Guohui's Notes

Obsidian

2 min read

Introduction

Obsidian is a powerful, free markdown-based note-taking application that stores your notes as plain text files on your local device. It excels at linking notes together to build a personal knowledge graph, making it ideal for research, writing, and personal knowledge management.

Obsidian is recommended for markdown-based note-taking and building interconnected knowledge bases. Notes are stored locally as .md files, giving you full ownership of your data.

Installation

Obsidian

  1. Download from https://obsidian.md/
  2. Install the application
  3. (Optional) Install the command-line tool to open files from terminal with obsidian:
    • On macOS, you can use Homebrew: brew install obsidian or download from the website

Getting Started

  1. Launch Obsidian
  2. Create a new vault (or open an existing folder as a vault)
  3. Start creating .md files — they’re just plain markdown files you can edit anywhere

Usage

A collection of tips for working efficiently with the Obsidian editor.

Create connections between notes with [[Note Name]]. This builds your knowledge graph.

Embed Notes

Reference another note inline: ![[Note Name]]

Use Frontmatter

Add metadata at the top:

---
title: My Note
tags: [idea, research]
date: 2026-04-09
---

Callouts

Highlight important info:

> [!info] Title
> 
> Content here

Types: info, warning, tip, danger, example, quote

Code Blocks

Syntax highlighting for code:

def hello():
    print("Hello, Obsidian!")

Plugins to Consider

  • Tasks - Full-featured task management with dates, priorities, and custom attributes
  • Templater - Advanced templates
  • Dataview - Query your notes
  • Canvas - Visual note organization

External Resources

Graph View