# Is it true that Obsidian is already open source? **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [October 28, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413 "2022-10-28T16:29:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![anon5807177](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@anon5807177](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/anon5807177)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413/1 "2022-10-28T16:29:20Z")
On the Obsidian Discord server, people are claiming that Obsidian is already “open-source,” you just have to get the source code within the app. Here’s an excerpt from the bot-run command `open sourcing of obsidian` regarding open-sourcing obsidian: > You can actually examine the entire code that Obsidian runs right from the app itself. Open the developer console, hit the “Sources” tab and open “app.js”. There’s a button at the bottom that says “{}” which will neatly format the source code for you to examine. Someone else on this forum said when I wrote this earlier: ![image](https://forum.obsidian.md/uploads/default/original/3X/c/9/c99f3e1250b163b5da5e2a3013d456da9255486a.jpeg) ![image](https://forum.obsidian.md/uploads/default/original/3X/a/6/a6b29adfcb44f4f5e2a8105e4100d9ca58d79ae0.png) Someone else said the opposite again, they said that this app is open source because of electron. I’m really confused here because if this is the case, I don’t know why people are still arguing about Obsidian being open-source or not in the meta page. ---
**Author:** ![WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/whitenoise/32/11_2.png) [@WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/WhiteNoise)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413/2 "2022-10-28T16:45:32Z")
The bot’s answer is factually correct. ---
**Author:** ![dracozny](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@dracozny](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/dracozny)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 5:25pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413/3 "2022-10-28T17:25:05Z")
with that said: > " We own and reserve all associated rights to our content, which includes any text, images, and software code in the app. > > These rights are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other laws." > ~ [License Overview - Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/eula) ---
**Author:** ![anon5807177](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@anon5807177](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/anon5807177)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 5:30pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413/5 "2022-10-28T17:30:23Z")
I should’ve referenced where I got my doubts from. I haven’t tried doing this, but someone on the forums said the opposite thing a while back: > The code is minified/obfuscated/packed so most keys and words are replaced by numbers, one letter variables, self-calling functions etc (as it should for production code for performence reasons alone). So it would be little help to assess anything 😉 at most it can help debug stuff when things go wrong. However, someone else claimed that it was open source as well, because it’s an electron app and those apps are all open source. I’m really confused here because if this is the case, I don’t know why people are still arguing about Obsidian being Open-Source. ---
**Author:** ![dracozny](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@dracozny](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/dracozny)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413/6 "2022-10-28T17:35:09Z")
Because of the legal aspects of it’s licensing. If you publish the source code on github with intent to work it as an opensource product the Obisidian team has the write to file a law suite against you. ---
**Author:** ![rigmarole](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/rigmarole/32/29973_2.png) [@rigmarole](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/rigmarole)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 7:38pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413/7 "2022-10-28T19:38:34Z")
> [@anon5807177](#): > > someone on the forums said the opposite thing I don’t see any opposites here. Obsidian is not open source. You are free to lift the hood, and examine the car’s engine. You have not been granted the keys to the factory. ---
**Author:** ![anon5807177](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@anon5807177](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/anon5807177)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2022, 11:03pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413/8 "2022-10-28T23:03:24Z")
They said you still can’t get the source code even after doing the method explained by the discord bot. ---
**Author:** ![WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/whitenoise/32/11_2.png) [@WhiteNoise](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/WhiteNoise)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 12:15am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413/9 "2022-10-29T00:15:02Z")
Here the problem is also what you mean by “being open source”. Is obsidian code released with an open source license (MIT, GPL, etc) ? No. Is a (minified/obfuscated/packed) version of the code available within electron? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://forum.obsidian.md/uploads/default/original/3X/b/e/bec35fbd23ab28909bb6bfe62cb32eb82dd34019.png) [@system](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2022, 12:15am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/is-it-true-that-obsidian-is-already-open-source/46413/10 "2022-11-05T00:15:27Z")
Closed on November 5, 2022, 12:15am UTC This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.