Published text

Structured research records

1. minimal theme · side-quest · 2020– (approximate)

   Original location · source-bc0eced1f386323bb22f · source-c27aabd42ed6867ad132 · source-6d3f924d752dc356d74d

   Original structured fields

   {
     "dates": "2020–",
     "detail": "the most-installed obsidian theme (~5.4k stars) — kepano's side project became the ecosystem's default face, then his job. the minimal.guide docs and the settings/hider companions grew around it.",
     "id": "qst-minimal",
     "owner": "kepano",
     "sourceIds": [
       "src-kepano-minimal",
       "src-p-minimal",
       "src-p-obsidian-project"
     ],
     "status": "active",
     "title": "minimal theme",
     "url": "https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-minimal"
   }

2. flexoki · side-quest · 2023– (approximate)

   Original location · source-e5b146bec311c872349d · source-63b39bea8dd5d39f8fe6

   Original structured fields

   {
     "dates": "2023–",
     "detail": "an inky oklab color scheme for prose and code, named after flexography — ported across editors, terminals, and sites far beyond obsidian.",
     "id": "qst-flexoki",
     "owner": "kepano",
     "sourceIds": [
       "src-p-flexoki",
       "src-c-hn-flexoki"
     ],
     "status": "active",
     "title": "flexoki",
     "url": "https://stephango.com/flexoki"
   }

3. defuddle · side-quest · 2025– (approximate)

   Original location · source-d5c1ae2d49393fc3d7e4

   Original structured fields

   {
     "dates": "2025–",
     "detail": "the html→markdown cleaning library that powers obsidian web clipper — his show hn for it out-scored most obsidian product posts.",
     "id": "qst-defuddle",
     "owner": "kepano",
     "sourceIds": [
       "src-c-hn-defuddle"
     ],
     "status": "active",
     "title": "defuddle",
     "url": "https://github.com/kepano/defuddle"
   }

4. obsidian-skills · side-quest · 2025– (approximate)

   Original location · source-96e9c9732bd0eea6146d

   Original structured fields

   {
     "dates": "2025–",
     "detail": "agent skills for obsidian workflows — ~48k stars, the repo that quietly made him one of the most-starred maintainers in the agent-tooling space.",
     "id": "qst-obsidian-skills",
     "owner": "kepano",
     "sourceIds": [
       "src-p-github-kepano"
     ],
     "status": "active",
     "title": "obsidian-skills",
     "url": "https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills"
   }

5. 40 questions · side-quest · 2016– (approximate)

   Original location · source-dcd286632d16683697d7

   Original structured fields

   {
     "dates": "2016–",
     "detail": "the metafilter-inspired annual self-interview — community-translated into roughly 35 languages.",
     "id": "qst-40-questions",
     "owner": "kepano",
     "sourceIds": [
       "src-p-40-questions"
     ],
     "status": "continuing",
     "title": "40 questions",
     "url": "https://stephango.com/40-questions"
   }

6. inkodye · side-quest · 2011–2015 (approximate)

   Original location · source-e76ff1a158358235dbc1 · source-e39035820463412c765c

   Original structured fields

   {
     "dates": "2011–2015",
     "detail": "his first company with jesse genet — light-developed fabric dye sold through kickstarter and retail. the met-at-artcenter partnership that became lumi.",
     "id": "qst-inkodye",
     "owner": "kepano",
     "sourceIds": [
       "src-p-new-disruptors-2011",
       "src-p-labj"
     ],
     "status": "ended",
     "title": "inkodye",
     "url": null
   }

7. lumi · side-quest · 2015–2021 (approximate)

   Original location · source-7d5e85bb7c0fd2b5b2c5 · source-5803044e77d0560b97b2 · source-8c8232f016544b5c541c

   Original structured fields

   {
     "dates": "2015–2021",
     "detail": "the packaging company — 'shipping is violence.' raised real venture money (the exception that proves his later anti-vc writing), ran the well made podcast and slash packaging resource, acquired by narvar in 2021.",
     "id": "qst-lumi",
     "owner": "kepano",
     "sourceIds": [
       "src-p-future-commerce",
       "src-p-new-disruptors-2018",
       "src-p-giant-robots"
     ],
     "status": "ended",
     "title": "lumi",
     "url": null
   }

8. narvar · side-quest · 2021–2022 (approximate)

