What Obsidian does
Obsidian is a note-taking and knowledge-management application that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Rather than storing notes in a proprietary database, it saves every note as a plain Markdown (.md) file inside a local folder called a vault, which you choose and fully control. This design keeps your data portable and readable in any text editor, independent of Obsidian itself. The application's most distinctive capability is wiki-style linking: you can create internal links between notes using double-bracket syntax, and Obsidian builds an interactive graph that visualizes the network of connections across your vault. This makes it well-suited for building a personal knowledge base, organizing research across many topics, or maintaining a long-term note collection where ideas cross-reference each other. Obsidian also includes a Canvas feature that lets you arrange notes, images, and text cards on a free-form spatial board, which suits visual thinkers who prefer to map ideas rather than list them. Backlinks, tags, and nested folder organization give additional ways to navigate and group content without changing the underlying files. A community plugin ecosystem extends Obsidian's functionality considerably. Plugins are distributed through Obsidian's built-in browser and cover areas such as task management, calendar views, and bibliography integration, among others. The application can also be extended with custom themes and CSS snippets. Obsidian is free for personal use. Optional paid services include Obsidian Sync, which provides end-to-end encrypted synchronization across devices, and Obsidian Publish, which lets you share selected notes as a website. A commercial license is required for business use. This page links to the complete, standalone Obsidian installer sourced directly from the official Obsidian releases on GitHub. Only download Obsidian from the official publisher (obsidian.md) or its verified GitHub releases repository (github.com/obsidianmd).
