and syncing to a
| private Forgejo instance.
| ILearnAsIGo wrote:
| For my work notes, which are not allowed to be stored outside
| company resources, I have set up a git repo and use a plugin
| that auto commits.
|
| It does not work well for sharing to a mobile env but works
| great for desktop.
| cuechan wrote:
| I use syncthing to sync my notes between my PC and Laptop. It
| works pretty well.
| beart wrote:
| There is a self-hosted live sync plugin. It's rough around the
| edges but it mostly works and is actively maintained, if you
| are willing to self-host a sync server.
|
| I say mostly works, because there are a lot of "gotchas" and
| the configuration and set up are a bit intimidating for the
| clients (the server is simple to host).
|
| I used it for a while and it was fine, but I decided the cost
| of a coffee per month is worth not having to maintain it, and I
| switched to paying for their sync service.
|
| However, there is also a git sync plugin that works really
| nicely. But it is not a real-time sync and it is not supported
| on mobile (officially). I mainly use that as a way to keep long
| running backups of my vaults in a self-hosted gitea instance
| (the default paid tier only keeps one month of history).
| ravila4 wrote:
| Nice! I rely on Obsidian a lot for syncing knowledge while
| working with Claude agents, such as storing research and daily
| logs to catch up on the prior day's work. It already works quite
| well with a custom skill that I build, but this may make the
| workflow smoother.
|
| I also built a cli tool to index embeddings in LanceDB and do
| semantic search. It helps agents create better internal links
| between notes. https://github.com/ravila4/obsidian-semantic-
| search
| system2 wrote:
| How does this affect your token/quota usage?
| ravila4 wrote:
| Not much, the main cost is having Claude write notes as we
| work, which isn't too different from what it does anyway with
| Plan mode, and it helps me onboard new sessions more easily.
| It also may save me some tokens because the tool I built
| helps it semantically search for relevant notes instead of
| wasting tool calls on grep and reading irrelevant documents.
| kandros wrote:
| For just text notes is very low token usage, i use Opus for
| everything and a whole week of notes is like 30m of a coding
| session
| thejdeep wrote:
| Can you share more details on your setup with Claude Code ?
| ravila4 wrote:
| It's nothing too fancy - I use Obsidian as a memory layer for
| both agents and myself. I keep a daily programming journal,
| and ask agents to update it as we work. I often have to nudge
| it to use the skill, but sometimes it asks me if I want to
| note things down. The core of the skills is just templates
| that teach claude how I like my notes formatted, and how my
| vault is laid out.
|
| I find that it is useful as a way to quickly catch up a new
| session by asking it to read what we did yesterday or earlier
| that day.
|
| The semantic search layer allows it to search further back in
| time, or find connections across unrelated notes. I built it
| because it used to waste a lot of tool calls with grep
| commands whenever I asked it to find something.
|
| I'm still iterating, but I put together a repo with some of
| the skills that I find most useful for organization:
| https://github.com/ravila4/claude-adhd-skills
| caycep0llard wrote:
| YES...HA HA HA...YES!
| abra0 wrote:
| Finally! I had to set up a container with X on my headless server
| to get a few text files reliably synced, crazy stuff.
| segphault wrote:
| This was my most-wanted Obsidian feature, so I'm thrilled to see
| this. It's going to be great for server-side automation and RAG
| against Obsidian vaults.
| lolive wrote:
| Isn't there a script or a plugin to sync your vault to github,
| already? (may be even to sync several vaults, for example to
| share vaults between colleagues)
| bshaughn wrote:
| This tool should finally make it possible to setup a good web
| interface to my obsidian notes. I have a hacky setup using
| github as the backend storage system but its slow.
|
| Ive been surprised at how few people are interested in an
| obsidian browser tool, but its great if I want to read / write
| notes from a corporate laptop for example.
| js98 wrote:
| Oh wow thats good timing. I DIY'ed a workaround for this only
| last week for my openclaw instance. Happy to change it to this!
| https://jakobs.dev/granular-notes-access-limiting-openclaw-b...
