# Obsidian *Created:* 2026-10-22, *Modified:* 2026-10-22 ![[Obsidian (logo).png|300]] **Obsidian** is a local-first Markdown editor, which is the polite way of saying it's a folder full of text files with a very good interface bolted on top. It's also what this entire garden is built in, so treat the rest as a disclosure of bias rather than a review. ## What it actually is A vault is a directory. A note is a `.md` file. There's no database, no proprietary export format, and no account needed to open your own work — a bar so low that it's genuinely startling how few note apps clear it. Notes link with wikilinks (`[[like this]]`), and the links run both ways: every note carries a backlinks pane listing everything that points at it. That's what turns a folder into a graph — not the picture, but the fact that each connection is recorded from both ends. The app is free for personal use; commercial use needs a license. Sync and Publish are separate subscriptions rather than a toll on the editor itself, which is a distinction the pricing page makes and the internet routinely forgets. ## The parts that matter here - **Properties** — YAML frontmatter, typed by the app and read by everything else. - **Templates** — plain files in a folder, resolved with `{{date}}` and `{{title}}`. - **Callouts** — `> [!note]` blocks, which is how the game write-ups here carry their dice. - **Footnotes** — including multi-paragraph ones, if you indent them properly. - **Canvas and Bases** — a freeform board and a table view over your notes, both first-party. - **The CLI** — since the 1.12 installer: `create`, `rename`, `search`, and the `publish:*` commands. It's what makes scripted gardening possible at all. - **Mermaid** — drawn by [Pele](https://pele.run) as of 1.14.5, which is how the chart in [[Automating Workflow in an RPG Pseudo-Journalistic Publishing Architecture]] gets drawn. ## The catch Sync and Publish are paid, and Publish is the only supported route from vault to website without building your own. The community plugin ecosystem is vast and uneven: the good ones are excellent, and the bad ones will happily rewrite your vault while you're not looking. Mobile is a separate app with its own opinions. There's no real collaboration story — this is a notebook for one person, which is either the point or the problem. ## Versions The current release is **1.14.5** (October 2026), which replaced the Mermaid renderer with **Pele** and dropped the confirmation step before drawing a diagram. Obsidian was started in 2020 by Erica Xu and Shida Li; [Steph Ango](https://stephango.com/) is CEO. ## References - [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md) - the official site - [Obsidian Help](https://help.obsidian.md) - the official documentation - [Changelog](https://obsidian.md/changelog/) - release notes - [Forum](https://forum.obsidian.md/) - the community forum - [Pele](https://pele.run) - the Mermaid renderer used since 1.14.5