DiamondMD

A self-hosted markdown knowledge base. Obsidian-style wikilinks, backlinks, and graph — but web-first (no Electron) and git-native for sync and history.

DiamondMD is a single SvelteKit app. Point it at a folder of .md files, get a full knowledge-base UI in any browser. Every save is a git commit, so your history is real, diffable, and portable — and syncing across devices is a git push away.

Why

Obsidian is great. It's also Electron, its sync is proprietary and paid, and its plugin model locks you to their runtime. DiamondMD makes a different set of trade-offs:

• Web-first. Works on desktop, tablet, and phone browsers. Nothing to install per device.
• Git-native versioning. Every save is a commit. Real history, real diffs, real branches. Sync is just git push / git pull — no proprietary protocol.
• Markdown files, flat on disk. No lock-in. Uninstall DiamondMD tomorrow and your notes are still there.
• Multi-vault from day one. Different folders, different indexes, one app.
• Open source (MIT).

If you want Obsidian's plugin ecosystem and rich canvas view, stick with Obsidian. If you want the core [[wikilink]] + backlinks + search workflow in a browser with real version history, DiamondMD is for you.

Status

Early. Pre-1.0. Active development. See ROADMAP.md for the feature plan.

The MVP ships a functional editor, file tree, wikilink resolution, backlinks, fuzzy search, and git auto-commit. Live preview (Obsidian-style WYSIWYG within the editor) is a v0.3 target — v0.1 ships with a source+preview split.

Run

Requires Node 20+ and a folder of markdown files (or use the sample vault that ships with the repo).

git clone https://github.com/Zollicoff/diamondmarkdown.git
cd diamondmd
npm install
npm run dev           # dev mode, http://localhost:5173

Or build and self-host:

npm run build
node build            # production server via adapter-node

By default, DiamondMD reads its vault registry from ~/.diamondmd/config.json and ships with the in-repo sample-vault/ registered. Point it at your own folder by editing the config or using the in-app vault manager.

Concepts

• Vault — a folder of markdown files. Every vault is its own git repository (auto-initialized on first save).
• Note — a .md file inside a vault. The file's path within the vault is its identity.
• Wikilink — [[Note Title]] — resolves to another note in the same vault. Broken links render visibly so you can create missing notes.
• Backlink — automatically computed index of every note that wikilinks to the note you're viewing.
• Tag — #hashtag in body text or tags: in frontmatter. Tag index page lists every tag and the notes that use it.
• Frontmatter — YAML block at the top of a note (--- ... ---) with metadata. title, aliases, tags, created, updated are recognized.

Features (MVP — v0.1)

• Vault manager: add / switch between multiple vaults
• File tree with folders, rename/move/delete
• CodeMirror 6 markdown editor with syntax highlighting
• Split source / rendered preview
• [[Wikilink]] parsing, clicking navigates, missing links styled as broken
• #tag parsing and a tags index page
• Frontmatter parsing (title, tags, aliases)
• Backlinks panel — every note linking to the open note
• Outgoing links panel
• Fuzzy quick-switcher (Cmd-K / Ctrl-K)
• Full-text search across the vault
• Git auto-commit on save, with log viewer per-note
• Daily notes (auto-creates today's note from template)

Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md — summary:

• v0.1 — MVP above
• v0.2 — Graph view, themes, templates, improved mobile
• v0.3 — Live preview (Obsidian-style WYSIWYG-within-editor via CodeMirror decorations)
• v0.4+ — Publishing, simple plugin API via ES modules, richer git integration (branches-for-drafts)

Architecture

Single SvelteKit app:

• Server (src/lib/server/) handles filesystem, git, indexing — never exposes raw paths, only vault-relative paths
• Client (src/lib/components/, src/routes/) is pure Svelte 5 runes, no external UI framework
• No database — all state derives from the filesystem; the backlink/tag index is rebuilt on file-watcher events
• DESIGN.md has the details

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Contributing

Early days — open an issue if you've got an idea or run into a bug. See CONTRIBUTING.md. Style: vanilla CSS (no Tailwind), TypeScript strict, Svelte 5 runes.

Acknowledgments

DiamondMD is a clean-room implementation, but it stands on a lot of other people's work.

• Obsidian — the UX model that defined modern personal knowledge bases. The wikilink / backlink / graph / live-preview / vault mental model that DiamondMD adopts is theirs. We use none of their code; we credit the shape of the idea.
• CodeMirror 6 (MIT) — the editor engine behind source and live-preview modes.
• Svelte & SvelteKit (MIT) — framework.
• marked (MIT) — markdown → HTML.
• DOMPurify (MPL-2.0 / Apache-2.0) — HTML sanitization.
• jsdom (MIT) — DOM shim for server-side sanitization.
• simple-git (MIT) — git wrapper for auto-commits and history.
• Fuse.js (Apache-2.0) — fuzzy search.
• Lezer (MIT) — incremental parsing behind CodeMirror's markdown language.

Full library list with license notices in ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md.