Opensidian
Open-source and non-profit under GPLv3, vault-compatible cross-platform markdown notes app. It's based on Rust + Tauri v2 and under heavy development. We're looking for Linux distribution maintainers. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Obsidian or Dynalist Inc.; "Obsidian" is their trademark. Opensidian is a clean-room functional clone: it reimplements Obsidian's behaviour from the outside and contains none of its code.Features
- live preview, source and reading modes
- [[wikilinks]], backlinks, tags, graph view
- tabs, splits, search, quick switcher, command palette, bookmarks
- themes, fonts, hotkeys; open a vault with
opensidian - drag an image (png, jpg, gif, webp) or a PDF from your file manager onto a note:
![[name]] is inserted where you dropped it. A name that
already exists gets a new one, never overwritten. A .pdf must really be a PDF (it starts with %PDF-); other file
types are refused and left where they are.
Install
Linux x86_64 — packages
Download one:
| Download | Choose it if | Tested on (fresh install, 2026-10-25) |
|---|---|---|
| slim AppImage | you want the smallest file and have WebKitGTK 4.1 | Fedora 44 (sudo dnf install webkit2gtk4.1), Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0) |
| portable AppImage | you want nothing to install: WebKit is bundled (needs only the X11/GL/font libraries every desktop has) | Fedora 44, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS |
| Flatpak | you want it sandboxed; pulls the GNOME 49 runtime from Flathub on first install | Fedora 44, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (flatpak package installed) |
| RPM | you run Fedora and want a system package with a menu entry and icon; dnf pulls WebKitGTK 4.1 for you | Fedora 44 (sudo dnf install ./opensidian-0.9.0-x86_64.rpm) |
| DEB | you run Debian or Ubuntu and want a system package with a menu entry and icon; apt pulls WebKitGTK 4.1 for you | Debian 13, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (sudo apt install ./opensidian-0.9.0-x86_64.deb) |
Nix & NixOS
nix profile add github:jpzk/opensidianVerify your download
SHA256SUMS is signed with key A6E6 9ED6 BC47 79F3 2817 2148 4CC1 AFDE 15B6 4EA3:
curl -LO https://github.com/jpzk/opensidian/releases/download/v0.9.0/SHA256SUMS \
-LO https://github.com/jpzk/opensidian/releases/download/v0.9.0/SHA256SUMS.asc
gpg --keyserver hkps://keys.openpgp.org --recv-keys A6E69ED6BC4779F3281721484CC1AFDE15B64EA3
gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.asc SHA256SUMS
sha256sum -c --ignore-missing SHA256SUMSBuild from source
Tested 2026-10-03 on fresh Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Fedora 44 with Rust 1.98.0 (build ~2.5 min on 4 cores, binary runs and renders on both).- System deps. Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt install build-essential libssl-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
libgtk-3-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-devFedora:
sudo dnf install gcc gcc-c++ make openssl-devel webkit2gtk4.1-devel \
gtk3-devel libappindicator-gtk3-devel librsvg2-devel- Rust, if you don't have it (distro rustc is often older than 1.98):
curl --proto '=https' -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- --default-toolchain 1.98.0
. "$HOME/.cargo/env"- Build:
git clone https://github.com/jpzk/opensidian && cd opensidian/src-tauri
cargo build --release --locked # -> target/release/opensidianNix
The repo ships a flake (Nix 2.4+). It pins nixpkgs unstable and builds with--locked against src-tauri/Cargo.lock, so the toolchain and every crate
are pinned.
nix run . # build and run
nix build . # -> result/bin/opensidian, with the desktop file installed
nix develop # dev shell: rust-analyzer, clippy, rustfmt,
# clippy, rustfmt and all native deps; then:
# cd src-tauri && cargo test --lockedOn NixOS, the spawn::tests::switch_alive_probe_reads_proc test fails:
it hardcodes /bin/true, which does not exist there. The flock/landlock
integration tests also need a wider sandbox than the Nix build sandbox
grants, which is why the flake runs cargo test from the dev shell and
not as a flake check.
Licence
GPL-3.0-or-later (LICENSE). Read THIRD-PARTY.md before redistributing.Themes
Most Obsidian community themes work as they are. Ships with AnuPpuccin (default), Material Gruvbox, Minimal and Solarized, unmodified (THIRD-PARTY.md).To add one, put its manifest.json and theme.css in "name" in the manifest) and pick it in Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Themes. CSS snippets go in
.obsidian/snippets/. Both reload live. A broken theme shows greyed out with the reason, and the app
stays on AnuPpuccin.
Community plugins
Off by default. Each vault starts in restricted mode: no community plugin code runs.Turning it on. Open Settings ▸ Community plugins and switch Restricted mode off. The
choice is per vault and is saved in ~/.opensidian.json, outside the vault, so a vault you open
cannot turn its own plugins on.
What that means. With restricted mode off, the plugins you enable run code from the internet with your user's rights, the same as in Obsidian. They can run programs, open network connections and servers, send HTTP requests to any host, and open files and links with your system's default apps. There is no per-plugin permission prompt. Enable only plugins you trust.
Browse. Settings ▸ Community plugins ▸ Browse lists the community plugins. You can search,
sort, and open a plugin to read its details and README. Install, Update and Uninstall download
only from GitHub over HTTPS. The sha256 of every installed file is recorded. Installing does not
enable a plugin; you enable it yourself. Copying a plugin folder into
Secrets. Plugins that store secrets (API keys, tokens) use your system keyring through the Secret Service: gnome-keyring, KWallet or KeePassXC. Secrets are never written to a file. Without a running keyring, secret storage reports that it is unsupported and those plugins cannot save secrets.
Donate
Donation makes it possible!
bc1qzyh8c8kr8aylywqacsjwau6frzwjqt3cpa603w (BTC)
AI disclosure
opensidian was built predominantly with AI models. Nearly all of the code, the design docs, and this README were written by Claude (Anthropic's models, via Claude Code) working from prompts, reviews, and corrections by a single human maintainer. The human decided what to build and what the trust model must guarantee, read and pushed back on the output, and ran it; the models wrote most of the lines. Commit messages record the design rationale in the same way — many were drafted by the model and edited by the maintainer.