| semiinfinitely wrote:
| Too late
| abrookewood wrote:
| I just have my vault sitting in Dropbox ... Not sure what I would
| gain by moving to Sync?
| Subdivide8452 wrote:
| Access on mobile would be main reason. Perhaps that's an iOS
| limitation, and Dropbox on Android is just a perfect
| replacement.
| kepano wrote:
| End-to-end encryption, integrated version history, better
| mobile support, granular control over which settings and files
| are synced to each device.
|
| And generally help the continued development of Obsidian so we
| can stay 100% user-supported.
|
| https://stephango.com/vcware
| dispersed wrote:
| Have you guys thought about extending version history beyond
| a year, or at least allowing users to export it so that it's
| not permanently lost? I'd subscribe to Obsidian Sync for the
| rest of my life if it wasn't for this one missing feature.
| kepano wrote:
| Yes, I'd like to add that.
| johnorourke wrote:
| I did the same, but sync takes it to another level - the
| conflict resolution is far better, especially when you have it
| on both desktop and mobile, and for multiple users on a team
| you can work on the same doc at the same time without worrying
| or having to check if Dropbox is working. Add the version
| history and it's a no-brainer.
| jFriedensreich wrote:
| Great, now it can corrupt my data headlessly too.
| spondyl wrote:
| Oh neat, I had come across the headless client yesterday (and
| submitted a now-fixed bug report for it after running into some
| issues).
|
| Before opening HN this morning and seeing this post, I actually
| wrote a post about how I'm experimentally using headless to
| publish my blog: https://utf9k.net/blog/obsidian-headless/
|
| Well, that post _was_ my experiment but I 'll be looking forward
| to trying it out going forward.
|
| There are of course many alternatives and I'm sure this workflow
| may have its pains but for now, it feels like a lot less friction
| between actually writing and having it published.
|
| I've used plain Git for many years of course but I've also tried
| other rube goldberg machines such as various Git-inside-Obsidian
| plugins and so on but there's always just a bunch of "stuff"
| between writing and putting it online.
| raybb wrote:
| Kinda related, does anyone have a favorite obsidian plugin for AI
| editing on mobile?
|
| I wanna be able to talk to a document and iterate on it just like
| chatgpt with canvas but inside obsidian.
|
| I've been digging around and haven't quite found anything to do
| that.
|
| One potential challenge is I'm not sure how easy it would be to
| let it do tool calling to edit the document rather than spitting
| out the whole document each time (with risk of minor changes).
| dimitri-vs wrote:
| I've tried a bunch of them only to settle on using Claude Code
| with remote control.
| AbstractH24 wrote:
| How's their mobile all these days?
|
| Along with sync that was the other blocker for me always.
| dcchambers wrote:
| Mobile app is pretty good, my biggest complaint is it won't
| sync in the background. It only syncs when you open it up. But
| it's well designed and fully functional.
| AbstractH24 wrote:
| That a nuisance as I spend a lot of time on the subway
| without service but not a total dealbreaker
| kepano wrote:
| No promises but I hope we can solve that this year. I agree
| it would be a much better experience.
| dcchambers wrote:
| Looking forward to it! Just wanted to say thanks for
| helping to build Obsidian. It's a great piece of software.
| aradox66 wrote:
| YES! YES! YES! AHAHAH YES!
| loufe wrote:
| I have probably searched "Obsidian CLI" once a month since I
| started playing around with AI over a year ago. This is pretty
| exciting.
| scalemaxx wrote:
| I use Obsidian with my Claude (and Codex) but not sure what
| additional value the CLI would provide since it's just markdown
| files. What am I missing that a CLI provides for AI? And not
| sure how the sync fits into it unless there's a copy of the
| vault that the AI is working with over CLI? Can use a tip.
| cleak wrote:
| I really love Obsidian and the direction they're going with CLI.
| I think one of the most important things we can do while waiting
| for super intelligent assistants is capturing more of our
| thoughts and knowledge. Obsidian has been the tool I do that
| with.
