- [file over app](https://stephango.com/file-over-app) — stephango.com, steph ango (2023-07-01, primary). 'in the fullness of time, the files you create are more important than the tools you use to create them. apps are ephemeral, but your files have a chance to last.' the three-word philosophy.
- [quality software deserves your hard-earned cash](https://stephango.com/quality-software) — stephango.com, steph ango (2023-10-27, primary). 'quality software from independent makers is like quality food from the farmer's market' — the indie-software economics essay that topped hacker news.
- [100% user-supported](https://stephango.com/vcware) — stephango.com, steph ango (2024-02-10, primary). the anti-vc manifesto — 'eventually all vcware must exit… being 100% user-supported is by far the most fun way to build.'
- [in good hands](https://stephango.com/in-good-hands) — stephango.com, steph ango (2023-08-07, primary). craft and omakase trust — 'i know i am in good hands when i sense a cohesive point of view expressed with attention to detail.'
- [how i use obsidian](https://stephango.com/vault) — stephango.com, steph ango (2023-09, primary). his public vault template — no folders, profuse links, fractal journaling.
- [evergreen notes turn ideas into objects that you can manipulate](https://stephango.com/evergreen-notes) — stephango.com, steph ango (2022-09-17, primary). the matuschak-derived note practice in his own words.
- [40 questions to ask yourself every year](https://stephango.com/40-questions) — stephango.com, steph ango (2016-10-20, primary). his most-shared artifact — an annual ritual translated into 35 languages by the internet.
- [flexoki](https://stephango.com/flexoki) — stephango.com, steph ango (2023, primary). the inky oklab-derived color scheme 'for prose and code' — named from flexography, ported to dozens of apps.
- [calmness is a superpower](https://stephango.com/calmness) — stephango.com, steph ango (2022-10-09, primary). 'you can be the calm one' — the calm-software temperament essay.
- [photoshop for text](https://stephango.com/photoshop-for-text) — stephango.com, steph ango (2022-10-18, primary). the prescient 2022 essay — 'language models need to be local to the device so that they be private, offline and future-proof.'
- [style is consistent constraint](https://stephango.com/style) — stephango.com, steph ango (2023-09-03, primary). 'style is a set of constraints that you stick to' — sub-500-word essays, monochromatic clothes, yyyy-mm-dd dates.
- [use the saw, fear the saw](https://stephango.com/saw) — stephango.com, steph ango (2025-10-20, primary). 'we should not stop making powerful tools because they are dangerous. rather, we should empower people to use powerful tools safely.' — his ai stance.
- [if you're remote, ramble](https://stephango.com/ramblings) — stephango.com, steph ango (2025-07-31, primary). obsidian's no-meetings culture — per-person muted 'ramblings' channels and an annual week-long meetup.
- [a camera for ideas](https://stephango.com/synthography) — stephango.com, steph ango (2022-07-23, primary). the essay that coined 'synthography' — 'a new kind of camera… turns ideas into pictures.'
- [agents of chaos](https://stephango.com/agents-of-chaos) — stephango.com, steph ango (2012-11-21, primary). his 2012 juvenilia — knowledge 'sourced with more or less certainty by billions of agents — human at first but increasingly animal and robotic.' the agent era, drafted a decade early.
- [recipes](https://stephango.com/recipes) — stephango.com, steph ango (2022, primary). eight published recipes, including the deluxe chocolate chip cookies.
- [minimal theme](https://stephango.com/minimal) — stephango.com, steph ango (2020, primary). the minimal project page — the theme, minimal.guide docs, and the companion plugins.
- [obsidian (project page)](https://stephango.com/obsidian) — stephango.com, steph ango (2024, primary). his own project page for obsidian — 'community contributor → ceo feb 2023.'
- [computer show](https://stephango.com/computer-show) — stephango.com, steph ango (2015, primary). the retro-comedy youtube show about computers he produced and guest-starred in.
- [i'm joining obsidian full-time as ceo](https://obsidian.md/blog/kepano-ceo/) — obsidian, steph ango (2023-02-06, primary). the letter — 'obsidian is, and will continue to be: free to use, built on durable open file formats without lock-in, private, endlessly customizable… above all, obsidian is 100% user-supported.'
