Discussion: Adding The Vault — a local-first knowledge panel inspired by Obsidian

[Zen0-99]

I've been experimenting with a major new feature and want to get community input before opening a formal proposal. The idea is to bring a dedicated Vault panel into Odysseus - a markdown-native workspace for managing notes, folders, wikilinks, properties, and knowledge graphs. Think of it as Odysseus gaining its own "second brain" mode.

I call it The Vault (Obsidian is the inspiration, since I do not want to take their name).

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What?

The Vault is a persistent, file-backed note workspace inside Odysseus. It reads from and writes to a local folder of .md files with YAML frontmatter, wikilink syntax ([[Note Name]]), and inline properties - the same format Obsidian uses, so existing vaults can be opened directly.

What already works in my branch:

• Folder tree with drag-and-drop move/reorder
• Wikilink auto-completion while typing [[
• Backlinks panel - notes that link to the current note
• Properties editor with typed fields (text, list, tags, checkbox, date)
• Three view modes - Source (raw markdown), Reading (rendered), and Live Preview (inline click-to-edit)
• Search & bookmarks within the vault
• Brain integration - individual notes or entire vaults can be connected to the Brain as context sources
• Quick Switcher* (Ctrl+O) for fuzzy-finding notes

What's on the roadmap if there's interest:

• Graph view - force-directed canvas of notes and links, with orphan detection
• Tabbed sidebars - Files, Search, Bookmarks, Tags on the left; Backlinks, Outgoing Links, Outline, Orphans on the right
• Daily Notes & Templates
• Plugin system - Obsidian-style Plugin class with core plugins (Graph, Word Count, Page Preview, etc.) and eventually community plugins

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Why?

Odysseus already has a powerful chat Brain, session system, and tool integrations. But it lacks a structured place to own your knowledge - not just query it, but curate it, link it, and grow it over time. The Vault fills that gap without adding a new dependency or cloud service.

• It's just markdown files. No proprietary database. Users can open the same folder in Obsidian, VS Code, or any text editor.
• It makes the Brain smarter. When a vault is connected, the Brain has persistent, structured context across sessions instead of relying only on ephemeral chat history.
• It's a natural home for AI output. Generated research, code explanations, or task plans can be saved as linked notes rather than lost in chat scrollback.
• It respects the project's ethos. Local-first, file-backed, hackable - the same principles Odysseus is built on.

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Who is this for?

User	How they'd use it
Power users who outgrow chat-only workflows	Build a personal wiki of prompts, research, and project notes that persists across sessions
Researchers & writers	Draft long-form content with wikilinks, citations, and properties; use the Brain to query and expand it
Developers using Odysseus	Keep architecture decisions, API notes, and debugging logs in a linked graph connected to the Brain
Existing Obsidian users	Open their existing vault inside Odysseus and gain an AI copilot that understands their entire knowledge base
Teams (eventually)	Shared vault folders with version control; the Brain can answer questions across a team's documentation

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Future AI/Brain integration possibilities:

• Permission-level vault connection - Connect entire vaults, single folders, or individual files to the Brain as context sources
• Multiple "Brain Parts" - Separate connected sources for different domains (e.g., "Work" folder, "Art" folder) that can be toggled independently
• Calendar integration - Parse date: and datetime: frontmatter properties; create calendar events from notes; show a Calendar view listing notes by date
• Task extraction - Parse - [ ] and - [x] task syntax with due: properties; feed overdue/upcoming tasks to the Brain as action items
• Tasks panel - Sync vault tasks with Odysseus's existing Tasks modal for unified task management
• Library integration - Link vault notes to documents in the Doclib and Email Library for cross-referencing research
• Gallery - Attach images from the Gallery to vault notes via inline image references

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The Vision

The broader goal of The Vault is to connect Odysseus's seemingly stranded features - Tasks, Notes, Library, and Brain - into a cohesive system that can communicate with each other. Right now these features exist in isolation: the Brain chats, the Library stores documents, Tasks tracks action items, but there's no unifying thread. The Vault becomes that thread - a central knowledge graph where tasks link to research notes, research notes cite library documents, and the Brain understands the entire context. This transforms Odysseus from a collection of tools into an integrated workspace.

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Relating Issues/PR's

#108, #2276

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Where I'm at

I have a working branch (obsidian-vaults) with the core panel functional - folder trees, note editing, backlinks, properties, and Brain connection are all usable. Before I polish it further or open a PR, I want to know:

1. Is this direction aligned with what maintainers want for Odysseus?
2. Should this live in core, or as an optional/core plugin?
3. Is there appetite for the full roadmap (Live Preview, Graph, Plugin API), or should the MVP be scoped smaller?

Happy to share screenshots, branch links, or chat below if anyone wants to dig into the implementation details.

[sacb0y]

Seems somewhat related to this?

https://github.com/pewdiepie-archdaemon/odysseus/pull/2893

[Zen0-99]

Overlap

Both features aim to create a unified container for organizing work in Odysseus. They overlap in intent: both want to improve context management for the Brain by providing persistent, structured ways to group related content. Both integrate with the library (PR: pinned docs; Vault: planned library linking) and both involve custom instructions/context (PR: project instructions; Vault: could be via properties or templates). They're both trying to solve the "stranded features" problem by tying Odysseus's capabilities together.

Divergence

The key difference is the primary unit of organization: PR #2893 is session-centric (organizing chat histories around projects), while The Vault is content-centric (organizing knowledge in a file-based graph). Projects uses database tables for persistence and synthesizes memory from chat transcripts; Vault uses plain markdown files and treats the note graph itself as memory. Projects is closer to Claude.ai's workflow (chat sessions with shared context), while Vault is closer to Obsidian's workflow (linked notes with backlinks and properties). They solve similar problems from opposite directions — one through conversation management, the other through knowledge management.

