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Flow for Obsidian users: same Markdown files, documents that do work

Obsidian and Flow both keep your notes as Markdown files on your own disk. Flow adds Jobs that redo the routine parts of a document, and every AI change waits for your yes.

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Side by side

TopicObsidianFlow
Where your notes live Obsidian stores notes as Markdown plain text files in a vault. A vault is a folder on your own computer, with its subfolders.Source: Obsidian Help: How Obsidian stores data, checked 2026-09-28 The same idea. Flow works on folders of Markdown files on your Mac, with no import step and no private format. Add Folder opens a folder where it sits.Shown in: Docs that stay true to the code
What it costs The Obsidian app is free, with no sign-up. Sync is $4 per user a month paid yearly, or $5 monthly. Publish is $8 per site a month paid yearly, or $10 monthly.Source: Obsidian pricing, checked 2026-09-28 Reading, writing and saving Markdown in Flow is free. Flow Pro adds the AI for $10 a month or $96 a year. Import and Publish are add-ons to Pro, at $10 a month or $96 a year each.Shown in: The recurring client brief
Links between notes Obsidian links notes with double square brackets. Its Backlinks and Graph view plugins show how notes connect.Source: Obsidian Help: Link notes, checked 2026-09-28 Flow also has wiki links and backlinks. We have not yet checked Flow against a real Obsidian vault.
Adding new abilities Community plugins, built by other users, add features. Obsidian warns that they run third-party code that could do harm, and you must turn off Restricted Mode to install one.Source: Obsidian Help: Community plugins, checked 2026-09-28 Jobs, drafting with sources, import and publish are built into Flow. When AI changes a document, the change shows line by line and waits for you to keep or revert it.Shown in: Campaign with proof
Where you can use it Obsidian runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and on iOS and Android.Source: Obsidian download, checked 2026-09-28 Flow is a Mac app only.

What changes

Obsidian got a big thing right. Your notes are plain Markdown files in a folder on your own computer. The app is free, it runs almost everywhere, and a huge set of community plugins lets you shape it your way. Flow agrees with the first part. Your files should be yours.

What Flow adds is a different kind of document. In Flow, a document can carry Jobs. A Job is a short, plain-text instruction at the top of the file, like “collect the figures from these files” or “draft this section from these sources.” You press Run and the Jobs do the routine part again. The steps that need no AI finish in under a second. A step that needs AI can run on an open model on your Mac through Flow Runtime, at no model cost.

Nothing the AI writes goes straight into your file. It arrives as a proposal. You see the exact lines that would change, with a footnote on each claim, and you keep it or throw it away. Flow also keeps a History of each saved version and who wrote it: you, a Job, or another app.

Plugins in Obsidian can do a lot too. The difference is who you trust. Obsidian itself warns that community plugins run third-party code that could do harm. In Flow, the parts that touch your writing are built in, and each change waits for you.

Moving your work

Because both apps use Markdown files on disk, there should be very little to move. In Flow, click Add Folder in the sidebar and choose your vault’s folder. Flow opens it where it sits. It does not copy or convert your files.

We have to be plain about this part: we have not walked an Obsidian vault in Flow yet. Obsidian links notes with double square brackets, and Flow reads wiki links and backlinks too. But a real vault often holds plugin syntax, embeds and settings that Flow has never seen. We do not know yet how those will look.

A safe way to try it: make a copy of your vault, or pick one small folder, and open that in Flow first. Keep using Obsidian for everything else until you have checked your own notes.

The path to start with

Start with the recurring client brief. It shows the thing Obsidian users most often build by hand: a document you remake every month. In our walk, Flow read a client’s files into Markdown, then drafted 265 words with a footnote on every sentence in 43 seconds, on the laptop, for $0.00. The next month, new files went in and Run was pressed. The figures table redrew in under half a second, and a new cited draft followed in 45 seconds.

That path uses Import and Publish, which are add-ons to Flow Pro. Your 10 Pro Days cover them while you try.

Clients

The recurring client brief

Consultants · analysts · fractional operators

A monthly client brief with a source on every sentence, drafted on your Mac. Next month starts from this one.

TimeQuality

43 scited draft, local model

What Flow is not

  • We have not opened an Obsidian vault in Flow yet. We do not know how your plugins' extra syntax, embeds or settings will look there.
  • Flow does not run Obsidian plugins. Whatever a plugin does for you today, check that Flow does it before you move.
  • Flow is a Mac app only. There is no Windows, Linux or phone version.
  • The AI features need Flow Pro once your 10 Pro Days are used. Markdown stays free.

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