Notes for Obsidian users
If you already keep notes as markdown files, jvim can work with the same folder. It supports familiar pieces such as wikilinks, tags, and backlinks, but it is a smaller terminal editor rather than an Obsidian replacement.
Familiar concepts
Section titled “Familiar concepts”| Obsidian | jvim |
|---|---|
| Vault folder | jvim my-vault/ |
[[wikilink]] |
Same syntax. [[ autocomplete. |
#tag (inline or YAML) |
#tag inline, autocomplete on #. F7 tag browser. |
| Backlinks panel | Available for each note. |
| Quick switcher (Ctrl+O) | Ctrl+O — same. |
| Command palette (Ctrl+P) | F4 — same idea, slightly different name. |
| Search (Ctrl+Shift+F) | Shift+F4 — full-text + tag + wikilink filters. |
| Daily notes / templates | Manual for now. Templates planned. |
Not included
Section titled “Not included”- Graph view — no visual graph (yet)
- Plugin marketplace — jvim has no plugin system
- Canvas / whiteboard — text only
- Web/mobile sync — terminal-only
- WYSIWYG preview pane — jvim has live styling, no separate preview
jvim’s focus
Section titled “jvim’s focus”- Terminal use. Works over SSH, in tmux, in containers, and in CI-like environments.
- Single binary. No Electron or node_modules.
- Keyboard file tree. j/k/g/G in the file tree.
- Optional AI overlay. Can use vault search after a provider is configured.
- Optional semantic search.
sqlite-vecsupport can be enabled for scoped indexing.
Using an existing folder
Section titled “Using an existing folder”jvim reads folders of .md files. You can point it at an existing markdown folder with jvim ./my-vault/.
Basic wikilinks and inline tags are recognized without a conversion step; Obsidian-specific plugin data and canvas files are outside jvim’s scope.
Recommended first steps
Section titled “Recommended first steps”- Getting started
- Wikilinks and Tags
- AI overlay — set up your provider