Introduction
The Problem
Section titled “The Problem”Organizations want to use Obsidian for knowledge management but face blockers:
- No browser access — Obsidian is a desktop app; employees need installs and local data
- No real-time collaboration — Obsidian Sync doesn’t support concurrent multi-user editing
- No access control — Vaults are all-or-nothing; you can’t scope folders by role or department
- Data sovereignty — Sensitive knowledge shouldn’t live on employee laptops
- Unclear security model — Obsidian’s logic is extensible via community plugins and user scripts (Templater, Dataview, QuickAdd, custom JS). There’s no established way for IT to audit, approve, or restrict what runs inside a vault. In an enterprise context, an untrusted plugin has full filesystem access and can execute arbitrary code — and there’s no sandbox, no plugin signing, and no permission model to prevent it.
The Solution
Section titled “The Solution”Obsidian in Enterprise delivers Obsidian through the browser with three layers:
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VNC Gateway — Kasm Workspaces streams a full Obsidian desktop to the browser. Users get the complete Obsidian experience with zero installs.
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CRDT Sync — A Yjs-based sync layer enables real-time collaborative editing. Multiple users can edit the same notes simultaneously with automatic conflict resolution.
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Mount Orchestration — A custom service translates user identity and group membership into per-user Docker bind mounts. Each user’s vault is assembled from only the folders they’re authorized to access.
Current Status
Section titled “Current Status”This project is in POC phase. The sync daemon, Obsidian plugin, and Docker container are implemented. The mount orchestrator and auth integration are pending.
How This Documentation Works
Section titled “How This Documentation Works”This site is built from the project’s knowledge base using Astro Starlight with the Obsidian theme. The knowledge base uses a temperature gradient system:
| Zone | Temperature | Content |
|---|---|---|
00-inbox/ | HOT | Quick captures |
01-working/ | WARM | Active research and decisions |
02-learnings/ | COOL | Distilled insights |
03-reference/ | COLD | Stable architecture docs |
04-archive/ | FROZEN | Completed research |
All documentation lives in the GitHub repo. No Obsidian installation is needed to contribute — just edit markdown files and submit a PR.