[martin-verlage]

I would support following both proposals. The Vault hosts the broad knowledge, while PR #2893 is meant to provide context for a project, a task, or even a chat. Both concepts are necessary. A practical recent example: The Vault contains a set of rules (e.g., standards to be followed when building a new factory). The standards evolve over time. A standard might not be valid in all states at the same time; each state has to accept the new standard version, which may take time. The Vault contains, in addition to all the standards, knowledge about when and where to apply them. In a particular project, you know which standard to use, so when setting up the project with the help of the Vault, you would inject the relevant standard into the project context. The project context should not carry the knowledge of all standards.

[wolfgangDGS]

This sounds absolutely fantastic.
I've been trying to get Odysseus to read my obsidian vaults for context so I'm definitely onboard with this idea.

If I understand this correctly, we can still edit the same vault in both obsidian and Odysseus' workspace, right? This would be the perfect scenario as it would avoid having to migrate notes from obsidian to Odysseus.

Thanks for the commitment you guys have to this project! I wish I had more time and knowledge to help.

[Plaer1]

All the tabs are resize-able, draggable already - I've pretty much rebuilt Obsidian from scratch lol. As said in my Future possibilities, the main goal for me own personal needs is to be able to "connect entire vaults, single folders, or individual files to the Brain as context sources", "Separate connected sources for different domains (e.g., "Work" folder, "Art" folder) that can be toggled independently". Context is a precious resource so feeding the entire vault of my 430 notes with 100k+ characters would be plain useless, so a selective context injection depending on the model and user's need is the likely first step.

I have yet to actually connect it properly to any of the other tools, right now it's a file manager, that has no interaction with anything else - I want to polish it first before connecting it to anything. BUUUUT, it is unlikely this will get excepted - ever. It's already 8k lines of code and such an addition can never be a PR without a huge amount of support, most realistically my implementation of a file watcher could be taken (200-ish lines of code) and then MAYBE carefully adding things bit by bit.

Unless a plugin system powerful enough for me to implement all of this, comes out, this ain't seeing the light of day in the main Odysseus repo - as a branch of mine, sure, but not mainstream

Hi zen; I've been working on my own clone of obsidian for a while now that I've been calling "Copal", I was curious if you were interested in sharing work or looking at mine? I have plans for more than a few things above and beyond the normal obsidian feature set, and I'm seriously debating if live files are even the best way to integrate something like this into something like Odysseus. Just curious where your journey has been taking you lately I guess xD

[Zen0-99]

All the tabs are resize-able, draggable already - I've pretty much rebuilt Obsidian from scratch lol. As said in my Future possibilities, the main goal for me own personal needs is to be able to "connect entire vaults, single folders, or individual files to the Brain as context sources", "Separate connected sources for different domains (e.g., "Work" folder, "Art" folder) that can be toggled independently". Context is a precious resource so feeding the entire vault of my 430 notes with 100k+ characters would be plain useless, so a selective context injection depending on the model and user's need is the likely first step.
I have yet to actually connect it properly to any of the other tools, right now it's a file manager, that has no interaction with anything else - I want to polish it first before connecting it to anything. BUUUUT, it is unlikely this will get excepted - ever. It's already 8k lines of code and such an addition can never be a PR without a huge amount of support, most realistically my implementation of a file watcher could be taken (200-ish lines of code) and then MAYBE carefully adding things bit by bit.
Unless a plugin system powerful enough for me to implement all of this, comes out, this ain't seeing the light of day in the main Odysseus repo - as a branch of mine, sure, but not mainstream

Hi zen; I've been working on my own clone of obsidian for a while now that I've been calling "Copal", I was curious if you were interested in sharing work or looking at mine? I have plans for more than a few things above and beyond the normal obsidian feature set, and I'm seriously debating if live files are even the best way to integrate something like this into something like Odysseus. Just curious where your journey has been taking you lately I guess xD

Hi there! Cool to see that you've been working on something like this as well! At the moment I am stuck. I have a few projects going on, but in terms of this Vault I have been trying to get Databases to work. I LOVE Databases that notion has, but many of the other things in Notion annoy me, thus going down this path. In terms of live files, I don't know if I follow you. The point of Obsidian and Odysseus is local first - all your files belonging to you, rather than somewhere on a cloud like Notion for example. I have debated separating this project from Odysseus and making it standalone, at the moment mainly because I don't like Odysseus's browser nature and it still feels very aimless to me.

[Plaer1]

Well I have some thoughts; Copal (what I've been calling my Obsidian clone) was originally going to be a desktop app (I have a working servo build but am completely ignorant as to the quality of servo on non-linux platforms); so if you want info about turning yours into a desktop app, I would love to share what I know there still lol.

That being said I didn't mean like having remote files; just a database file on the pc, not encrypted or hidden or anything like that, but something specific to my app nevertheless. And I had been wondering this since before I decided to jump ship for browser-land so it just makes sense to me. That being said I am planning on having an "export to vault" button and/or "export note" button inside the Odysseus-bound version of Copal.

[Zen0-99]

Can I ask how come you've not gone down the .md file route?

[Plaer1]

Can I ask how come you've not gone down the .md file route?

Currently I'm still toying with both ideas, but frankly the database is just more performant; what i lose in ability to access individual entrees in the form of files; i gain in doing "VERY non-lazy loading".
also; this way i don't have to write a file watcher or anything like that, Odysseus can exist happily in browser without doing too much fighting the way it's setup currently (that way after the refactor rebasing my work wont be as bad).