- [live preview update](https://obsidian.md/blog/live-preview-update/) — obsidian, erica xu (2021-12-15, primary). the silver-byline post shipping the 0.13 live preview editor engine.
- [2020 gems of the year winners](https://obsidian.md/zh/blog/2020-goty-winners/) — obsidian, erica xu (2021-01-09, primary). the silver-byline gems-of-the-year winners post — the community-award machinery she built.
- [credits](https://obsidian.md/help/credits) — obsidian, obsidian (2024, primary). the official credits — core team, contributors, moderators, alumni, and sandy the office cat.
- [credits.md](https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-help/blob/master/en/Obsidian/Credits.md) — github — obsidianmd/obsidian-help, obsidian (2024, repo). the repository mirror of the credits file, epithets included.
- [obsidian ceo steph ango on productivity software and notes apps](https://www.theverge.com/decoder-podcast-with-nilay-patel/760522/obsidian-ceo-steph-ango-kepano-productivity-software-notes-app) — the verge, casey newton (2025-08-18, interview). the verge's decoder — 'how the head of obsidian went from superfan to ceo.' seven ftes, profitable five years, no analytics, ai the biggest plugin category, 'all of the llms speak markdown.'
- [dialectic ep.8 — tools for amplifying our light](https://jacksondahl.com/dialectic/steph-ango) — dialectic, jackson dahl (2025, interview). his longest conversation — writing, design, agency; biology and industrial design bio.
- [evergreen notes with stephan ango — ep.81](https://museapp.com/podcast/81-evergreen-notes/) — metamuse, metamuse (2023, interview). the muse podcast on evergreen notes — team was six full-time, 'tools for thought rubs him the wrong way.'
- [the interconnectedness of everything — #28 kepano](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8vec3BuOnk) — the other stuff, internetvin (2025, interview). the 221-minute one — the kepano name origin, winamp skins, furniture, kepiano, cookies.
- [fireside chat with @kepano](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SWe0YrVWI) — linking your thinking, nick milo (2023, interview). the linking your thinking fireside chat — team vaults and shared defaults.
- [the future of obsidian live](https://www.youtube.com/live/TkNTuFF2t-c) — fork my brain, nicole van der hoeven (2023, interview). the future of obsidian livestream — the superfan-to-ceo path.
- [why we should return to a local-first culture in the digital age](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-RLzZRaCq0) — youtube (n.d., interview). the local-first culture talk — japan and long-term-company thinking.
- [thoroughly considered ep.93](https://www.relay.fm/tc/93) — relay fm, relay fm (2023, interview). the pure side-quest episode — the hario v60 coffee maker.
- [the new disruptors ep.11](https://newdisrupt.org/blog/2013/2/20/episode-11) — the new disruptors, glenn fleishman (2011, interview). the earliest recorded kepano interview — inkodye era.
- [giant robots ep.286](https://giantrobots.fm/286) — giant robots, thoughtbot (2018, interview). lumi and the purescript libraries.
- [shida li](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lishid) — linkedin, linkedin (current, primary). uw software engineering 2012–2017; the dynalist stack in his own words.
- [steph ango](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephango) — linkedin, linkedin (current, primary). colorado college biology, artcenter industrial design, flex delft, narvar.
- [erica xu](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericaxu) — linkedin, linkedin (current, primary). 'i also make obsidian' — oakville.
- [lishid profile and repos](https://github.com/lishid) — github, shida li (current, repo). orebfuscator and openinv — the famous minecraft bukkit plugins are still his top-starred repos.
- [kepano profile and repos](https://github.com/kepano) — github, steph ango (current, repo). obsidian-minimal ~5.4k stars; obsidian-skills ~48k stars as accessed september 2026.
- [ericaxu profile](https://github.com/ericaxu) — github, erica xu (current, repo). joined github november 2011; location field: 'maple syrup land.'
- [quantified-chef](https://github.com/ericaxu/quantified-chef) — github, erica xu (2016, repo). 'track your cooking!' — the quantified chef repo.
