# obsidian: the idea

> file over app — the lineage obsidian inherited, what it proved, and what agents do to it.

## lineage

- 1945 — vannevar bush: the memex: 'the human mind does not work that way. it operates by association.' the founding image of knowledge as a trail network. (sources: [as we may think](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/))
- 1962–1968 — doug engelbart: augmenting human intellect — the 1962 framework that made 'tools for thought' a research program, and the mother of all demos that showed it working in 1968. (sources: [augmenting human intellect: a conceptual framework](https://www.dougengelbart.org/content/view/138/), [the mother of all demos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos))
- 1950s–1981 — niklas luhmann: the slip-box as communication partner — ~90,000 cards behind ~70 books; the method every linked-notes tool claims descent from. (sources: [zettelkasten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten), [communicating with slip boxes](https://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes))
- 1960– — ted nelson: project xanadu — nelson's transclusion-and-visible-links hypertext dream that never shipped, the cautionary half of the lineage. (sources: [project xanadu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu))
- 1980s — xerox parc: xerox notecards — the hypertext note system for researchers; the academic branch obsidian's users keep rediscovering. (sources: [notecards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoteCards))
- 1995 — wikiwikiweb: the wiki — ward cunningham's smallest viable hypertext, and the proof that editable link networks grow themselves. (sources: [wikiwikiweb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiWikiWeb), [wikihistory](https://wiki.c2.com/?WikiHistory))
- 2019– — andy matuschak: evergreen notes — matuschak's writing on notes as compounding objects; the intellectual frame kepano's own essay canonized for obsidian's users. (sources: [evergreen notes](https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Evergreen_notes), [evergreen notes turn ideas into objects that you can manipulate](https://stephango.com/evergreen-notes))
- 2019 — ink & switch: local-first software: you own your data, in spite of the cloud — the ink & switch paper that named the architecture obsidian shipped. an intellectual neighbor of the ceo, not his employer. (sources: [local-first software: you own your data, in spite of the cloud](https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/), [ink & switch](https://www.inkandswitch.com/))
- 2019–2020 — roam research: the roam wave — graph-first networked thought in the cloud, $200m of paper valuation, and the lock-in lesson obsidian inverted: same idea, opposite storage. (sources: [roam research — a note-taking tool for networked thought](https://roamresearch.com), [a $200 million seed valuation for roam shows investor frenzy for note-taking apps](https://boffosocko.com/2020/09/11/a-200-million-seed-valuation-for-roam-shows-investor-frenzy-for-note-taking-apps-the-information/))
- 2017–2022 — tiago forte: the building a second brain industry — forte's para method and course economy that turned pkm into a consumer market obsidian inherited. (sources: [building a second brain](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Building-a-Second-Brain/Tiago-Forte/9781982167387), [could it be time to switch? (evernote → obsidian, with nick milo)](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tiagoforte_ive-been-using-evernote-as-my-second-brain-activity-7156287208260345857-KFRR))

## what obsidian proved

- file over app works: the file outliving the app is not a slogan — markdown vaults opened in 2020 read identically in any editor in 2026, and every 'leaving obsidian' essay proves the exit door works. the moat is that there is no moat around the data. (sources: [file over app](https://stephango.com/file-over-app), [ditching obsidian and building my own](https://amberwilliams.io/blogs/building-my-own-pkms), [ditching obsidian and building my own](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44022448))
- no vc worked: obsidian grew to a self-reported million-plus users and ten-thousand-plus organizations on licenses and services instead of venture rounds — proof that a tools-for-thought company can fund itself from users who pay for software they keep. (sources: [new obsidian sync plans](https://obsidian.md/blog/new-sync-plans/), [obsidian is now free for work](https://obsidian.md/blog/free-for-work/), [100% user-supported](https://stephango.com/vcware))
- the plugin economy is the moat: the plugin directory passed 4,000 plugins and themes with 120m+ downloads — the community built more product than the company ever could, and the review queue became the governance problem that proved the scale. (sources: [the future of obsidian plugins](https://obsidian.md/blog/future-of-plugins/), [desktop v0.9.8](https://obsidian.md/changelog/2020-10-29-desktop-v0.9.8/))
- open format beat open source: a closed app with an open format outcompeted the open-source rivals on the thing that mattered — dendron's venture-funded team folded while obsidian's closed core kept shipping. the 'closed-source freeware' slur coexists with 'i pay for it anyway.' (sources: [dendron development stopped?](https://github.com/dendronhq/dendron/discussions/3890), [why i left logseq for obsidian after 2+ years](https://0x5.uk/2026/05/26/why-i-left-logseq-for-obsidian/), [trying logseq](https://blog.tombert.com/Posts/Technical/2025/09-September/Trying-Logseq), [100% user-supported](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39336308))
- services can fund a free core: sync, publish, and catalyst monetize convenience without renting the files — the services layer funds the free core, and the 2025 decision to make the commercial license optional showed the model can afford to get more generous. (sources: [obsidian is now free for work](https://obsidian.md/blog/free-for-work/), [new sync standard plan](https://obsidian.md/blog/standard-plan/), [obsidian pricing](https://obsidian.md/pricing))
- privacy survived the audits: privacy-by-architecture held: no account required, no analytics, e2e-encrypted sync with published third-party audits — including a disclosed high-severity flaw found and fixed by trail of bits rather than discovered in the wild. (sources: [obsidian security](https://obsidian.md/security), [obsidian sync audits by cure53 and trail of bits](https://obsidian.md/blog/cure53-tob-sync-audits/), [obsidian sync code review](https://obsidian.md/files/security/2025-Obsidian-TrailofBits-Sync-Audit.pdf))

