Obsidian Publish — The World is Your Oyster

Obsidian Publish turns a plain-text Obsidian vault into a live, linked website with the same internal structure as offline notes—so ideas don’t just go online, they keep their connections. The practical payoff is speed: select a folder or files, hit publish, and updates propagate to the web after a short delay, letting writers iterate without rebuilding pages in Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress.

Setup starts with enabling the feature in Obsidian: the account needs Obsidian version 0.9.2 or higher, insider builds must be activated, and the Publish plugin is toggled on. Once enabled, a new “airplane” publish option appears. From there, users configure site settings such as the site name, the home page file (e.g., “start here”), and display options like light mode and navigation. A site ID—part of the URL—can be edited using letters, numbers, and dashes. After clicking publish, the system loads the site and reflects changes; in the demo, only the note that had been updated was re-published, while the rest stayed unchanged.

On the web, the result isn’t a static document dump. Each note gets its own unique URL, and the site preserves Obsidian’s linked structure: a graph view can be shown, a table of contents lists headers, and clicking through notes follows the same network of internal links. The presenter demonstrates starting from a home note, drilling into concepts, then into a specific topic (like “flow”), where linked notes open and remain navigable. This makes it easier for others to browse someone’s thinking as a connected system rather than as isolated posts.

The workflow also enables “Andy Matushak-style” browsing: notes open in a panel/sleeve, and readers can keep clicking through related notes while using shift + scroll to move back and forth. The transcript notes that this style has been around since at least 2019, and while the output may not look as polished as Matushak’s, Publish provides the same core interaction pattern—turning a personal knowledge base into something others can explore.

Beyond personal sharing, Publish supports structured, choose-your-own-adventure experiences. A “flow creation” map of content is used as an example: readers start at a main node, select a path (e.g., “flow creation theory”), and then follow links into troubleshooting content built around the four factors of flow. The example is framed as a practical guide—if someone struggles with flow, the content helps diagnose likely causes (like lack of direction/goals) and then offers prescriptive next steps.

Privacy and cost come up as the main concerns. The transcript says Publish is intended for people who don’t want to code or manage websites, and that notes remain private unless explicitly selected for publishing (with an optional “separate vault” approach for extra safety). For pricing, the app’s core functionality stays free; Publish is positioned as a paid add-on. The immediate option described is a one-time $25 “catalyst” payment, with a longer-term expectation of a monthly cost. The overall message: Publish lets users share linked ideas quickly, keep them editable, and turn offline note networks into web-accessible knowledge bases without web-building overhead.