Obsidian
Obsidian is a note-taking and personal knowledge base app for macOS that stores information in Markdown files and helps you organize linked notes.
What is Obsidian?
Obsidian is a Markdown editor and knowledge base app for macOS that helps you write notes, connect ideas, and manage personal or professional information in local folders called vaults. It is used by students, writers, researchers, developers, and other knowledge workers who want flexible notes that remain readable as plain text files. The app supports internal links between notes, graph-style exploration of connections, and visual canvases for arranging notes and media in a freeform workspace. Obsidian also supports plugins and themes, which let users customize editing, workflows, and appearance. Optional services such as Obsidian Sync and Obsidian Publish extend the app for syncing notes across devices and sharing content on the web. Dynalist Inc. publishes Obsidian as a desktop knowledge management tool built around local-first Markdown workflows.
Key features
- Create and edit notes in plain Markdown files
- Link notes together and browse relationships between ideas
- Organize research and planning on an infinite Canvas workspace
- Customize the app with plugins and themes
- Work from local vaults stored on your Mac
- Sync notes across devices with Obsidian Sync
- Publish selected notes to a website with Obsidian Publish
Review app leftovers with diCleaner
Inspect caches, support files, containers, and login items before cleaning.
Safety overview
Status: Mostly safe
Obsidian is a legitimate note-taking app, and its local-first design keeps your notes on your Mac by default. Optional features such as community plugins, web publishing, and syncing can expand what the app can access or share, so review plugin permissions and publish settings before using them with sensitive notes. If you use Obsidian Sync or another cloud sync tool, protect important vaults with backups to reduce the risk of sync conflicts or accidental overwrites.
Recommendation: Keep Obsidian if you use it for notes, research, writing, or knowledge management. If you no longer use it, you can remove the app, but export or back up any vaults you want to keep first because your notes may be stored outside the app itself in folders you chose.
Common paths
/Applications/Obsidian.app
Cache paths
~/Library/Caches/md.obsidian
Support paths
~/Library/Application Support/obsidian
Preference paths
~/Library/Preferences/md.obsidian.plist
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