## what stayed unfinished

- the graph didn't compound: the graph that was the launch poster became decorative — the most common veteran confession is that backlinks accumulate faster than insight. 'thousands of notes that i never referred to' is the unfinished half of networked thought. (sources: [is the obsidian graph useless?](https://drearicheli.blog/is-the-obsidian-graph-useless-pt6afky), [making obsidian's graph view actually useful](https://danholloran.me/posts/making-obsidians-graph-view-actually-useful), [rebooting my note-taking](https://darcynorman.net/2026/07/17/rebooting-my-note-taking/))
- capture without synthesis: capture outran synthesis — the chapin critique and the departure genre converge on the same confession: the vault became a high-maintenance hobby. the tool organized thinking; it didn't do the thinking. (sources: [notes against note-taking systems](https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/notes-against-note-taking-systems), [over-engineering the mind: the obsidian trap](https://buildfirstbrain.com/journal/over-engineering-the-mind-the-obsidian-trap/), [i stopped using obsidian after finding this self-hosted notes app](https://www.xda-developers.com/stopped-using-obsidian-after-finding-self-hosted-notes-app/))
- no real-time collaboration: real-time collaboration never arrived — sync merges files, it doesn't share a cursor. the single-writer assumption is the standing con in every review and the boundary the idea hasn't crossed. (sources: [obsidian review](https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/obsidian), [obsidian sync live team collaborative editing](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/obsidian-sync-live-team-collaborative-editing/6058), [can multiple users edit at the same time?](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/can-multiple-users-edit-at-the-same-time/14810))
- mobile capture lagged: the mobile capture story stayed weak for years — 'more of a library than a notepad,' startup friction, icloud hangs. the idea promises thinking anywhere; the product mostly delivered thinking at a desk. (sources: [i stopped using obsidian for quick notes, and my vault actually got useful](https://www.xda-developers.com/stopped-using-obsidian-for-quick-notes-and-vault-got-more-useful/), [mobile quick capture in obsidian](https://obsidian.rocks/obsidian-mobile-quick-capture/), [ios app extremely slow to load](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/ios-app-extremely-slow-to-load/67031))
- publish stayed a niche: publish never became the public-web layer the local files deserved — a paid feature repriced down in 2023 and still mostly a garden tool, while the open web publishing dream kept drifting to quartz, astro, and hugo pipelines. (sources: [i love obsidian but hate publishing from it](https://unmarkdown.com/blog/i-love-obsidian-but-hate-publishing), [obsidian publish alternatives](https://unmarkdown.com/blog/obsidian-publish-alternatives), [how i blog with obsidian, hugo, github, and cloudflare](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43771645))
- the closed source taxes the story: the closed core keeps taxing the philosophy — every year a new audience rediscovers 'obsidian isn't actually open source,' and each files.md-style clone gets a hero thread. the file-over-app answer satisfies hn less each cycle. (sources: [obsidian isn't actually open source — here's the markdown editor that is](https://tech.yahoo.com/articles/obsidian-isnt-actually-open-source-133017499.html), [show hn: files.md — open-source alternative to obsidian](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48179677), [open sourcing of obsidian](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/1515))

## the agent-era turn

- (for) plain markdown files on a local disk turn out to be the best substrate an ai agent could ask for — readable, writable, searchable, diffable, versionable, and already organized as a graph. the accident became the feature. (sources: [wordcell](https://wordcell.io), [wordcell readme](https://github.com/hraness/wordcell/blob/main/README.md), [basicmachines-co/basic-memory](https://github.com/basicmachines-co/basic-memory))
- (for) obsidian shipped the infrastructure itself: the 2026 cli lets agents 'read, search, and write to your vault programmatically,' and headless sync puts the vault on servers where agents live. the company is building the agent front door, not just inheriting one. (sources: [obsidian cli](https://obsidian.md/cli), [sync headless docs](https://obsidian.md/help/sync/headless), [desktop v1.12.4](https://obsidian.md/changelog/2026-02-27-desktop-v1.12.4/))
- (for) karpathy's llm-wiki post recast the vault as the ide for agent-compiled knowledge — web clipper for ingest, markdown as the compiler target, obsidian as the inspection surface. 1.2m views is the strongest signal the reframe landed. (sources: [llm knowledge bases](https://x.com/karpathy/status/2039805659525644595), [karpathy's llm knowledge base workflow explained](https://analyticsdrift.com/karpathy-llm-knowledge-base-vibe-coding-workflow/))
- (nuance) the mcp ecosystem arrived before the official one — community servers plus claude code workflows already read and write vaults. 'claude just killed the note-taking app' and 'how i use obsidian + claude code' describe the same reality from opposite sides. (sources: [markuspfundstein/mcp-obsidian](https://github.com/MarkusPfundstein/mcp-obsidian), [modelcontextprotocol/servers](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers), [claude just killed the note-taking app. here is proof.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=geIKyDaXwGg), [how i use obsidian + claude code to run my life](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6MBq1paspVU))
- (against) the counter-case: if agents do the synthesis, the human-facing app is just storage — and a plain folder of markdown needs no obsidian at all. the files survive; the app that made them durable may not be needed to read them. (sources: [notion, obsidian, and apple notes all lost to a plain folder of markdown files](https://www.xda-developers.com/notion-obsidian-apple-notes-lost-to-plain-folder-of-markdown-files/), [i ditched obsidian for notebooklm, and i'm so glad i did](https://www.xda-developers.com/ditched-obsidian-for-notebooklm/))
- (nuance) kepano's own bet is local: 'language models need to be local to the device so that they can be private, offline and future-proof.' if inference stays cloud-side, the vault's local-first advantage is real but the agent that reads it is not. (sources: [photoshop for text](https://stephango.com/photoshop-for-text), [use the saw, fear the saw](https://stephango.com/saw))

