What Scoria is
Scoria is a desktop application that opens a folder of Markdown files and lets you read, search, link and edit them. It is written in Rust, its interface is GPUI, and it is free software under the MIT license.
What makes it different from the many other Markdown editors is the compatibility target:
Scoria opens an Obsidian vault exactly as it stands. The same folder, the same
.obsidian configuration, the same Markdown dialect, the same .canvas and .base files,
the same hotkeys.json. There is no import, no export, no conversion step and no second
copy of your notes in a database somewhere.
The promise, stated precisely
Three rules shape the whole program, and they are worth stating because they are what you are actually relying on:
The vault folder is the only source of truth. Scoria has no database, no index file it depends on, no sidecar metadata. Everything it knows, it knows by reading your files. Delete Scoria and the vault is untouched.
It never writes a file it did not change. Opening a vault writes nothing. Browsing writes nothing. Reading your settings writes nothing — Settings is deliberately read-only at present, because Obsidian rewrites an entire settings file on every change and that is a thing to get right rather than quickly.
When it does write, it changes only what you changed. A file's byte-order mark and its line endings are remembered at load and restored on save. Unknown keys in a JSON or YAML file are carried through rather than dropped. A rename rewrites the links that point at the renamed file and leaves every other byte of those notes alone.
What it is not
- It is not Obsidian, and it is not affiliated with Obsidian. It is an independent implementation that reads the same files. Obsidian is a trademark of Dynalist Inc.
- It is not a fork or a repackaging. No code, CSS or icons come from Obsidian's bundle. The behavior was written down as a specification first, from observing a real Obsidian and reading its public documentation, and the code implements that document.
- It is not a plugin host for Obsidian's community plugins. Those are JavaScript written against an Electron application. Scoria is a native binary; they cannot run in it, and making them run is explicitly out of scope. A native plugin interface of Scoria's own is planned instead.
- It is not a sync service. There is no Scoria account and no Scoria server. Use git, Syncthing, a file-sync service, or Obsidian Sync — they all move files, and files are all Scoria needs.
- It is not finished. See what differs from Obsidian.
Why it exists
Obsidian's vault format is a good format: plain files in a plain folder, readable in any editor, with a well-understood Markdown dialect layered on it. That format deserves more than one implementation — because an implementation can stop being maintained, change its terms, or simply not be the program you want, and a format with one reader is only as durable as that reader.
The practical reasons are more ordinary. A native application starts in a fraction of a second, scrolls a 50,000-line note inside a frame budget, holds a 20,000-note vault in a few hundred megabytes, and does not ship a browser engine to render a text file. If you live in your notes, that difference is felt hourly.
Who it is for, today
At version 0.1.0, honestly:
- Good fit now: reading and searching a vault you maintain in Obsidian; browsing a large vault where a native reader is simply nicer; anyone who wants a second implementation to exist and is willing to file bugs against one.
- Workable with care: editing notes, with a backup and preferably after a round-trip test on a scratch copy. The editor is real — Live Preview, Source mode, find and replace, multiple cursors, link-rewriting renames — but it is the newest code in the project.
- Not yet: anyone who needs Canvas, Bases, rendered math, community plugins, themes, or settings they can change from inside the app.
Where to go next
- Install and run — get a binary and start it.
- Open a vault — what happens the first time.
- Coming from Obsidian — what carries over, and how to try it safely.
- Obsidian compatibility — the four tiers and the numbers.