Switching from Obsidian

Obsidian and Alexandria both start from plain Markdown, but they organize knowledge differently.

Not yet supported. There is no automated Obsidian importer yet - this is a manual process today.

How Obsidian maps to Alexandria

• An Obsidian vault is a folder of Markdown files. In Alexandria, each Markdown file can become an Alexandria note with YAML frontmatter.
• Obsidian tags such as #project or #reading usually map to Alexandria tags.
• Obsidian [[wiki links]] can remain as text while you move content, but Alexandria does not currently have a backlinks panel, unlinked mentions, or graph view.
• Structured patterns you used in Obsidian notes can often become Alexandria tag properties. For example, a Book tag might define author:string, status:select, and rating:number.

The realistic path today

Because Obsidian already stores notes as Markdown, your note bodies are usually the easiest part to preserve. The manual work is adapting organization:

1. Choose a small folder or a few representative notes first.
2. Create matching Alexandria tags for the main categories you use.
3. Bring the Markdown text into Alexandria notes, either by creating notes in the app or by preparing files that match Alexandria's note format.
4. Re-apply tags in Alexandria and add properties where they are useful.
5. Review [[links]], embeds, and plugin-specific syntax. Keep what works as plain Markdown and simplify anything that depended on Obsidian plugins.

Alexandria stores notes as Markdown too, but it expects its own YAML frontmatter. See Imports for the currently supported importer and Switching to Alexandria for the broader migration overview.

A practical first pass

Start with tags, not every link. Recreate your most important Obsidian tags as Alexandria tags, then add properties only where they help you sort or review notes.

akb create-tag "Book" \
  --properties "author:string" \
  --properties "status:select" \
  --properties "rating:number"

After the notes exist in Alexandria, apply tags and fill in properties gradually:

akb tag "The Left Hand of Darkness" "Book"
akb set-property "The Left Hand of Darkness" "Book" "status" "reading"

Related

• Imports
• Switching to Alexandria
• Tagging