OpenKnowledge
Ranked 2 of 13 markdown editors by recommenders
Open-source markdown editor with local files and git sync, seen as an open alternative to Obsidian and Notion; critics say it is macOS-only and team-oriented.
Open-source markdown editor with local files and git sync, seen as an open alternative to Obsidian and Notion; critics say it is macOS-only and team-oriented.
30 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 20
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Local markdown files in open formats
“It's exactly what we aimed to solve (files are markdown and local, sync and team sharing happens via git/GitHub but is abstracted away from user).”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” “What's good is that everything is pretty open formats/source and complimentary.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” “markdown files on your local machine is indeed the way for being AI friendly”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” Open alternative to Obsidian
“Currently its probably just a less good obsidian copilot (but at least its open source)”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” “Looks like a really good alternative of obsidian”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” Notion-style editor
“Our bar was "Notion-grade", i.e. drag and drop blocks, slash commands, select to highlight/bold, etc.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” “Editor should already be pretty "Notion-grade", more to do though.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” Wikilinks and backlinks for agents
“We support wikilinks and forward/backward links are presented to the agent through the MCP server”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” “Making the skills/MCP specific to OpenKnowledge allows us to optimize experiences like that.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Little beyond Obsidian or VS Code
“Currently its probably just a less good obsidian copilot (but at least its open source)”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” “it does feel like "yet another KM app" without significant innovations”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” “couldn't see how it improves my experience over Obsidian or VS Code”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” - Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion”
Deletes or trashes user files
“It nuked a substantial portion of the file, unfortunately, not just the comments.”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion” “when I started this, it trashed my Codex config.toml file”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion”
Other markdown editors people recommend
The four most recommended other markdown editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SmallDocs | 21 | 3 | 88% | 6 | — | Approved |
| OpenKnowledgeThis page | 20 | 10 | 67% | 2 | — | — |
| Typora | 19 | 6 | 76% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Margin Markdown editor | 15 | 2 | 88% | 3 | — | — |
| iA Writer | 14 | 0 | 100% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 50 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“one killer feature that seems to be missing is Remote SSH support”
“Hopefully they add a better in-app chat experience soon.”
“We support wikilinks and forward/backward links are presented to the agent through the MCP server”
“Currently its probably just a less good obsidian copilot (but at least its open source)”
“This is interesting and a promising start. I gave this a shot.”
“Looks like a really good alternative of obsidian”
“it does feel like "yet another KM app" without significant innovations”
“It nuked a substantial portion of the file, unfortunately, not just the comments.”
“we embedded the Claude terminal within the OpenKnowledge app itself if you prefer that”
“It's exactly what we aimed to solve (files are markdown and local, sync and team sharing happens via git/GitHub but is abstracted away from user).”
“when I started this, it trashed my Codex config.toml file”
“mac only? dead on arrival.”
“haven't seen any issues with it”
“Slow. Open and render tiny md file with 10 lines - 1s”
“they sell on the webpage what they don't have in the app”
“So it's just a Electron editor + "open in %agent" button...”
“this is very interesting and I'll most likely take inspiration from it”
“Electron apps tend to fall down in the minutiae of the little things that native apps get right”
“it's basically a flashy box of randomness”
“couldn't see how it improves my experience over Obsidian or VS Code”
“Editor should already be pretty "Notion-grade", more to do though.”
“Our bar was "Notion-grade", i.e. drag and drop blocks, slash commands, select to highlight/bold, etc.”
“couldn't this have been a plugin?”
“it said the equivalent of "skill too large, reading it in chunks"”
“Its a plug-ins folder... add it in and boom you are ready to go”
“tied to proprietary AI services”
“may be worth a look at our implementation in case transferable to yours”
“The skills are large, I'd prefer not filling up context.”
“This seems to be team-oriented rather than geared towards individuals who might want to edit their notes from multiple devices”
“That was our exact stated goal -- felt a lot of the same pain.”
“Seems like this might almost offer exactly that?”
“markdown files on your local machine is indeed the way for being AI friendly”
“Making the skills/MCP specific to OpenKnowledge allows us to optimize experiences like that.”
“Took a while to see that 'ok' is the name of your product.”
“What's good is that everything is pretty open formats/source and complimentary.”
“this looks like a nice way to work with them”
“the usefulness of this is limited with OSX being the only supported platform”
“We tested it and works pretty well.”
“Recommend trying it to get a feel”
“We’re launching OpenKnowledge, a “what you see is what you get” markdown editor”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.