- [second-year students victorious at nokia imaging hackathon](https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/news/second-year-students-victorious-nokia-imaging-hackathon-lund) — u waterloo cs, university of waterloo (2013-09-18, reporting). shida li and rudi chen's 27-hour nokia imaging hackathon win in lund, sweden.
- [stephan ango](https://www.wikitia.com/wiki/Stephan_Ango) — wikitia (current, reference). born december 18, 1985, paris; raised in meudon; french father, american mother. secondary-grade wiki — flagged.
- [stephan ango profile](https://www.creativemornings.com/individuals/kepano) — creativemornings, creativemornings (2014, primary). the lumi-era profile — 'evolutionary biologist. or sandwich architect.'
- [리 시다 (shida li)](https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/리_시다) — korean wikipedia (current, reference). the korean wikipedia bio — toronto-based chinese-canadian; dynalist inc. in oakville.
- [start here — silverland](https://ericaxu.com/Start+here) — ericaxu.com, erica xu (current, primary). her live digital garden on obsidian publish with flexoki — the product hosting its co-founder's brain.
- [shida li — garden note](https://ericaxu.com/Shida+Li) — ericaxu.com, erica xu (current, primary). 'my partner in crime… known as licat in the mabinogi community too.'
- [how i think](https://ericaxu.com/How+I+Think) — ericaxu.com, erica xu (current, primary). 'i think in patterns and forces… in order to make real impact, you need to ride the waves.'
- [on understanding](https://ericaxu.com/Articles/On+Understanding) — ericaxu.com, erica xu (2025-06-12, primary). 'life is a game of predict… creating is the ultimate test of understanding' — with feynman.
- [forces](https://ericaxu.com/Forces/Forces) — ericaxu.com, erica xu (current, primary). 'physical forces decide how objects behave, and mental forces decide how people behave' — her named framework.
- [music patterns](https://ericaxu.com/Music+corner/Music+patterns) — ericaxu.com, erica xu (current, primary). 'melody is the character. rhythm is the plot. harmony is the setting.'
- [erica xu — old site](https://ericaxu.github.io/ericaxu.com/index.html) — github pages, erica xu (2016, archive). the ~2016 personal site — intj, the education critique, the project list, the dormant edu blog, the death calc.
- [dynalist enters the 'hobby work' phase](https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/9315) — outlinersoftware.com, outlinersoftware (2021-02-28, community). the forum coverage that quoted and contextualized the 'hobby work' post.
- [为什么 obsidian 要叫做 obsidian](https://github.com/obsidianzh/forum/discussions/36) — github discussions — obsidianzh, obsidian zh (n.d., community). the chinese translation of the name-origin post — the name traveled further than the interviews.
- [history of obsidian](https://www.taskade.com/blog/obsidian-history) — taskade blog, taskade (2026, reporting). a secondary history — the minimal-to-dms-to-ceo narrative and the waterloo origin.
- [obsidian: $25m arr, 8 people 1 cat](https://readthesignal.co/p/obsidian-25m-arr-8-people-1-cat-no) — readthesignal.co, the signal (2026, reporting). '$25m arr, 8 people 1 cat' — speculative arr/valuation claims, flagged as such.
- [oss business models research](https://devonmeadows.com/research/oss-business-models/) — devonmeadows.com, commune research (n.d., reporting). oss business-model research quoting kepano and silver on files and open source.
- [crazy fun fact about obsidian](https://francescod.medium.com/crazy-fun-fact-about-obsidian-9459f4aaf7ec) — medium, francesco d'alessio (2020, community). the 'crazy fun fact' post — three people, and liam cain as the third member.
- [obsidian-style-settings](https://github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-style-settings) — github, matthew meyers (2021-03, repo). the actual author of style settings — mgmeyers, not kepano.
- [joethei profile](https://github.com/joethei/joethei) — github, johannes theiner (current, repo). 'worked as a software developer in the obsidian team' — plugin review.
- [johannes theiner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannes-theiner) — linkedin, johannes theiner (current, primary). obsidian since july 2022 — plugin code review.
- [sigrunixia profile](https://github.com/sigrunixia) — github, rebbecca bishop (current, repo). community moderator to staff — customer experience, docs maintainer.
