vault-link/docs/index.md

layout	hero	features
home	name text tagline image actions VaultLink Self-Hosted Sync & Collaboration for Obsidian and beyond Edit with any tool. Automatic conflict-free merging. Your infrastructure. src alt /logo.svg VaultLink theme text link brand Get Started /guide/getting-started theme text link alt Why VaultLink? /guide/what-is-vaultlink	title details Single-binary server meant for self-hosting Simple Rust-powered WebSocket server with SQLite. title details Your Data, Your Server Built with self-hosting in mind. Single simple Docker container or binary. title details Real-Time Collaboration See your collaborators' cursors and edits instantly. Or just use it to sync your files across devices. title details Obsidian plugin First-class support for Obsidian through the [VaultLink]() plugin. Sync changes coming from both within and outside of your Obsidian Vault. title details Interoperability is the new default VaultLink isn't limited to Obsidian. It comes with a client CLI, and can be easily embedded into other editors and knowledgebases as a plugin to unlock true interoperability. title details No Conflict Markers Never see conflict markers in your notes again. Automatic smart merging for text without human intervention which never drops changes. See the [reconcile demo](https://schmelczer.dev/reconcile) for an intuitive visualisation. title details Open Source Everything MIT licensed. Server, clients, and sync algorithm are all open source. No proprietary components.

What is VaultLink?

VaultLink is an editor agnostic sync & collaboration engine consisting of:

• a self-hostable server
• an Obsidian plugin
• and an optional plugin library & CLI client for integrating with other editors

I'm deeply concived that the shape of a personal knwoledgebase, stack of notes, or "operating system for life" is a folder of Markdown files and attachments. I believe in a rich editing experience built on top of plain text files, owning your own data, and eliminating moats between propriety products.

Obsidian is a well-loved editor (see the 2025 self-hosting survey). Even though it supports E2EE Syncing, it's done through a propriety plugin limited to Obsidian which also lacks support for collaboration. Existing 3rd-party syncing solutions fall short of delivering a stable and editor-agnostic experience. For more on this, see the alternatives.

VaultLink finally delivers a reliable, self-hosted, and editor-agnostic syncing solution with first-class support for Obsidian.

And more editors to come in the future, see the roadmap.

Quick Start

Deploy server (single command):

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 -v $(pwd)/data:/data \
  ghcr.io/schmelczer/vault-link-server:latest

Then install the Obsidian plugin or CLI client.

Full setup guide →

What makes VaultLink special

VaultLink's architecture enables a few unique features:

• Its text merging algorithm handles conflicting (even offline & coming from outside the editor) edits without human oversights while ensuring no changes are dropped. Learn more about this in the syncing algorithm section.
• Provides its full feature set through shallow integration meaning that it's straightforward to integrate into editors even ones which haven't been written with real-time collaboration and remote backups in mind. This is detailed in the architecture section.
• There are various text editor/wiki/knowledgebase style apps & websites around. Users should be able to mix & match between them, try them out, and collaborate with people preferring a different editor than themselves. The long-term goal of VaultLink is to break down these barriers. As of today, the two clients are a CLI exectuable client and an Obsidian plugin. However, there's more to come. So for an overview, head to the roadmap page.