kepano

making Obsidian (npub1g6e…h2zd)

blog: https://stephango.com
obsidian: https://obsidian.md

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npub1jxnnud3gmde043wyl43gfx9zmw3qpuw966jvh7y5v7tctdefq0rqz0j74d

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nprofile1qqsfrfe7xc5dkuh6chz06c5ynz3dhgsq78zadfxtlz2x09u9ku5s83spz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dssrcjd2

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relay.nostr.net

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub1jxnnud3gmde043wyl43gfx9zmw3qpuw966jvh7y5v7tctdefq0rqz0j74d

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Last Notes

2026-07-18 19:10:20 UTC

formats evolve over decades, apps over months, intelligence is evolving every day
in terms of pace layers "file over app" defines priorities: invest deeply in proven formats, and don't expect anything at the intelligence layer to last very long
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/942/555/641/906/392/original/0b226b5df993f40b.png

2026-05-12 19:56:30 UTC

The most exciting thing for me is that I can finally get back to making #Obsidian plugins. I too was daunted by waiting in the review queue 😅
Now you can get a plugin into Obsidian within 24 hours.
https://obsidian.md/blog/future-of-plugins/

2026-04-20 14:47:20 UTC

New policy from #Atlassian:
Unless you opt out by August 17th 2026, data from Jira and Confluence will automatically be used for AI training. Some data cannot be opted out at all on some plans.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/437/574/893/680/650/original/5c0d14dd08fb2186.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/437/575/093/434/042/original/6927f537a508eaa1.png

2026-04-03 16:30:35 UTC

New in #Obsidian Reader:
- Themes and typography settings
- Highlighting
- Save options
Also added a beautiful new reading experience for deeply nested comments on Reddit and Hacker News.
Available with Obsidian Web Clipper 1.3 on all browsers.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/341/720/905/811/136/original/d1847c1b61559bca.mp4

2026-03-25 13:11:06 UTC

what are the chances this thing will be abandonware in a month?
you can make something in a few days but will you commit to maintaining and improving it for the next few years?

2026-03-18 21:06:13 UTC

I have been working on #Obsidian Reader for over a year. I didn't want to share it until I felt it was good enough. It's finally there.
Consistent formatting for any article. Outline, syntax highlighting, nice footnotes, adjustable typography.
Runs locally. Just rules, no AI.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/252/201/630/492/349/original/4a5c4f2db79d1532.mp4

2026-01-12 21:11:38 UTC

give me one TINY thing you want fixed or improved in #Obsidian — the smaller the better, I'm going on a paper cuts rampage

2025-12-30 02:49:40 UTC

Obsidian plugins reached 100 million total downloads!
2026 will be a big year for #Obsidian plugins. The plan is to make plugins easier to discover, safer to use, simpler to build, and faster to approve.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/806/191/383/141/332/original/68fc9593ebc166e1.png

2025-12-25 02:38:36 UTC

- reply

Obsidian has always been performance-focused, but one problem area was startup time on mobile. That has radically improved over the last few updates, and it's now down under 500ms for almost all vaults, even my large personal vault with over 17,000 notes.

2025-12-25 02:38:35 UTC

Performance is design, and every millisecond counts.
Every update in 2025 trimmed Obsidian's load speed. This is quite complex given the number of different configurations and operating systems Obsidian supports.
We employed many different solutions to speed up Obsidian across various syncing methods, operating systems, plugins, vault sizes, etc.
Getting into Obsidian should be instantaneous regardless of vault size. It's absolutely necessary so that ideas can flow without friction.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/777/876/541/449/102/original/7623265ed1084f1b.mp4

2025-12-16 21:45:32 UTC

what's one improvement you'd like to see in #obsidian in 2026?

