Obails

Lightweight Obsidian Alternative
A fast, native markdown editor built with Wails v3 + Go + TypeScript

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Features

• Markdown Editor - Live preview with syntax highlighting
• 12 Themes - 5 light + 7 dark themes (GitHub Light, Catppuccin, Dracula, Nord, etc.)
• Mermaid Diagrams - Full support with fullscreen view, pan & zoom
• File Tree Sidebar - Navigate your vault with ease
• Outline Panel - Jump to any heading instantly
• Backlinks - See which notes link to the current note
• Daily Notes - Quick access to today's note
• Timeline - Quick memos with timestamp (HH:mm content)
• Code Highlighting - Syntax highlighting for code blocks
• Native Performance - Built with Go backend, runs as native app

Screenshots

Main Editor

GitHub Light theme - Split view with markdown editor and live preview

Dracula theme - Beautiful dark mode for night coding

Knowledge Graph

Interactive knowledge graph showing connections between notes

Mermaid Diagrams

Full Mermaid.js support with flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and more

Timeline & Daily Notes

Quick memos with timestamps - perfect for daily journaling

Code Syntax Highlighting

Syntax highlighting for TypeScript, Go, Python, and more

Theme Gallery

Light Themes	Dark Themes

Installation

Option 1: Download Pre-built Binary (macOS)

1. Download the latest release from GitHub Releases
2. Unzip obails-macos.zip
3. Move obails.app to /Applications
4. First launch: Right-click → "Open" (required for unsigned apps)

Note: This app is not signed with an Apple Developer certificate. macOS will show a security warning on first launch.

Option 2: Build from Source

Requirements:

• Go 1.21+
• Node.js 18+
• pnpm
• Wails v3

# Install Wails v3
go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/cmd/wails3@latest

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/kazuph/obails.git
cd obails

# Build the app
wails3 task darwin:package

# Run the app
open bin/obails.app

Usage

Configuration

Obails stores its configuration at ~/.config/obails/config.toml:

[vault]
  path = "/path/to/your/obsidian/vault"

[daily_notes]
  folder = "02_dailynotes"
  format = "2006-01-02"

[timeline]
  section = "## Memos"
  time_format = "15:04"

[editor]
  font_size = 14
  font_family = "SF Mono"

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Cmd + ,	Open settings (config.toml)
Cmd + S	Save current file

Themes

Switch themes from the dropdown in the toolbar. Your selection is saved automatically.

Light Themes: GitHub Light, Solarized Light, One Light, Catppuccin Latte, Rosé Pine Dawn

Dark Themes: Catppuccin Mocha, Dracula, Nord, Solarized Dark, One Dark, Gruvbox, Tokyo Night

Development

# Run in development mode (hot reload)
wails3 dev

# Run E2E tests
pnpm test

# Build for production
wails3 task darwin:package

Tech Stack

• Backend: Go + Wails v3
• Frontend: TypeScript + Vite
• Markdown: @mizchi/markdown
• Diagrams: Mermaid.js
• Syntax Highlighting: highlight.js

Roadmap

• Full-text search
• Graph view
• Timeline view (Twitter-like memo stream)
• Image display (PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP, SVG, BMP, ICO)
• PDF viewer (with PDF.js)
• HTML preview
• Canvas support
• Excalidraw support

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Credits

• Icon generated with Gemini AI
• Inspired by Obsidian

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Made with love by @kazuph