Obsidian glossary: the words to know

The vault and its files

Vault: the folder on your computer that ObsidianA free note-taking app for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android. Your notes stay as Markdown files on your own computer. Brievora is a vault, a folder of notes and views that you open in Obsidian.obsidian.md opens. Everything in it, notes, images, PDFs and subfolders, is part of the vaultIn Obsidian, a vault is a folder on your computer that Obsidian opens: your notes, their attachments and your settings. Brievora is a ready-made vault.help.obsidian.md. You can have several, for example one for client work and one for personal notes.

Note: a text file in MarkdownA plain-text format: a # makes a heading, asterisks make text bold. Any text editor opens these files, with or without Obsidian.markdownguide.org format, with the .md extension. Its file name is its title. A note holds text, lists, links, embedded images and, at the top, properties.

Markdown: a plain-text formatting syntax. **bold**, # Heading or - item stay readable in any editor. That is why your notes also open without Obsidian.

.obsidian folder: a hidden folder at the root of the vault, where Obsidian keeps its settings, installed plugins, themes and CSS snippets. Copying it into another vault carries the setup over. Deleting it resets that vault’s settings without touching the notes.

Attachment: any file in the vault that is not a note, such as an image, a PDF, an audio file or a video. Obsidian stores them according to the “Default location for new attachments” setting, under Settings › Files and links.

Links and organization

Internal link (wikilink): a link to another note in the vault, written [[Note name]]. [[Note name|shown text]] changes the visible text, [[Note name#Heading]] points to a section. When you rename a note, Obsidian can update the links that point to it.

Backlink: a link seen from the note it targets. If the note “Homepage mockup” contains [[Martin Bakery website]], the project note lists “Homepage mockup” among its backlinks. The “Outgoing links” pane shows the reverse: the notes the open note points to.

Embed: a link with an exclamation mark in front, ![[…]], which displays the target’s content instead of a plain link. You can embed an image, a PDF, another note, a section of a note or a base.

Alias: another name for a note, set in the aliases property. A note called “Martin Bakery Ltd” with the alias “Martin” shows up when you type “Martin” in a link or in the quick switcher.

Tag: a label written #client in the text or listed in the tags property. Nested tags, such as #client/bakery, sort notes without creating folders.

Graph view: a map of your notes and their links, drawn as dots joined by lines. It helps you spot notes that link to nothing. To follow a project day to day, a base does more.

Properties and Bases

Property: a structured piece of information at the top of a note, made of a name and a value, for example status: In progress or due: 2026-10-23. The shortcut Ctrl+; (Cmd+; on a Mac) adds one. Properties feed the filters and columns of bases (official help on properties).

Frontmatter: the block between two --- lines at the very start of a note, written in YAML. This is where Obsidian stores properties. A link inside it needs quotes: project: "[[Martin Bakery website]]".

Property type: the kind of value a property expects, among Text, List, Number, Checkbox, Date, Date & time, and Tags for tags. The type applies to the whole vault: if due is a date in one note, it is a date in all of them.

Base: a .base file that shows, like a database, the notes kept by its filters. It stores no data of its own, the values stay in the notes’ properties. The Obsidian Bases tutorial shows how to create one.

View: one way of showing the notes of a base, with its own filters, columns and sorts. A base can hold several, as a Table, List, Cards, Kanban or Map.

Filter: a condition that decides which notes go into a base, such as status != "Done". Global filters apply to every view, view filters to that view only.

Formula: a property computed in a base from other properties, for example the number of days before a due date. It shows as a column, but nothing is written to the notes.

Summary: a calculation shown under a table column, such as a sum, an average, a minimum or the number of filled values. It can total the hours spent on a project, for instance.

Kanban view: the BasesThe database feature built into Obsidian: tables, cards and Kanban boards made from the properties of your notes. No plugin to install.help.obsidian.md layout added in Obsidian 1.14 in October 2026, which sorts notes into columns by the value of a property. Dragging a card from one column to another changes that property in the note. The older Kanban community plugin is a separate tool: move from the Kanban plugin to Bases.

this: a keyword in Bases filters and formulas. In a base embedded in a note, it means that note. The filter project == this lets you reuse the same base in every project note.

The interface

Command palette: the searchable list of every command from Obsidian and your plugins, opened with Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac). Type “base” to see the Bases commands.

Quick switcher: search by note name, opened with Ctrl+O (Cmd+O on a Mac). If no note matches, Enter creates a note with that name.

Ribbon: the vertical strip of icons on the left of the window. It gives one-click access to the graph view, canvas, today’s daily note or a new base, depending on which plugins are on.

Callout: a colored box, written > [!note] followed by the text on the next lines, each starting with >. The types tip, warning or question change the icon and color.

Canvas: a core plugin that creates .canvas files, endless whiteboards where you place notes, images, links and text cards joined by arrows. The file format, JSON Canvas, is open and documented.

Template: a note used as a starting point, inserted with the command “Templates: Insert template”. The Templates plugin replaces {{date}} and {{title}} with today’s date and the note’s title.

Daily note: a note created for today’s date by the Daily notes plugin, named like 2026-10-16 by default. It works as a logbook: client calls, hours spent, ideas to come back to.

Plugins and services

Core plugin: a feature made by the Obsidian team, which you turn on or off in Settings › Core plugins. Bases, Canvas, Templates, Daily notes and Backlinks are core plugins.

Community plugin: an extension written by an independent developer, installed from Settings › Community plugins › Browse. It runs third-party code on your machine, so check who maintains it and when it was last updated.

Restricted mode: the setting that blocks all community plugins. You turn it off, in Settings › Community plugins, before installing your first plugin.

CSS snippet: a small .css file placed in .obsidian/snippets to adjust the look, a color or a margin for example. You turn it on in Settings › Appearance › CSS snippets.

Obsidian Sync: Obsidian’s paid sync service, end-to-end encrypted, with version history. It is optional: since a vault is a plain folder, other sync tools can copy it too.

Obsidian Publish: the paid service that publishes a selection of notes as a website, links included. It can host documentation you hand over to a client.

Questions

Do I need to learn Markdown before I start?

No. Obsidian shows the formatting as you type, and the usual shortcuts such as Ctrl+B for bold are enough at first. You pick up the few symbols by seeing them.

Are a property and a tag the same thing?

No. A tag puts a note in a category, with no other value. A property holds a specific value, a date or a status, that bases can sort and compare. The list of tags is itself a property, tags.

Is Obsidian free for freelancers?

Yes. Obsidian is free for all purposes, commercial work included. The commercial license is optional, and Sync and Publish are separate paid services.

Where is the official documentation?

In Obsidian’s help, at obsidian.md/help. The Bases pages cover the syntax of .base files and every formula function.