Obsidian

The heart of Obsidian is that a note is just a .md file in a folder. If the service disappears the files remain, and version-controlling them or moving them to another tool is easy.

Install and first setup link

  brew install --cask obsidian
  

• A vault is the folder holding your notes. Make one at something like ~/notes.
• Under Settings → Files & Links, point “Default location for new attachments” at an attachments folder so images don’t scatter.

Folder structure link

A deep folder tree makes you deliberate about where things go, and then you stop writing them down. Staying shallow and linking instead lasts longer.

  notes/
  inbox/        # dump things here first
  daily/        # by date
  projects/     # work in flight
  reference/    # settled knowledge
  attachments/
  

Linking link

  See [[Docker networking]].
[[Docker networking|container communication]] changes the display text.
  

Linking to a note that doesn’t exist is fine — clicking it later creates it under that name. This “link first” habit is the most natural way for a set of notes to grow.

The Backlinks panel at the bottom of a note shows what refers to it. That’s the connection folder hierarchies can never give you.

Daily notes link

Enable Settings → Core plugins → Daily notes and point it at a template.

  ## Done today

## Stuck on

## Learned

## Tomorrow
  

Recording in the same shape every day means you can later search your way back to “that error from before.”

Core plugins worth using link

Community plugins link

A Dataview example that keeps a project list current:

  ```dataview
TABLE status, due
FROM "projects"
WHERE status != "done"
SORT due ASC
```
  

Syncing link

• Obsidian Sync: paid, end-to-end encrypted, and the simplest to set up.
• Git: free, with the Obsidian Git plugin auto-committing. You may have to resolve conflicts, so it suits text-heavy vaults.
• iCloud/Dropbox: free, but prone to conflict copies when editing on two devices.

If you use Git, put these in .gitignore:

  .obsidian/workspace.json
.obsidian/workspace-mobile.json
.trash/
  

Alternatives link

Obsidian for the knowledge you accumulate alone and Notion for shared team documents is a common split.

Next link

Whatever tool you use, the syntax is the same → Markdown