Obsidian is a personal knowledge base and note-taking software application that operates on Markdown files.[3][4][5] It allows users to make internal links for notes and then to visualize the connections as a graph.[6][7] It is designed to help users organize and structure their thoughts and knowledge in a flexible, non-linear way.[8] The software is free for personal use, with commercial licenses available for pay.[3][9]
History
Obsidian was founded by Shida Li and Erica Xu while quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic.[10] Li and Xu, who had met while studying at the University of Waterloo, had already collaborated on several development projects.[11] Obsidian was initially released on 30 March 2020.[12] Version 1.0.0 was released in October 2022.[13][14] Version 1.1, which added the Canvas core plugin, released in December 2022.[15] In February 2023, Steph Ango joined Obsidian as CEO.[16]
Features
Obsidian is built on Electron.[9] It is a cross-platform application that runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, as well as mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS.[9] There is no web-based version of the software.[11] Obsidian on all platforms can be customized by adding plugins and themes, which enable users to extend the software's functionality with additional features or integration with other tools.[9] Obsidian differentiates between core plugins, which are released and maintained by the Obsidian team, and community plugins, which are open-sourced through GitHub and are contributed by users.[17] Examples of community plugins include a Kanban-style task board and a calendar widget.[4] There are over 200 community made themes to use with the app.
Obsidian operates on a folder of text documents;[18] each new note in Obsidian generates a new text document, and all the documents can be searched from within the app.[9][4] Obsidian allows internal linking between notes and creates an interactive graph that visualizes the relationships between notes.[9][11][4] Text formatting in Obsidian is achieved through Markdown, but Obsidian provides the instantaneous previewing of formatted text.[9]
