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Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

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Re: Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

#111

Good point. But doesn’t Obsidian also support a CLI? In theory, wouldn’t that also work well with agents? I’m still curious what pain points this project solves compared with Obsidian or Notion.

Two key pieces: 1. True WYSIWYG UI 2. MCPs and skills support showing the OpenKnowledge web UI within the Desktop apps, as well as things like agentic search with embeddings and other goodies. We also add AI affordances into the UI, including an embedded Claude/Codex terminal.

Re: Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

#112
post #95
post #91

So it's just a Electron editor + "open in %agent" button... I don't see any reasons to use it instead of. obsidian + my agents.

More 1. Webpage is lying and showing stuff what you don't have in the app 2. You made changes to my .zshrc without asking me. 3. Slow. Open and render tiny md file with 10 lines - 1s Removed, will never install again

Hi, I'm also currently chipping away at a PKM. I was wondering what would be things you would want to consider switching? I'm trying very hard to be performance focused + easy onboarding for obsidian heavy users.

Re: Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

#113
post #87

I really wanted to like this, but unfortunately couldn't see how it improves my experience over Obsidian or VS Code. The fact that I have to juggle between OpenKnowledge and Codex to engage the AI, while also accepting a barebones Obsidian, is a real bummer. From what I can tell, you are saving me a few key strokes with moving prompts around. What I really want is the AI to live IN the app, like VS Code, and then mov…

Ack, thanks for feedback ! We're definitely looking at a more integrated experience.

Thank you for this project - I am excited to check it out!

My current agentic workflow is having a github repo that is a workspace and essentially a single obsidian vault over it called agents. I modify with Claude code (or other harness), check diffs in...VSCode and read it in...Obsidian.

It's separate from my actual personal Obsidian vault (that I don't send to any AI providers), and is only for agents. It's been really nice on all sorts of varied projects and for performing web research. I also have a bun monorepo setup in the root with varied tools for search, fetching individual websites, setting up folder structures - etc.

But essentially, in my experience, the moment you tell the model that it's in an Obsidian Vault - magic happens.

I am so curious how this will play in with it all and am hoping this will improve my workflow!

Re: Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

#114
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I just want to see more support for local LLMs. I haven't been doing much coding lately but am interested in setting up Qwen 3.6 if I can obtain the hardware

Agree same. We'll look into explicit guides and integrations with Zed // OpenCode as a starting point, they let you choose your model.

Pi Coding Agent would be great also.

Re: Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

#115
post #114
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree same. We'll look into explicit guides and integrations with Zed // OpenCode as a starting point, they let you choose your model.

Pi Coding Agent would be great also.

Yup, taking a look at it. Expect it integrated within next week.

Re: Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

#116

I really wanted to like this, but unfortunately couldn't see how it improves my experience over Obsidian or VS Code. The fact that I have to juggle between OpenKnowledge and Codex to engage the AI, while also accepting a barebones Obsidian, is a real bummer. From what I can tell, you are saving me a few key strokes with moving prompts around. What I really want is the AI to live IN the app, like VS Code, and then mov…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

#118
i think the gap that needs to be bridged between obsidian and notion is:

obsidian: great for LLMs (local markdown files), bad for collaboration (no multiplayer features like multi editor, comments)

notion: not great for LLMs (network round trips, block-based editing), great for collaboration

Re: Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

#119
post #118

i think the gap that needs to be bridged between obsidian and notion is: obsidian: great for LLMs (local markdown files), bad for collaboration (no multiplayer features like multi editor, comments) notion: not great for LLMs (network round trips, block-based editing), great for collaboration

+1. We'll continue at it.

Re: Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

#120
The feature I am waiting for in all of these editors is integrating 'red lining' as a channel for LLM input. This is the best interface for working on a text. https://www.roughdraft.md/ does the core idea pretty well - but is not well integrated with the rest (browsing, etc).
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