   Original location · source-c5a9dc2a96fa0fcd07c7 · source-d2a97de7f19772da1c72

   Original structured fields

   {
     "dates": "2021–2022",
     "detail": "the post-acquisition day job — design leadership inside the company that bought lumi, until the obsidian pitch.",
     "id": "qst-narvar",
     "owner": "kepano",
     "sourceIds": [
       "src-p-linkedin-stephango",
       "src-p-dialectic"
     ],
     "status": "ended",
     "title": "narvar",
     "url": null
   }

9. computer show · side-quest · 2015 (year)

   Original location · source-f21b5d090e28db82e13f

   Original structured fields

   {
     "dates": "2015",
     "detail": "the retro-comedy youtube series — an early artifact of the same craft instinct.",
     "id": "qst-computer-show",
     "owner": "kepano",
     "sourceIds": [
       "src-p-computer-show"
     ],
     "status": "ended",
     "title": "computer show",
     "url": "https://stephango.com/computer-show"
   }

10. the hario v60 episode · side-quest · 2023 (year)

    Original location · source-419a6cdfd816a29e59f1

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2023",
      "detail": "a thoroughly considered episode about the hario v60 — a pure side quest with no obsidian angle at all.",
      "id": "qst-hario",
      "owner": "kepano",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-p-thoroughly-considered"
      ],
      "status": "ended",
      "title": "the hario v60 episode",
      "url": "https://www.relay.fm/tc/93"
    }

11. kepiano, furniture, cookies · side-quest · – (approximate)

    Original location · source-5b1fea14419ea1670784 · source-1aefe2c57e8c8130fbad · source-ad9c0af99a33e3748db3

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "–",
      "detail": "custom split keyboards, furniture, and the deluxe chocolate-chip-cookie recipe — the physical-craft half of the corpus.",
      "id": "qst-kepiano",
      "owner": "kepano",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-p-other-stuff",
        "src-p-recipes",
        "src-p-stephango-projects"
      ],
      "status": "continuing",
      "title": "kepiano, furniture, cookies",
      "url": "https://stephango.com/recipes"
    }

12. winamp skins and early design · side-quest · 2002–2010s (approximate)

    Original location · source-ad9c0af99a33e3748db3

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2002–2010s",
      "detail": "the earliest dated entries on his projects page — winamp skins and forum-era design work, the apprenticeship before inkodye.",
      "id": "qst-winamp",
      "owner": "kepano",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-p-stephango-projects"
      ],
      "status": "ended",
      "title": "winamp skins and early design",
      "url": "https://stephango.com/projects"
    }

13. dynalist · side-quest · 2015– (approximate)

    Original location · source-92ffa6c982ea9907bc38 · source-35ff1c9c6aecb7f9aeeb · source-36bc8dc2c7404941149c · source-e058b4f25f9684cd579c

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2015–",
      "detail": "the founders' first product — the web outliner that funded obsidian's runway. still running, still maintained 'as usual' even as obsidian eclipsed it; erica calls it her hobby work.",
      "id": "qst-dynalist",
      "owner": "shida",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-dynalist",
        "src-p-dynalist-blog-obsidian",
        "src-p-dynalist-hobby",
        "src-h-erica-dynalist"
      ],
      "status": "continuing",
      "title": "dynalist",
      "url": "https://dynalist.io/"
    }

14. minecraft plugins · side-quest · 2013–2019 (approximate)

    Original location · source-9459a364a5b07c743539 · source-1d032304bbcd2fc466f0

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2013–2019",
      "detail": "orebfuscator and openinv — server-side minecraft plugins licat maintained for years. the plugin-ecosystem instincts (and the licat handle, from mabinogi) predate obsidian by a decade.",
      "id": "qst-minecraft-plugins",
      "owner": "shida",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-p-github-lishid",
        "src-p-silverland-shida"
      ],
      "status": "ended",
      "title": "minecraft plugins",
      "url": "https://github.com/lishid"
    }

15. nokia imaging hackathon · side-quest · 2013-09 (month)

    Original location · source-2fc8be0dfc7946517986

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2013-09",
      "detail": "the waterloo cs news item — second-years shida li and rudi chen win the nokia imaging hackathon in lund, sweden.",
      "id": "qst-uw-hackathon",
      "owner": "shida",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-p-uw-news"
      ],
      "status": "ended",
      "title": "nokia imaging hackathon",
      "url": "https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/news/second-year-students-victorious-nokia-imaging-hackathon-lund"
    }

