Opening an Obsidian vault
An Obsidian vault is a folder of Markdown files, which is exactly what MindMax works on. You open it directly.
Opening it
File → Open Knowledge Base…, then select your vault folder — the one containing your notes
and the .obsidian directory. MindMax asks once whether to enable itself there, which adds a
hidden .mindmax folder. Nothing is imported and nothing is converted.
Obsidian can stay installed. Both applications read and write the same files; MindMax does not take ownership of the folder.
Having both open on the same file at the same time is asking for a conflict, the same as with any two editors. Close the note in one before editing it in the other.
What carries over
| Works | Notes |
|---|---|
[[Wiki links]] | Resolved against the files in the folder, same as before |
| Backlinks | Computed from the files, not from a stored index |
| Folders and file names | Untouched |
| Front matter | Preserved |
| Attachments and PDFs in the vault | Readable and searchable in place |
| Daily notes | MindMax keeps today's note at daily-notes/YYYY-MM-DD.md and does not read Obsidian's daily-note settings. Set Obsidian's daily notes folder to daily-notes and both apps write the same file |
Where compatibility stops
Obsidian plugins are not loaded in this version. Your .obsidian settings and plugins stay in
the vault untouched and keep working in Obsidian, which reads the same folder. If your workflow
rests on a specific plugin, that part of the work stays in Obsidian.
Canvas files are shared: both apps use the open JSON Canvas format, so a canvas made in Obsidian opens in MindMax and a MindMax canvas opens in Obsidian. Branching and AI follow-up on a canvas only work in MindMax.
Not supported at all:
- Obsidian Sync and Obsidian Publish
- Themes and CSS snippets
Undoing it
There is nothing to undo. MindMax adds a hidden working directory to the folder and otherwise writes only files you asked for. Uninstall it and your vault is what it was.