--- title: "tnotes for Obsidian users · tnotes" description: "Open your Obsidian vault in the terminal with tnotes: same folders, [[wikilinks]] and #tags, no plugins, canvas or properties. Run both on one directory." canonical: https://tnotes.app/for/obsidian-users --- [use cases](/for) / obsidian-users # tnotes for Obsidian users Open your Obsidian vault in the terminal with tnotes: same folders, \[\[wikilinks\]\] and #tags, no plugins, canvas or properties. Run both on one directory. ## The problem You are in a terminal most of the day and your notes are in an Electron window. Alt-tabbing to Obsidian to check a runbook or jot a line is a small cost, paid often. Over ssh it is not possible at all. What you want is a way to read and edit the same vault from the shell, without converting anything and without losing Obsidian for the days you want the graph view. An Obsidian vault is a directory of Markdown files, and that is exactly what tnotes opens. Nothing is imported or exported; both programs read and write the same `.md` files. ## Setup in three steps 1. Install tnotes ([getting started](/docs/getting-started)). 2. Add the vault as a root. `tnotes ~/Obsidian/Work` saves it to the config and opens it; or write the config directly: ``` roots = ["~/Obsidian/Work", "~/Obsidian/Personal"] [editor] template = "# " ``` 3. Leave `.obsidian/` where it is. Dot-prefixed files and directories are ignored, so Obsidian’s configuration folder, its workspace state and plugin data never appear in the tnotes list. Set `template = "# "` (the default) so new notes begin with a heading. tnotes names the file after the first line, so `# Postgres failover` becomes `postgres-failover.md`, which Obsidian then shows under that filename. ## What carries over - **Folders.** Obsidian folders are directories on disk and the tnotes tree shows the same hierarchy. `m` in the list moves a note between them. - **`[[Wikilinks]]`.** Obsidian’s default link format is `[[Note title]]`. tnotes resolves the same syntax by title (case-insensitive), then by file stem, completes it after `[[` with `tab`, follows it with `alt+enter` or `ctrl+click`, and creates a missing target on follow, as Obsidian does. When you rename a note in tnotes, `[[old title]]` is rewritten to `[[new title]]` in every other note, matching Obsidian’s automatic link update. - **`#tags`.** Inline tags are parsed from the text, including nested ones with a slash such as `#inbox/to-read`, the same form Obsidian uses. `ctrl+click` on a tag filters the list to it. - **Backlinks.** `alt+enter` on a line without a link opens a backlinks overlay; the status bar shows the count as `↩ N`. - **Checkboxes.** `- [ ]` items toggle with `alt+x` or a click. ## Daily workflow Keep Obsidian open on the desktop and tnotes in a tmux pane. Both watch the directory. A note you edit in Obsidian reloads in a clean tnotes tab, cursor position kept; a note you edit in tnotes is written atomically after `autosave_ms` of idle time, so Obsidian never sees a half-written file. If both sides have unsaved changes to the same note, tnotes keeps its own text as `name (conflict