Start here

Hi there! I'm a note in your vault.

At the same time, I'm also just a Markdown file sitting on your hard disk. It's all in plain text, so you don't need to worry about losing me in case Obsidian disappears one day.

Quick Start

If you're in a hurry, here's some quick places to dive in:

• The Command palette contains most of the commands you need to work with Obsidian. Just press Ctrl/Cmd-P and start typing.
• How to create new notes.
• How to create internal links
• How to use Markdown to Format your notes
• How to embed files, or embed other notes
• Keyboard shortcuts
• How to open multiple files side by side
• Obsidian can be extended with plugins. Several are available by default, and can be enabled or disabled according to your needs.

If you want a more thorough introduction, including a bit about our philosophy, check out Obsidian.

And if you'd like a gentle introduction, or just want to get started but don't know how, head over to Basic note taking.

If you are a Catalyst supporter, and want to turn on Insider Builds, see Insider builds.

Workflows

Obsidian is a tool that can be used in many ways, from a simple list of notes to a very powerful knowledge management system. We suggest you start at your own pace, and build it into the tool you need.

Here are a few ways to get started:

If you want to just start taking notes, check out Basic note taking

If you already have a collection of notes in markdown format, just choose them for your Vault. Go to the Settings gear in the lower left, choose "Vault," and select the directory your notes are in.

If you have notes from Roam Research, Notion, or other systems, here's how to import them.

If you'd like to know more about Obsidian, you can read about our story.

By the way, you can feel free to edit these help docs, but when you click Settings => Help => Read Help again, they will be overwritten. So, don't put anything in them you want to keep.

I have questions.

Then you should join our community!. We have active Discord and Forums, and the community is generally quite helpful.