Obsidian Sync now has a headless client • Hacker News Board

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#151

Post by shminge » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 3:45 AM UTC

dispersed wrote: post #26

This is great, but as convenient as Obsidian Sync is, it'll never replace plain Git (for me) until it has unlimited version history: > The retention period for your version history depends on your Obsidian Sync plan. On the Standard plan, notes are retained for 1 month, while on the Plus plan, they are kept for 12 months. After this period, older versions of your notes are deleted.

I have sync to support the amazing devs, and for convenience, and an automatic git-based backup that runs in the background. It's good to double dip sometimes

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#152

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 4:21 AM UTC

Paddyz wrote: post #150

scalemaxx wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Obsidian with my Claude (and Codex) but not sure what additional value the CLI would provide since it's just markdown files. What am I missing that a CLI provides for AI? And not sure how the sync fits into it unless there's a copy of the vault that the AI is working with over CLI? Can use a tip.

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[deleted]

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#153

Post by poglet » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 4:54 AM UTC

FloatArtifact wrote: post #23

typicalrunt wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to use SyncThing, then Dropbox, then iCloud. But then I just caved and paid for Obsidian Sync and it is the best money spent aside from Claude. I don't have to tinker with weird settings anymore or deal with sync issues, it just works.

I can't wonder if that's by design to make it hard for a plugin to have it's own sync mechanism. Definitely not proof of this that I know of, but a thought.

Joplin has great sync support for a number of providers, Dropbox, Onedrive, Nextcloud, S3 etc, Obsidian supports none of these on iOS so I cant sync all my devices without having all my notes go to Obsidian servers and paying the fee.

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#154

Post by jiehong » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 5:19 AM UTC

halJordan wrote: post #130

AbstractH24 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I love that CLIs are getting a second wind. I just wish there were more solutions to add simple things like copy and paste to them. As though they were more a derivative of the text box I type in right now. And less to MS-DOS I grew up with. Outside of that, agreed. Eliminate GUI as a blocker.

It's surprising how that odds still an unsolved problem. That and trashcan integration

On MacOS, this is actually solved with the following native clis: pbcopy, pbpaste, trash.

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#155

Post by febed » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 5:32 AM UTC

wiether wrote: post #42

FloatArtifact wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't wonder if that's by design to make it hard for a plugin to have it's own sync mechanism. Definitely not proof of this that I know of, but a thought.

Obsidian is plain Markdown and JSON files. There can't be a will from the devs to make it hard to sync. It's just that unlike git or Dropbox or whatever, that are just generic "syncing" tools, Obsidian Sync has been built to provide the best experience with Obsidian.

I’ve been using Obsidian with Dropbox sync for years. What’s so special about the Obsidian sync?

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#156

Post by steve_adams_86 » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 5:35 AM UTC

DetroitThrow wrote: post #140

stingraycharles wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be a fossil living under a rock, but: were they ever gone? As the amount of new CLI based applications I install on a monthly basis is always far more than the amount of new GUI based applications.

I think a lot of new developers used GUIs very exclusively for a very long time. Agentic workflows and Claude code have brought CLI tools to the forefront again.

A good example of this that I've noticed is a lot of newer devs were using GitHub Desktop or VS Code to manage git operations, but Claude gave them peek under the hood and now they're using it directly a bit more. Claude Code is a great gateway drug to CLI and TUI addiction

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#157

Post by sickcodebruh » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 5:53 AM UTC

Obsidian is my favorite new tool. I started a new job last week and decided to spin it up on day one to help me onboard and learn their system. It’s been wildly successful, the missing piece I needed to really turn Claude Code into the learning and documentation tool I dreamed about.

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#158

Post by Axsuul » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 5:56 AM UTC

Will this ever be able to work with a self hosted server?

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#159

Post by krlx » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC

eric-p7 wrote: post #41

I wish I could use Obsidian to edit single markdown files. If my project has a readme.md I don't want to create an obsidian vault with its configuration files in my project, just to open it.

Yeah I often find myself with this need too and I really didn't want to open a huge Electron app each time I need to visualize or edit a simple md file.

Claude helped me vibe code a small rust editor : https://github.com/Karalix/markzap it's tuned to my usage, you should make your own too !

Re: Obsidian Sync now has a headless client

#160

Post by dSebastien » Sun, Mar 01, 2026, 6:44 AM UTC

corysama wrote: post #12

Also new: Obsidian joins the CLI gang https://help.obsidian.md/cli I’ve been having a lot of fun recently using AI CLIs with Obsidian. No plugins necessary because it’s just a directory tree of markdown files.

The Obsidian CLI enables many scenarios not possible with the Markdown files alone: building and debugging plugins, running commands, controlling Obsidian, querying bases, accessing the Obsidian index, ...