Octarine

A local-first notes app that keeps everything as plain Markdown files on disk. No server, no lock-in: the notes are just folders on your machine, so leaving the app costs nothing. This vault runs on it. See Architecture/Knowledge Vault/Knowledge Vault .

octarine.app, docs at docs.octarine.app.

Why I use it

  • Files stay plain Markdown I own, which means I can GIt version them the way I want.
  • An agent can read and write the same files directly, which is what the vault's Claude integration leans on.

Features

  • Workspaces: separate folders for work, personal, side projects, each with its own settings and theme.
  • Daily Desk & weekly notes: date-based capture without forcing every thought into a permanent note.
  • Wikilinks & backlinks: type [[ to link any note; backlinks resolve on their own.
  • Properties: structured YAML frontmatter metadata on any note.
  • Views: render a folder of notes as a Kanban board or table.
  • Templates & slash commands: / for quick actions and inserting templates.
  • AI: a Writing Assistant per note, and Ask Octarine to query the whole workspace.
  • Git Sync: built-in version control and cross-device backup, auto-committing on save.
  • 30+ themes plus a custom theme editor.

Differences from Obsidian

This vault migrated from Obsidian. Both store a folder of plain Markdown, so the move is mostly lossless, but the link model differs and that is where notes break.

  • Wikilinks are path-based, not name-based. Octarine resolves [[Library/AI/Agents/Agents]] by full path from the vault root (case-insensitive) and shows the target's title as the label. Obsidian resolves by the shortest unique filename. Bare [[Agents]] links from Obsidian need the full path here.
  • No aliases. [[note|alias]] is Obsidian syntax; Octarine treats the whole inner string, pipe included, as one literal lookup key. To show different text, rename the target or reword around the link.
  • No transclusion or block references. Obsidian's ![[note]] embed and [[note#heading]] / ^block-id refs are not supported.
  • Daily Desk and weekly notes are first-class, a date-based surface built into the app rather than a plugin convention.
  • Sync and AI are built in. Git Sync ships in the box, where Obsidian gates real-time sync behind paid Obsidian Sync or a community plugin. Octarine bundles a Writing Assistant and workspace-wide Ask Octarine.
  • Younger ecosystem. Obsidian's deep community plugin and theme catalog has no equal here yet.

Conventions worth remembering

  • Filenames use spaces, not hyphens.
  • Frontmatter fields it reads: title, publish, pinned, locked.
  • .octarine/ holds its internals (inbox, embeddings, views); .site/ is the publishing app. Both stay off-limits to edits.