- [shida li on product hunt](https://www.producthunt.com/@shida_li) — product hunt, shida li (current, primary). his maker page — obsidian was hunted by the founders themselves in may 2020.
- [three engineers, zero financing](https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3755031628005892) — 36kr en, 36kr (2025, reporting). the waterloo and quarantine-origin recap — the chinese-press view of the founding.
- [local-first software: you own your data, in spite of the cloud](https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/) — ink & switch, martin kleppmann, adam wiggins, peter van hardenberg, mark mcgranaghan (2019-05, primary). the ink & switch paper that named local-first software — seven ideals including the one obsidian still doesn't satisfy: seamless collaboration.
- [ink & switch](https://www.inkandswitch.com/) — ink & switch, ink & switch (2017, primary). the research lab adjacent to obsidian's philosophy — conceptually, not by employment.
- [season 1 transcript](https://www.localfirst.fm/s1/transcript) — local-first fm, local-first fm (2024, interview). the practitioner and author discussion of local-first's state.
- [why people are obsessed with obsidian, the indie darling of note-taking apps](https://www.fastcompany.com/90960653/why-people-are-obsessed-with-obsidian-the-indie-darling-of-notetaking-apps) — fast company, casey newton (2023-09, reporting). the 'indie darling' profile — ~1m users per the company's own estimate, 110k+ discord, ~94.6k subreddit members. paywalled; figures via cited summaries.
- [kepano on obsidian's unknowable user count](https://mastodon.social/@kepano/114871343744754732) — mastodon, steph ango (2025-07, primary). 'no one knows how many users obsidian has. i think it's around 5-10 million… anyone can download the app… there are no analytics built-in.' the post is confirmed; the estimate is a ceo guess.
- [obsidian is growing up](https://mitchwagner.com/2023/02/06/obsidian-is-growing.html) — mitchwagner.com, mitch wagner (2023-02-06, community). the ceo-news community reaction — 'obsidian is growing up.'
- [obsidian 1.0](https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2022/10/obsidian-1-0/) — macsparky, david sparks (2022-10, community). the mainstream power-user reception of 1.0.
- [obsidian 1.0 release](https://itsfoss.com/news/obsidian-1-release/) — it's foss, it's foss (2022-10, reporting). the linux-community coverage of 1.0.
- [obsidian discord community listing](https://thehiveindex.com/communities/obsidian-discord/) — the hive index, the hive index (2024, reporting). community-size corroboration for the discord.
- [obsidian ios app is now available](https://thesweetsetup.com/obsidian-ios-app-is-now-available/) — the sweet setup, the sweet setup (2021-07, reporting). the mobile launch coverage.
- [what's the point of the graph view? how are you using it?](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/whats-the-point-of-the-graph-view-how-are-you-using-it/71316) — obsidian forum, obsidian forum (2021, community). the long-running community thread — users divided on whether the graph does anything.
- [is the obsidian graph useless?](https://drearicheli.blog/is-the-obsidian-graph-useless-pt6afky) — drearicheli.blog, dre aricheli (2023, community). the skeptical graph-view analysis.
- [making obsidian's graph view actually useful](https://danholloran.me/posts/making-obsidians-graph-view-actually-useful) — danholloran.me, dan holloran (2023, community). a practitioner's fixes — which imply the default falls short.
- [is obsidian's graph view useful?](https://codeculture.store/blogs/developer-culture/obsidian-graph-view-useful) — codeculture.store, code culture (2023, community). more graph-utility debate.
- [the value (or lack thereof) in bidirectional linking](https://nathansnelgrove.com/2023/08/the-value-or-lack-thereof-in-bidirectional-linking) — nathansnelgrove.com, nathan snelgrove (2023-08, community). the insider critique — the linking payoff questioned by a community member.
- [quitting the paint factory](https://nathansnelgrove.com/2023/08/quitting-the-paint-factory) — nathansnelgrove.com, nathan snelgrove (2023-08, community). the community-management burnout perspective.


Published by @ben in profile revision 1.
Original document: https://hraness.com/obsidian/sources
Original credited author: Hraness
AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

## Structured source and record data

````json
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````