2025-11-03 22:08:47 UTC

When you email issues to Obsidian Entertainment (the video game company) their AI support hallucinates and tells you to email Obsidian (the note-taking company) instead.
The perils of trusting an LLM with your customer support.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/488/014/140/949/207/original/d1547b6519a819fe.webp

2025-10-20 17:55:50 UTC

Use the saw, fear the saw
https://stephango.com/saw
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/407/770/999/142/062/original/59cc126b43889cb0.png

2025-09-18 14:56:51 UTC

Today in ransomware, Slack increases pricing by $195k with a week's notice for a non-profit that teaches teenagers how to code.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/225/874/662/766/081/original/26ce6627b3472786.jpg

2025-08-18 19:12:08 UTC

https://mas.to/@obsidian/115051168411215897
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/051/352/505/678/875/original/921e2ffde45627e3.png

2025-05-22 20:00:17 UTC

If you're looking for a #Pocket replacement, give #Obsidian Web Clipper a try — it's open source (MIT) and works with any app that supports Markdown, not just Obsidian
https://obsidian.md/clipper

2025-05-22 19:56:22 UTC

- reply

Give Obsidian Web Clipper a try — it's open source (MIT) and works with any app that supports Markdown
https://mastodon.social/@kepano/114553164915046938

2025-04-05 19:43:01 UTC

currently #Obsidian for Android requires full file access permissions because it's necessary for certain third-party sync tools and interoperability — but some users prefer narrower permissions
in an upcoming version we're adding this option, do the tradeoffs make sense here?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/287/055/365/787/189/original/eff5f6304a9b1179.png

2025-04-05 15:50:03 UTC

every time I open Spotify more tracks are grayed out, the songs are no longer available... music slowly became the least "file over app" part of my digital life
my teenage self understood this better — nothing beats your own collection of MP3s

2025-03-28 16:41:58 UTC

technology always finds the next reproducible thing
art always finds the next irreproducible thing

2025-03-14 16:07:48 UTC

Obsidian Web Clipper now lets you save directly to .md files so you can use the browser extension with any text editor
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/161/644/740/878/721/original/839b899369b5ea53.mp4

2025-02-21 17:20:11 UTC

freedom of encryption is a human right
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/043/020/515/722/431/original/9939672561554c42.png

2025-02-20 15:32:42 UTC

All the cloud platforms use your data to train LLMs. Local-first tools are the way to fight back.
Security, defense, finance, healthcare, government... the reason high-security orgs use #Obsidian is for the privacy and ownership of their data.
Now every team can be sovereign.
https://obsidian.md/blog/free-for-work/

2025-02-16 14:12:07 UTC

what feature should we remove from #Obsidian?
- something old that no longer serves its purpose
- something that could be a plugin
- something you never use
- ?

2025-01-30 16:00:54 UTC

if I spent less time using Obsidian I might have more time to improve it, but then I wouldn't know what to improve

2025-01-22 20:51:05 UTC

think of local-first as a hardening function
local systems should remain operational even when the infrastructure isn't... when the infrastructure comes back online, changes are synced
it's the same reason you might want a battery or generator if the electrical grid goes down

2025-01-22 19:32:28 UTC

computers started local-first and will go back to local-first

2025-01-06 19:22:33 UTC

You built a house on someone else's land, and then they tore it down.
Build a house on your own land. From there you can create roads, bridges, tunnels to other people's land.
On the web land is infinite. You can make your own land.

2024-12-19 21:31:55 UTC

a quick demo of how I edit my website with #Obsidian 1.8
write in Obsidian → auto-build in jekyll → preview local site in web viewer tab → push to github → auto-deploy to live site
I've been making websites for twenty five years, and this is by far the nicest it's ever been
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/681/619/455/310/318/original/eec8415bca5e3eee.mp4

2024-12-18 22:35:26 UTC

Obsidian 1.8.0 lets you open external links in tabs so you can multi-task on research projects, or quickly read an article without losing focus #obsidian
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/676/195/829/164/422/original/31fb4afa86848a58.mp4

2024-12-17 15:10:26 UTC

- reply

1. what device do you use?
2. can you share the results of your startup time?
go to Settings → General → Advanced and click on the stopwatch icon

2024-12-17 15:03:46 UTC

- reply

recently we've open-sourced several big projects under the MIT license:
- JSON Canvas: an open format for canvas data
- Web Clipper: highlight and save content from the web to Markdown
- Importer: convert proprietary formats to Markdown
I'd love to see more people help us on those!