## successors

- [wordcell](https://wordcell.io/): the obsidian idea rebuilt for agents — a knowledge base for coding agents from markdown, backlinks, semantic search, and git context. (sources: [wordcell](https://wordcell.io), [hraness/wordcell](https://github.com/hraness/wordcell), [wordcell skill](https://github.com/hraness/wordcell/blob/main/skills/wordcell/SKILL.md))
- [sponge](https://github.com/hraness/sponge): hraness's knowledge harness for agentic research — the capture-and-synthesis layer the vault never grew. (sources: [sponge.computer](https://sponge.computer), [sponge docs](https://sponge.computer/docs))
- [oh](https://oh.computer/): the ontology kernel for agent knowledge work — where a markdown vault stops being the answer and starts being the substrate. (sources: [oh.computer](https://oh.computer), [hraness/oh](https://github.com/hraness/oh), [oh skill](https://github.com/hraness/oh/blob/main/skills/oh/SKILL.md))
- [basic memory](https://github.com/basicmachines-co/basic-memory): markdown-plus-mcp persistence for claude — the vault format held; the app that tended it became an agent. (sources: [basicmachines-co/basic-memory](https://github.com/basicmachines-co/basic-memory))
- [obsidian mcp servers](https://github.com/MarkusPfundstein/mcp-obsidian): the community's agent bridge — multiple mcp servers exposing vaults to agents before the official cli arrived. (sources: [markuspfundstein/mcp-obsidian](https://github.com/MarkusPfundstein/mcp-obsidian), [stevenstavrakis/obsidian-mcp](https://github.com/StevenStavrakis/obsidian-mcp/), [mohd-bilal/obsidian-mcp](https://github.com/mohd-bilal/obsidian-mcp))
- [obsidian itself](https://github.com/obsidianmd): the strongest successor claim is the incumbent's — cli + headless sync + the clipper's mit codebase is obsidian turning itself into the agent vault front end. (sources: [obsidian cli](https://obsidian.md/cli), [sync headless docs](https://obsidian.md/help/sync/headless), [obsidian web clipper](https://obsidian.md/clipper))
- [tana](https://tana.inc/): the supertag outliner — the structured-data branch of the lineage, cloud-side. (sources: [tana](https://tana.inc), [tana outliner](https://outliner.tana.inc))
- [capacities](https://capacities.io/): the object-based pkm that absorbed the first wave of obsidian departures — 'why are people leaving obsidian' was a capacities review. (sources: [capacities](https://capacities.io), [why are people leaving obsidian for this note app? | capacities review](https://youtube.com/watch?v=wLCENxoCh6g))
- [anytype](https://anytype.io/): the open-source, local-first, e2e-encrypted rival — the lineage's answer to 'closed source, open files.' (sources: [anyproto/anytype-ts](https://github.com/anyproto/anytype-ts))
- [subconscious](https://subconscious.substack.com/): gordon brander's sphere-descended project — the 'noosphere' branch of the lineage, still chasing the collective half of the memex dream. (sources: [subconscious](https://subconscious.network))

## open questions

- does file-over-app survive the agent era — or does the agent become the app that owns the files?
- if agents do the linking, what is the human-readable artifact — the graph, the diff, or the file itself?
- does the vault's graph become the audit surface for agent actions — provenance as a first-class citizen?
- who maintains the vault when machines become the gardeners — and does 'high-maintenance hobby' stop being a critique when the gardener is free?
- can local-first survive enterprise governance — audit logs, retention, access control — without recreating the cloud it refused?
- does obsidian become the agent vault's front end, or does the agent route around the app to the files it made durable?
- can agents solve collaboration — merge, provenance, intent — without recreating cloud lock-in?

AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

Canonical page: https://hraness.com/obsidian/the-idea


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

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````