What is VaultLink?

Self-hosted sync for Obsidian vaults with automatic conflict-free merging. Edit with any tool, collaborate in real-time, no conflict markers.

The Problem

Syncing Obsidian vaults across devices or sharing with teammates sucks:

Commercial services: Lock-in, subscriptions, third-party access to your data
Git: Manual conflict resolution with <<<<<<< markers interrupting your workflow
Cloud storage: Last-write-wins data loss or manual conflict resolution
CRDT solutions: Only work if you edit inside Obsidian (break if you use Vim, VS Code, etc.)

VaultLink's Solution

Differential synchronisation with operational transformation for Markdown and text files.

Edit .md and .txt files with Obsidian, Vim, VS Code, or any editor. VaultLink compares versions and automatically merges all changes. No operation tracking required, no conflict markers.

Note: Binary files (images, PDFs, etc.) use last-write-wins. See limitations →

How It Works

Server: Rust WebSocket server with SQLite stores document versions
Clients: Obsidian plugin or CLI client watches filesystem changes
Sync: Changes upload to server, server broadcasts to other clients
Merge: reconcile-text automatically merges concurrent edits

No CRDT infrastructure. No operation logs. Just file comparison and smart merging.

Key Advantages

Editor agnostic: Edit files with any tool. Other solutions break when you edit outside their ecosystem.

Self-hosted: Your data, your server. No third parties, no subscriptions, no surprises.

Automatic merging: Operational transformation handles conflicts without interrupting your workflow.

Production-ready: Comprehensive tests, E2E tests, battle-tested. Many alternatives have zero tests.

Collaborative: Real-time sync with cursor tracking. See where teammates are editing.

Not Tied to Obsidian

VaultLink syncs Markdown files. Use it for:

Obsidian vaults (Obsidian desktop + mobile + CLI)
Technical documentation (VS Code, your-editor, CLI)
Academic writing (multiple Markdown editors)
Automated workflows (CLI client for backups/CI/CD)

The Obsidian plugin is just a convenience wrapper around the sync client.

Quick Comparison

Feature	VaultLink	Git	Cloud Sync	CRDT Solutions
Self-hosted	✅	✅	❌	Varies
Any editor	✅	✅	✅	❌
No conflict markers	✅	❌	❌	✅
Real-time	✅	❌	❌	✅
No subscriptions	✅	✅	❌	Varies
Comprehensive tests	✅	N/A	N/A	❌

Detailed comparison with alternatives →

Next Steps

Get started → (5 minute setup)
See the architecture → (understand how it works)
Compare alternatives → (why VaultLink vs others)

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