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Obsidian

Obsidian is a local-first, Markdown-based note-taking app made by Dynalist Inc. Your notes live as plain `.md` files on your own disk — not locked in a proprietary database — and it ranks around #8 among collaboration/documentation tools with roughly 16.1% usage share. Developers and knowledge workers reach for it to build a personal "second brain": a graph of bidirectionally-linked notes that reveals connections a flat folder of docs never would.

Quick facts
Type: Local-first Markdown note-taking app with a linked knowledge graph
Made by: Dynalist Inc.
Cost: Freemium — free for personal use, paid add-ons for Sync and Publish
Best for: Individuals and small teams building a personal or team knowledge base from plain-text notes
Primary use case: Long-term note-taking, research, and documentation with bidirectional linking instead of folders

Jump to: Example Getting started Best for

Example

Obsidian notes are ordinary Markdown files, but with one superpower: double-bracket [[wikilinks]] that connect notes into a graph, plus support for fenced code blocks and callouts.

# Sprint Retro — 2026-07-15

## Attendees
- [[Ava Chen]]
- [[Marcus Webb]]

## Notes
Blocked on the [[Payments API]] migration — see [[2026-07-10 standup]]
for the original decision. Tag: #retro #backend

```js
function retryPayment(orderId) {
  return api.post(`/orders/${orderId}/retry`);
}
```

> [!tip] Callout
> Use `[[Note Name#Heading]]` to link straight to a heading inside another note.

Getting started

Download the free desktop/mobile app, point it at a folder (your "vault"), and start writing — no account or server required.

# 1. Download Obsidian from obsidian.md (Windows/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android)
# 2. Create a vault — just an empty folder on your disk
# 3. Create your first note
New note → type "[[Project Ideas]]" → click the link to auto-create it

# optional: enable community plugins for Kanban, Excalidraw, spaced repetition, etc.
Settings → Community plugins → Browse

Best for: Developers, researchers, and writers who want full ownership of their notes as portable plain-text files, and who value a growing web of linked ideas over rigid folder hierarchies.