Want notes that link together like a personal wiki and stay on your own PC? Obsidian turns Markdown files into a network of linked notes. Create a personal knowledge base, connect related ideas, and explore those connections with visual tools such as Graph and Canvas.
How do linked notes form a knowledge base?
Obsidian keeps a vault of notes as Markdown files on your own disk, which means you can work offline and keep the files in a readable text format. Add links between notes with references such as [[Note name]], then follow those links to move between related topics. Tags can add another way to group ideas.
This approach suits material that connects across subjects: a research note can point to a book, a person, or a project without forcing each item into just one folder. As the vault grows, those links build a personal reference system.
What do Graph and Canvas show?
Graph displays notes as points and their links as connecting lines. Explore the network to spot clusters and relationships across a vault. Canvas gives you an open workspace for arranging notes and other material into a research layout, brainstorm, or diagram.
How can plugins shape an Obsidian workflow?
Community plugins add focused tools to the core note-taking experience. For example, Calendar presents daily notes in a calendar view, Kanban creates Markdown-backed boards, and Tasks tracks to-dos across a vault. Themes change the app’s appearance, while plugins can support workflows such as journaling, planning, or managing a research library.
Obsidian also provides an open API for building plugins and themes. Sync and Publish are separate Obsidian services: Sync keeps notes available across devices, while Publish turns selected notes into a website.
Pros
- Stores notes as local, plain-text Markdown files
- Links notes with wiki-style references
- Graph view visualizes connections between notes
- Community plugins and themes customize workflows
Cons
- Cross-device syncing requires a separate sync method
Are Obsidian notes stored online?
Notes are stored locally as Markdown files. Sync is available as a separate service for accessing notes across devices.
How do I link one note to another?
Add a wiki-style link such as [[Note name]] in a note, then use it to navigate to the related note.
What is the difference between Graph and Canvas?
Graph visualizes links across notes. Canvas is a workspace for arranging material into layouts, brainstorms, and diagrams.
