What is Obsidian?
A short intro to Obsidian — the local-first notebook app that Time Garden runs inside, and why it matters for journaling.
Obsidian is a private, local-first notebook app. Think of it as a notebook for your computer that:
- saves every note as a plain
.mdfile on your own disk, - never sends your data to anyone,
- and turns into anything you want it to be — a journal, a wiki, a second brain, a research tool, a project tracker.
It's free for personal use, runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android, and is the foundation Time Garden is built on.
Why Obsidian Matters for Time Garden
Time Garden isn't a separate app. It's a vault — a folder full of notes — that runs inside Obsidian. So everything you can do in Obsidian, you can do in Time Garden:
- Write in markdown (or use the visual editor — both work)
- Link notes together with
*wikilinks* - Install community plugins that add new features
- Customize the look with themes and CSS snippets
- Sync between devices using iCloud, Dropbox, or Obsidian Sync
If you've never opened Obsidian before, that's totally fine — Time Garden's installer drops you straight into a fully-configured vault, and the opening tutorial walks you through your first launch.
What Makes It Different From Notion / Apple Notes / Evernote
Your files are *yours*.
If Obsidian disappeared tomorrow, every Time Garden entry you've ever written would still be a regular markdown file on your hard drive — readable in any text editor, forever.
Most modern note apps store your writing on their servers. Obsidian stores it on yours. That changes a few things:
- Privacy — no one can read your journal except you. Not Obsidian. Not anyone.
- Permanence — you don't lose access if a company shuts down or raises prices.
- Speed — there's no "loading" your notes from the cloud. They open instantly.
- Power — because the data lives locally, you can run local AI over it without uploading a single word.
That last point is what makes Time Garden possible. Read what Time Garden is next — or jump straight to installing it.
Useful Links
- 🌐 obsidian.md — the main site
- 📖 help.obsidian.md — official Obsidian docs
- 💬 Obsidian Discord & Forum — the friendliest community in productivity software
Brand new to Obsidian?
You don't need to learn it all before using Time Garden. Just install both and start writing — the rest comes naturally. The Obsidian Basics section of these docs (start with Reading and Writing View and The Command Palette) covers everything you'll actually need.