Installation

Installation

Requirements

macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon and Intel (universal binary)

Also needs git. If git --version asks you to install the command line tools, accept (or run xcode-select --install).

Homebrew (recommended)

brew install --cask roypadina/tap/obsidian-vault-git-watcher

Manual

Download ObsidianVaultGitWatcher.zip from the latest release, unzip it and move ObsidianVaultGitWatcher.app to /Applications.

First launch and Gatekeeper

The app is self-signed with a stable identity, so permissions survive updates (not notarized, so first launch still needs Open Anyway) (no paid Apple Developer ID). On the first launch macOS may say "Apple could not verify…". Either:

• open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway (right-click → Open no longer works on macOS 15+), or

• clear the quarantine flag once:

  xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/ObsidianVaultGitWatcher.app

On first launch the app:

1. shows a Welcome window: what the app does, where its menu bar icon is, and the launch-at-login switch. Open Settings takes you to Vaults (there are none yet): click + and choose a vault. The window comes back after an update that changes it, and any time from Settings → General → Welcome Guide…;
2. turns on launch at login (a LaunchAgent; macOS shows a "Background item added" notice). Turn it off in the Welcome window or in Settings → General if you prefer.

Updating

brew upgrade --cask obsidian-vault-git-watcher

Then quit the app from its menu and open it again: the running copy keeps the old version until it restarts. Your vaults and settings are kept.

Uninstall

brew uninstall --zap --cask obsidian-vault-git-watcher

--zap also removes the config, state files, log and LaunchAgent. Manual uninstall: see the README.