2024-12-17 14:06:49 UTC

what's one improvement you'd like to see in #obsidian in 2025?

2024-12-13 20:22:17 UTC

Microsoft just released a tool that lets you convert Office files to Markdown. Never thought I'd see the day.
Google also added Markdown export to Google Docs a few months ago.
https://github.com/microsoft/markitdown

2024-12-09 19:51:48 UTC

cloud computing allows startups to outsource computing to Google
quantum computing allows Google to outsource (outverse?) computing to parallel universes
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/624/605/381/930/507/original/36c1447d384dd39a.jpg

2024-12-03 16:41:35 UTC

Self-guaranteeing promises
Companies break promises all the time. A self-guaranteeing promise does not require you to trust anyone. You can verify a self-guaranteeing promise yourself.
https://stephango.com/self-guarantee
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/589/870/357/433/484/original/0607850f0f7c719a.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/589/873/194/077/377/original/6a8ba9b904861b52.png

2024-11-20 15:13:53 UTC

#Obsidian Web Clipper 0.9.8 is out.
You can now choose to save highlights inline, using the ==highlight== syntax. You can also extract the highlights separately.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/515/927/858/101/455/original/a9bd3638d251af29.mp4

2024-11-19 15:32:37 UTC

Here's what I'm working on next for #Obsidian Web Clipper.
Shameless ask — if you've been enjoying the extension, give it a review wherever you downloaded it. It really keeps me going 💜
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/510/337/245/702/903/original/e75d1568bea1ba26.png

2024-11-18 20:19:40 UTC

We're getting close on some limited edition #Obsidian merch by the amazing Shaun Yue.
Shaun is the designer behind sci-fi interfaces you've seen in Andor, Rogue One, Prometheus, Pacific Rim, Mission Impossible, etc, etc
1. "Drive" — inspired by hard drives representing the physical instantiation of your files
2. "Fractal" — explodes the Obsidian logo into a fractal graph view
(these images show the back of the t-shirt)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/505/798/156/514/397/original/a24fbd0a556d0dc1.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/505/798/209/519/122/original/51430953415a4b52.jpg

2024-10-30 10:56:12 UTC

Thoughts on Omnivore shutting down (1/3)
Many people enjoyed Omnivore because it was free, but being free was part of its demise.
As an independent app maker, you must have a way to generate revenue or your product will die. As a user you must demand a way to pay makers for the products you love. See my essay: "Quality software deserves your hard‑earned cash"
https://stephango.com/quality-software

2024-10-10 15:23:01 UTC

Most people would be better off with a simple static site than Wordpress.
Static sites are faster, cheaper, and easier to edit. And because you own your content in plain text you can more easily switch site generator or host. You're can't be held hostage.

2024-09-17 20:48:45 UTC

you can now set your iCloud files to "Keep Downloaded" which significantly reduces startup time for #obsidian
(available on iOS18 and macOS Sequoia)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/154/847/894/927/140/original/a957044fdf2cacc2.jpg

2024-08-29 20:28:41 UTC

What do you want out of an official #Obsidian web clipper?
👀
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/047/191/113/532/199/original/b713f1f3b7c807fc.mp4

2024-08-28 18:04:59 UTC

On September 9th, Notion will delete the data of all Russian users due to new U.S. sanctions.
This is why "file over app" is essential — you should not be subject to the whims of platforms and governments. Be sovereign of your own data.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/040/962/180/664/449/original/3bc5a4ac7e86cb01.png

2024-08-27 20:28:29 UTC

Big improvement for #Obsidian startup time on mobile with 1.7.1.
My personal vault with 15k notes went from ~5s to 1s (cold start) on an iPhone 15 Pro. Trying to get it down to 500ms or less.