Obsidian
Obsidian is a Markdown-based note-taking and knowledge management app from Dynalist Inc. that stores notes as local files on your Mac.
What is Obsidian?
Obsidian is a desktop note-taking and personal knowledge management application published by Dynalist Inc. It works primarily with local Markdown files stored in user-chosen folders, which makes it popular for long-term note archives, research collections, writing projects, and linked knowledge bases. On macOS, users commonly encounter it as a standalone desktop app used to create interconnected notes, backlinks, tags, graph views, and plugin-driven workflows. The app supports a large extension ecosystem through community and official plugins, and it can integrate with optional paid services such as sync and publishing from the same vendor. Because notes are stored as regular files instead of a locked database, many users choose it for portability and offline access. The bundle ID md.obsidian is consistent with Obsidian, and Dynalist Inc. is the company behind the product.
Key features
- Creates and edits notes in Markdown files stored in normal folders
- Links notes together with backlinks and internal wiki-style links
- Provides graph and navigation views for connected notes
- Supports community and official plugins for extended workflows
- Works offline with local files on the Mac
- Can sync notes across devices with the optional Obsidian Sync service
- Can publish selected notes to the web with the optional Obsidian Publish service
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Safety overview
Status: Mostly safe
Obsidian is a legitimate mainstream notes app from Dynalist Inc. and is generally safe when downloaded from the official website. The main risk is data exposure through third-party plugins, synced vault contents, or published notes if you enable those features. Locally stored Markdown files are user-accessible, which is good for portability but means sensitive notes should be protected with your own device and account security practices.
Recommendation: Keep if you use Markdown notes, linked knowledge bases, or Obsidian services. Remove if you no longer use it and have confirmed your note folders are backed up or intentionally kept elsewhere. Review installed plugins and sync or publish settings if you store sensitive information.
Common paths
/Applications/Obsidian.app~/Applications/Obsidian.app
Cache paths
~/Library/Caches/md.obsidian
Support paths
~/Library/Application Support/obsidian
Preference paths
~/Library/Preferences/md.obsidian.plist~/Library/Saved Application State/md.obsidian.savedState
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