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Obsidian

  • Source: https://obsidian.md (proprietary)
  • License: Proprietary — free without limits for personal and commercial use since February 2025. Not open source. Sync, Publish and a commercial licence are optional paid ways to support the developers.
  • Alternatives: Logseq, Notion, Roam Research, Joplin

Recommended for notes and tasks. Obsidian is the one deliberate exception to the open-source rule in this stack. It is still free — free without limits, no sign-up, nothing to buy — it just isn't open source. That distinction is the whole of the exception: your notes are plain .md files in a directory you already own and sync, so the editor is replaceable. Nothing you write is locked inside it.

Not a container

Obsidian is a desktop and mobile app, not a service the stack runs. There is no compose file and no <slug>.EXIST_DOMAIN hostname. It reads a vault directory that Nextcloud syncs, which is what connects it to everything else here.

Why it's the recommendation​

The vault is a folder of markdown. That means every automation in this stack can read and write your notes with no API, no export step, and no vendor in the middle — the same way LightRAG indexed a vault and the same way any routine you write can drop a file into it.

It also replaces a second app: with the Kanban plugin below, tasks live in the vault too, so there's no separate task service, database, or backup sidecar to maintain.

Kanban​

Task boards live in the vault as markdown, via the community Kanban plugin.

  1. Settings → Community plugins → Browse → Kanban → Install → Enable
  2. Create a note, then right-click it → New Kanban board (or use the command palette)
  3. Cards are list items; columns are markdown headings

Because the board is a .md file, the same automations that touch notes can add cards. Appending a checklist line to the file adds a card to that column.

This replaces Vikunja, which was retired from the stack — it was a second app, database, and backup sidecar for something the vault now does.

Plugins in use​

Core:

  • Unique note creator

Community:

  • Excalidraw — drawing and diagramming
  • Kanban — task boards (see above)

Sync to your phone​

Obsidian's own paid sync is not required — Nextcloud handles it.

  1. Install the Obsidian app
  2. Install the Nextcloud app
  3. Install FolderSync (if Obsidian can't reach Nextcloud files directly)
  4. Set up two-way sync between the Nextcloud vault directory and the directory Obsidian can access

See Nextcloud for the server side.