obsidian-livesync

Self-hosted LiveSync is a plugin for Obsidian, which is a note-taking application that stores notes as plain text files on your device. The plugin adds real-time synchronization across multiple devices without relying on Obsidian's own paid sync service or any third-party cloud storage that you don't control.

Instead of trusting a company's servers with your notes, this plugin lets you run your own sync server. It works with CouchDB, a well-established open source database, which you can self-host on a server you own or on inexpensive cloud platforms. It also supports object storage services like Cloudflare R2 or Amazon S3 as an alternative. For users who don't want any server at all, there is an experimental peer-to-peer option using WebRTC, which lets two devices sync directly when they are both online.

The plugin handles conflicts when the same note has been edited on two devices before syncing. Simple conflicts can be merged automatically. It also syncs your Obsidian settings, custom themes, code snippets, and other plugins, not just your notes, so your workspace stays consistent across devices.

End-to-end encryption is supported, meaning your data is encrypted before leaving your device and can only be decrypted by your own devices. This is particularly aimed at people with privacy requirements, such as researchers or developers who cannot store their notes on someone else's servers.

The README is clear that this plugin is incompatible with the official Obsidian Sync service and warns against running both at the same time to avoid data corruption. It provides setup guides for deploying CouchDB on several platforms. The plugin is community-developed, open source, and released under the MIT license.