Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files
Report a link problem
Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderMaker here, excited to be on Hacker News. Obsidian is going into public beta today! (We're also on Product Hunt, come check us out!) We made Obsidian to be your long-term second brain and personal knowledge base. As you put in more notes and make more connections, the knowledge base gets more valuable, so we think it's important that you can 100% own your data and not rely on any cloud services. We believe you second brain should work similarly…
This is an incredible time for knowledge management tools. Just a couple of years ago I was pulling my hair out trying to get a local wiki to feel like a native app, and now we have a dozen great options to choose from. I started using Obsidian when it came out last year, and it instantly clicked for me. I immediately migrated 20 years of notes to it. What differentiates Obsidian from all of the other tools in this…
The long-standing bug where it only started to a black screen with iCloud activated (on iPhone and iPad) seems to be fixed, but now I apparently don‘t have permissions to write in the Documents folder when creating a vault. Let‘s wait another few months.
The least you could have done was post something specific about Obsidian. Most of HN already knows what Obsidian is.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 1736
- Total comments
- 835
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-05-15 | Obsidian = markdown editor and wiki links | bigbossman | 2 | 1 |
| 2020-05-27 | Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown filesFirst breakout · Best thread | ericax | 1087 | 477 |
| 2021-10-14 | Obsidian – A Second Brain | DrZootron | 2 | 0 |
| 2021-10-17 | Obsidian – A knowledge base from a local folder of plain text Markdown filesLatest 20+ point return | doener | 624 | 353 |
| 2023-03-01 | Obsidian | sealeck | 1 | 1 |
| 2023-04-12 | Obsidian – Extensible Markdown knowledge base | notmysql_ | 3 | 0 |
| 2023-05-04 | Obsidian: A second brain, for you, forever | _xerces_ | 1 | 0 |
| 2023-09-17 | Obsidian – the private and flexible writing app that adapts to the way you think | petecooper | 3 | 0 |
| 2023-10-12 | Obsidian | Brajeshwar | 3 | 0 |
| 2024-06-07 | Obsidian 1.6 | tosh | 7 | 2 |
| 2026-05-23 | Obsidian: The free and flexible app for your private thoughts | doener | 3 | 1 |