Decision: Obsidian as Primary Vault Tool

Context

Needed a tool to host the codex vault. Requirements: works offline, stores as plain markdown, syncs via git, supports wiki-links, and has plugin ecosystem for automation.

Options Considered

1. Notion — Full-featured, cloud-native, great sharing

   • Pros: Beautiful UI, real-time collaboration, API access
   • Cons: Proprietary format, requires internet, vendor lock-in, slow with large vaults

2. Obsidian — Local-first markdown editor with plugins

   • Pros: Plain markdown files, works offline, git-friendly, massive plugin ecosystem
   • Cons: No real-time collab, learning curve for non-technical users

3. Logseq — Outliner-based, open source

   • Pros: Open source, block-level references
   • Cons: Outliner format fights long-form docs, smaller community

Decision

Obsidian. The codex is designed to be tool-agnostic — it’s just markdown files in folders. Obsidian happens to be the best viewer, but the vault works in any text editor, VS Code, or even cat on the command line.

Rationale

The codex must survive tool changes. If Obsidian dies tomorrow, every file still works because it’s plain markdown. This was impossible with Notion’s proprietary blocks.

Review Date

N/A — This decision is architectural. The vault format (markdown) is permanent.