Take notes like a Pro! - Obsidian guide & setup

What is Obsidian?

Obsidian is a local-first Markdown note-taking app built around a personal knowledge base (vault). Notes are plain .md files stored on your machine.

…What? You don’t know how to write Markdown files?

It’s super easy! Make sure to check out my guide, it brings Obsidian to the next level.

The real power is in linking notes together and visualising connections through the graph view.

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Installation

Windows

1. Go to https://obsidian.md/download and click Universal
2. Run the .exe installer and follow the wizard
3. Launch Obsidian from the Start Menu

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

wget https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/releases/latest/download/obsidian_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./obsidian_amd64.deb

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Core Concepts

Concept	Description
Vault	The root folder where all your notes live: just a normal folder on disk
Note	A plain .md file
Wikilink	[[note-name]], links one note to another
Tag	#tag inline in a note, used for filtering and grouping
Graph view	Visual map of all notes and their connections
Frontmatter	YAML metadata block at the top of a note (between ---)
Embed	Drop another note’s content into the current one: ![[other-note\#Specific section]]
Callout	highlighted blocks used to emphasize notes > [!<CALLOUT_TYPE>]

Frontmatter

Metadata block at the very top of the file, between two --- lines:

---
title: My note
tags:
  - StartingTools
  - Networking
date: 2026-05-05
---

Quartz reads it to populate page title, tags, and date. Obsidian uses it to filter and group notes.

Tags

Inside the body (rendered as clickable):

This note is part of the #StartingTools collection.

Embeds

Drop another note’s content into the current one:

![[other-note]]
![[other-note#specific-section|Specific section]]

Useful when a chunk of explanation belongs to several places: write it once, embed it where needed.

Callouts

> [!<CALLOUT_TYPE>]
> Lorem Impsum

Modifiers

Collapsed by default

Add - right after the type: > [!tip]- to make it collapsed on page load.

Expanded by default (click to collapse)

Add + right after the type: > [!warning]+ to make it collapsible but open on page load.

Custom title

You can write a custom title right after the type, on the same line: > [!info] Custom title.

Rich content

Callout with everything inside

Opening paragraph with bold, italic, inline code.

• Bullet item 1

• Bullet item 2

1. Numbered item 1
2. Numbered item 2

# Code block inside a callout
echo "horizontal scroll + click-to-copy both work"

Column A	Column B
Row 1	Value 1
Row 2	Value 2

And here’s every callout type:

---

BLUE: generic notes

Note

Note (default): this is what you get if you write > [!callout] without specifying a type, or > [!note] explicitly.

---

CYAN: info, summaries, todos

Abstract

Abstract / summary / tldr: for summaries at the top of a page. Aliases: summary, tldr.

Summary

Summary: alias of abstract.

Tldr

TL;DR: alias of abstract.

Info

Info: for neutral information.

Todo

Todo: for things you still need to do.

---

TEAL: tips, hints, important advice

Tip

Tip: the classic suggestion. Aliases: hint, important.

Hint

Hint: alias of tip.

Important

Important: alias of tip.

---

GREEN: confirmations, success

Success

Success: the operation worked. Aliases: check, done.

Check

Check: alias of success.

Done

Done: alias of success.

---

AMBER: questions, help, FAQ

Question

Question: for open questions or doubts. Aliases: help, faq.

Help

Help: alias of question.

Faq

FAQ: alias of question.

---

YELLOW: heads-up, caution

Warning

Warning: heads-up, something might break. Aliases: attention, caution.

Attention

Attention: alias of warning (renders identically to a warning, so it is NOT red).

Caution

Caution: alias of warning.

---

PURPLE: examples

Example

Example: code or configuration snippet.

---

RED: danger, errors, failures

Danger

Danger: critical notice. Alias: error.

Error

Error: alias of danger.

Failure

Failure: something went wrong. Aliases: missing, fail.

Missing

Missing: alias of failure.

Fail

Fail: alias of failure.

Bug

Bug: documenting a known bug.

---

GREY: quotes

Quote

Quote: for quotations. Alias: cite.

Cite

Cite: alias of quote.

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Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl + P	Open Command Palette — the most important shortcut
Ctrl + O	Quick switcher — open any note by name
Ctrl + E	Toggle edit / reading view
Ctrl + N	Create a new note
Ctrl + ,	Open Settings
Ctrl + G	Open graph view
Ctrl + click	Follow a wikilink
Ctrl + W	Close current tab
Ctrl + Shift + F	Search across the entire vault
Alt + Enter	Follow link under cursor / open in new pane

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Markdown Tips for Obsidian

• Wikilinks: [[note-name]] or [[note-name|display text]]

  Way easier compared to the standard Markdown links that use square and round brackets.

  Here’s an example using a note with a heading:

[[quartz-setup-linux#installation-ubuntudebian|Quartz setup on Linux]]
[Quartz setup on Linux](quartz-setup-linux#installation-ubuntudebian)

• Embed a note: ![[note-name]] (you just add a ”!” before the Wikilink)

• Frontmatter (metadata):

---
tags: [linux, sysadmin]
created: 2026-04-30
---