| NamlchakKhandro wrote:
| It still needs obsidian running... So not really head less
| sn0n wrote:
| Wait... I'm not supposed to to just use Nextcloud and treat it as
| a local folder of markdown files?
|
| Damn... I'm doing it all wrong!!
| sickcodebruh wrote:
| Obsidian is my favorite new tool. I started a new job last week
| and decided to spin it up on day one to help me onboard and learn
| their system. It's been wildly successful, the missing piece I
| needed to really turn Claude Code into the learning and
| documentation tool I dreamed about.
| Axsuul wrote:
| Will this ever be able to work with a self hosted server?
| agentic_lawyer wrote:
| The thing is that there already is a very good self-hosted option
| for sync - Livesync. I won't say it's not eccentric and confusing
| (it is!) but once you get it to work, it actually works extremely
| well and is lightning fast too. I use syncthing as well for
| backups but livesync has the obvious advantage of working
| natively inside Obsidian.
|
| I'm so done with subscriptions for cloud based solutions and
| between livesync and syncthing, you've got a very robust set of
| options to use.
|
| iCloud sync actually messed up every file I opened due to the lag
| between remote copy and local edits. iCloud would delete the last
| few edits whether I was in the file or after closing the file.
| Sometimes I would be typing something and I'd watch it delete
| what I just typed. It was a complete disaster.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| On the other hand, I'll happily support the developers at
| Obsidian. It's a great product.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| I just built a headless sync client a few days ago. Happy that
| there's now an official solution!
| fuckinpuppers wrote:
| This will save me the overhead of running it in a docker
| container (I think it used mono or something) so that's cool.
|
| I am still split using Evernote mostly because the experience
| feels a little more purpose built. I have some annoying usability
| issues with Obsidian. Control-N starts a new note not in the
| folder I'm in, but at the top level. Then I have to go move it by
| hand.
|
| Having multiple vaults open winds up with multiple individual
| windows. A hack is to have one meta vault that encompasses all
| the sub vaults, but that itself is weird.
|
| I would love to have an official multi-vault option. I have
| separate vaults so I can have work specific things or other
| things that aren't exposing the fact I have other vaults tied to
| my account. However I have some systems I want all of my vaults
| available, but not multiple instances of obsidian running rather
| than one instance addressing all vaults - there is a workaround
| but it feels a too brittle and unofficial. The editor is a little
| rough comparatively too, even with a couple plugins to help, and
| I'm not even someone who cares to embed images, pdfs, other
| things directly in notes. Evernote is overkill and obsidian feels
| slightly off. Almost there. I'm sure it can be customized better,
| for example <li> items render well in Evernote but obsidian shows
| them as markdown and the switching between view, edit and
| realtime seems difficult to get right.
|
| So I'm still paying for both... and I'd prefer not to. Obsidian
| feels like a better fit overall, I don't care about all those
| Evernote features or AI or crazy rich experiences...
| chrisweekly wrote:
| "obsidian shows them as markdown" = try editor settings ("Live
| Preview")
|
| in terms of embedded vaults, I agree there should be better
| native support -- but I was also delighted to discover Relay
| (https://relay.md) which supports directory-level (not just
| vault-level) sync.
| kepano wrote:
| > Control-N starts a new note not in the folder I'm in, but at
| the top level
|
| Settings - Default location for new notes - Same folder as
| current file
|
| > <li> items render well in Evernote but obsidian shows them as
| markdown
|
| Settings - Editor - Default editing mode - Live Preview
| yeswecatan wrote:
| I'm having a hard time understanding when I would use this. Could
| someone provide some examples?
| theshrike79 wrote:
| I just had Claude go through my Journal/ and mark 800 obsolete
| daily tasks as done so that they don't clutter my reports
| anymore.
|
| Any kind of automation, really. Much easier than just raw
| editing the markdown in some cases.
| miclivs wrote:
| This one is compatible (mostly) and doesnt require obsidian to
| run https://github.com/the-shift-dev/napkin
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