Obsidian · Compatibility

Are Obsidian Notes Just Markdown?
Yes, mostly, and the honest detail

You are wondering whether your Obsidian notes are just Markdown, or some locked-in proprietary format you can never get out of. The short answer: they are plain .md text files you can open anywhere. Nothing is locked away.

The honest detail is that Obsidian adds a few non-standard touches that live inside the .md as text. Here is exactly what is and is not standard, and what it means for taking your notes elsewhere.

Yes, your notes are plain .md files

Each note in your vault is a plain-text .md file on disk. Open one in any text editor and you can read it. There is no database, no proprietary container, no binary blob. That is the core reassurance: you are not locked in. If you stopped using Obsidian tomorrow, the files would still be right there, readable.

The honest detail: Obsidian’s non-standard extras

Obsidian adds a few conveniences that are not part of standard Markdown. The important thing: they are still written into the file as plain text, not hidden in a special format. They are [[wikilinks]], ![[embeds]], and callouts.

Open a note that uses them in a plain text editor and you will see those exactly as typed, as literal text, because a plain editor does not know how to render them. Open the same note in a tool that understands them, like Obsidian itself or NoteLoom, and they turn into links and inline content. So "just Markdown" earns a small asterisk: it is Markdown, plus a few Obsidian-flavored bits, all of it readable text.

In your notes Standard or Obsidian-flavored?
Headings, bold, lists, links, code Standard Markdown, reads anywhere
Frontmatter (YAML properties) Widely supported, plain text at the top of the file
[[wikilinks]] and ![[embeds]] Obsidian-flavored, not standard, but still plain text in the file
Callouts ( > [!note] ) Obsidian-flavored, built on a blockquote; renders where callouts are supported, shows as a quote in plain tools
The .obsidian folder Not a note, it is Obsidian’s own config

If you have opened your notes somewhere and the [[wikilinks]] are showing as raw text, that is not corruption, it is just a reader that does not render them. See why your Markdown is not rendering.

Proving it: open your notes anywhere

Because your notes are just .md files, you can open them in any Markdown tool, which is the real test of not being locked in. NoteLoom is one way to see it: it opens your vault folder in the browser, renders the Obsidian-flavored [[wikilinks]], ![[embeds]], and frontmatter, and edits and saves back to the same files, with no import and no export.

That last part is the point. A tool that quietly converts your notes into its own format would be a new kind of lock-in. Editing the plain .md in place, and leaving it as .md, keeps your notes as portable as they started.

Related reading

Open an Obsidian vault without Obsidian? Since the notes are just .md, here is how to read and edit them with no install. Is there an Obsidian web version? No editable web app, but your .md notes open in the browser anyway. Markdown not rendering? The common gotchas When [[wikilinks]] and other syntax show as raw text. How to make a Markdown callout The > [!NOTE] boxes, one of the Obsidian extras, rendered in the browser.

FAQ

Are Obsidian notes just plain Markdown?
Mostly, yes. Each note is a plain-text .md file you can open in any editor. Obsidian adds a few non-standard extras, like [[wikilinks]], ![[embeds]], and callouts, that are written into the file as text. So it is Markdown plus a few Obsidian-flavored touches, not a proprietary format.
Am I locked into Obsidian?
No. Your notes are .md text files on your own disk. You can open, read, edit, and move them with any Markdown tool. Nothing is stored in a format only Obsidian can read, so you can leave whenever you want and take the files with you.
Are wikilinks and embeds standard Markdown?
No. [[wikilinks]] and ![[embeds]] are an Obsidian-flavored extension, not part of standard Markdown. They are still plain text in the file. A plain editor shows them as literal text; a tool that supports them, like NoteLoom, renders them as links and inline content.
Is the .obsidian folder part of my notes?
No. The .obsidian folder holds Obsidian’s settings, plugins, and themes. Your actual notes are the .md files next to it. You can read and move the notes without it, and it does not change what is inside your notes.
Can I open my Obsidian notes without Obsidian?
Yes, because they are just .md files. See open an Obsidian vault without Obsidian. NoteLoom opens them in the browser and renders the Obsidian-flavored parts like wikilinks and embeds, so they still look right.
Does moving to another tool convert or lock my files?
It does not have to. NoteLoom edits the same .md files and saves back, with no import or export step, so your notes stay plain Markdown the whole time. That is the point: the files are portable, and staying that way is up to the tools you pick.

See for yourself that they are just .md

Open NoteLoom in Chrome / Edge / Arc, mount your Obsidian vault folder, and read or edit the notes with [[wikilinks]] and ![[embeds]] rendered, saved straight back as plain .md. No import, no export, no lock-in, and no account.

Open NoteLoom and try it