16. silverland · side-quest · 2023– (approximate)

    Original location · source-647e224beb78112efca6 · source-04e001c0ba7ac1081b9b · source-e99844a6efa079eacbd8

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2023–",
      "detail": "silverland — her public obsidian publish garden, themed in flexoki: essays on understanding and epistemics, the forces framework, music patterns, and the running count of 172/1000 dishes.",
      "id": "qst-silverland",
      "owner": "erica",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-p-silverland",
        "src-p-silverland-forces",
        "src-p-silverland-music"
      ],
      "status": "continuing",
      "title": "silverland",
      "url": "https://ericaxu.com/Start+here"
    }

17. quantified chef · side-quest · – (approximate)

    Original location · source-b0390ea09219856b9ae9 · source-647e224beb78112efca6

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "–",
      "detail": "the quantified-chef repo — 'track your cooking!' — plus the 1,000-dishes project she documents on silverland.",
      "id": "qst-quantified-chef",
      "owner": "erica",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-p-quantified-chef",
        "src-p-silverland"
      ],
      "status": "continuing",
      "title": "quantified chef",
      "url": "https://github.com/ericaxu/quantified-chef"
    }

18. obsidian october · side-quest · 2021– (approximate)

    Original location · source-a213cd3a2ac56a978c52 · source-385b0945691b1d5c2cab · source-79b1bcce6af217aad176

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2021–",
      "detail": "obsidian october — the annual community build event for plugins, themes, and vault setups; the judging rosters read like a team pipeline.",
      "id": "qst-obsidian-october",
      "owner": "company",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-h-blog-oo-2021",
        "src-h-blog-oo-2023",
        "src-h-blog-oo-2025"
      ],
      "status": "continuing",
      "title": "obsidian october",
      "url": "https://obsidian.md/blog/2025-obsidian-october/"
    }

19. gems of the year · side-quest · 2020– (approximate)

    Original location · source-0b3ae14fc08bd2ad4a20 · source-f46f3bf98c658a640e4c · source-f85520b6d6d7013918fe

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2020–",
      "detail": "gems of the year — the annual awards for plugins, themes, and contributors, informally run from 2020 and formally named in 2021.",
      "id": "qst-gems",
      "owner": "company",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-h-blog-goty-noms",
        "src-h-blog-goty-winners",
        "src-p-obsidian-blog-gems"
      ],
      "status": "continuing",
      "title": "gems of the year",
      "url": "https://obsidian.md/blog/2021-goty-winners/"
    }

20. obsidian roundup · side-quest · 2021– (approximate)

    Original location · source-1d5542e6fe079d618098

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2021–",
      "detail": "eleanor konik's weekly community newsletter — third-party scaffolding the ecosystem built for itself.",
      "id": "qst-obsidian-roundup",
      "owner": "community",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-c-roundup-2021"
      ],
      "status": "continuing",
      "title": "obsidian roundup",
      "url": "https://www.obsidianroundup.org/"
    }

21. linking your thinking · side-quest · 2020– (approximate)

    Original location · source-17535232f2193242104e · source-ff7e13ed7586882b61fe

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2020–",
      "detail": "linking your thinking — nick milo's course and video operation; 'obsidian for beginners' alone carries 2.4m views.",
      "id": "qst-lyt",
      "owner": "community",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-c-yt-lyt-beginners",
        "src-p-lyt-fireside"
      ],
      "status": "active",
      "title": "linking your thinking",
      "url": "https://www.linkingyourthinking.com/"
    }

22. style settings · side-quest · 2021– (approximate)

    Original location · source-7f834af2eb27c8a4f33a

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2021–",
      "detail": "mgmeyers' style settings — the plugin that made theme customization accessible, ~2k stars, and the reason half the themes on the directory are configurable.",
      "id": "qst-style-settings",
      "owner": "community",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-p-mgmeyers-style"
      ],
      "status": "active",
      "title": "style settings",
      "url": "https://github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-style-settings"
    }

23. dataview · side-quest · 2021– (approximate)

    Original location · source-b8a1a227ea42d5002f96

    Original structured fields

    {
      "dates": "2021–",
      "detail": "dataview — michael brenan's query-engine plugin that treated a vault like a database years before bases made it core.",
      "id": "qst-dataview",
      "owner": "community",
      "sourceIds": [
        "src-c-hn-dataview"
      ],
      "status": "active",
      "title": "dataview",
      "url": "https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview"
    }