#14

I would say the current possiblities (I’m in version 0.9.6) are good enough. Having the ability to have a root vault with sub-vaults / sub-folders that can be opened separetly works alright, and allow for most of the benefits of nested vaults.

Most of this this is already possible without breaking things.

The idea would be to keep in mind this use case, so that future versions of Obsidian don’t break nested vaults.

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#15

That would be the fear. It feels as if the present benefits emerged serendipitously without being part of the plan.

I think the only threat would come from an attempt to have centralised settings, but that wouldn’t fit well with the idea of everything based on markdown files. Plugin developers could see this differently.

1 Like
#16

Adding my thumbs-up for this. What I really want is to be able to have a messy inbox with an ordered deep structure. Access to the deep structure from the inbox is important, for moving things in that are ready to be integrated. But freedom from the mess is important when working in the deep structure.

3 Likes
#17

So to clarify: Is it safe to have Level 1 Vault open, which contains Level 2 Folder/Vault, at the same time the Level 2 Vault is open? And is it safe to do work in Level 2 from both open instances of Obsidian?

2 Likes
#18

@joeshirley I do exactly that with both vaults open and havn’t had issues at all. (I modify text freely from any of the levels and it updates on the other level)
Just keep in mind that future updates might create conflicts, but for now that’s what I’ve been doing without any trouble so far.

#19

@joeshirley
Yes and yes.
But be aware of what you are doing. I’ve not tried to find a way of breaking things, so I can’t be sure it’s impossible. Pretty sure it could be done tbh.

That said, it’s something I do routinely. All my vaults are under a top vault (with a few intermediate tiers set up purely for the nesting advantages), and I will usually have more than one open. Even sometimes on the same file.

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#20

Great, thanks. Also looking over the post from @Dor on “usage and risks”

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#21

Good to hear! Also, your advice for robust backup routines seems important.

#22

yep @joeshirley I found that if you keep @Dor’s advice in mind you should be fine at least with the current versions of obsidian.

I keep version control of my vaults with git, highly recommend doing so, I use gitlab for my private vaults. That way if you ever break things you have a history of back ups.

#23

+1 on this feature request.

I suggest devs read what is going on here and in the threads linked in the OP so they can formalize nested vaults and don’t break this possibility of workflow with future updates.

I also agree with @santi - there is no need to change anything as it is right now, just make sure nested vaults keep working in all future releases!

Love your work, by the way <3

3 Likes
#24

Awesome happy to see that between this post and this one we’ve started crreating our little nested vault army!
Appreciate the support, and thanks for contributing to our nested vault cause @Daedren!

1 Like
#25

Some ideas for features that can help to enforce best practices:

  • If Obsidian detects a .obsidian folder in a sub-folder, it should present a warning if you try to link to a parent vault note from a nested vault note.
  • It should also do this if you try to move a parent vault note into a nested vault note, where the parent vault note contains links to other parent vault notes.
  • Unlinked references pane should not present options from outside of the nested vault, even when viewing from the parent vault.

And some quality of life features:

  • Enable us to target points on the graph based on the folder they’re in, so that we can give different vaults different colors (not sure if this is already possible with current CSS)
7 Likes
#26

+1 or similar (maybe clos to what @timj wrote)

I think this could be achieved with nested vaults, but I think it’d be great if it could be achieved otherwise as well:
I’d like to be able to link to notes from different vaults.

For that I think it’d be cool if I could:
Add external folders to a vault/link them to a vault.

That way I’d be able to put notes that I want to share between vaults inside of it and then reference/edit it from mutliple vaults.
For Example my personal and uni Vault, or another vault which I collaborate on with other people.

#27

+1

Another huge reason for nested vaults, is for times you want to only allow “downlinking” (basically allow linking to nested directories).

Here’s a few of reasons why you may want this:

  • You want to implement some strict rules for parts of your system
  • You want to create a exportable/stand alone part of your system (this is a huge feature for Obsidian Publish. For instance, I may want to make my programming knowledge or my folder of checklists available to my team, but I still want it accessible in my main “second brain”)
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#28

Now that it so easy to link to notes outside of a vault, I thought it might be cool if Obsidian would be able to intelligently update note names and paths within multiple vaults in cases where you are linking to a file within another vault.

This idea probably should be a separate request, but is very relevant in this discussion so I started here.

Thanks.

1 Like
#29

that’s very well explained.

That’s the exact use I have for nested vaults when it comes to Obsidian Publish

Great points

2 Likes
#30

it’s an interesting request, I don’t ever link from one vault to another, in this case I just create nested vaults, but I assume you mean using paths with URI to link from different notes.

I havn’t had the need to linking between vaults, but it’s definitely interesting

1 Like
#31

+1
I hope this suggestion is considered seriously by the dev.

Nesting vaults seems to be the best solution for those common problems:

I want my “at work” vault to be part of my notes, but I don’t want to see my other notes at work.

I want to share some part of my vault with other peoples.

Great thread everybody.

1 Like
#32

If this were to be supported then perhaps nested vaults should be made a first-class feature in the app.

For example, clicking a button in the file browser (New vault alongside New folder with a globe icon or safe icon perhaps) to create a new named vault, then creating files and folders underneath it. Notes inside a vault can only reference notes within the same vault, while notes in a parent vault can reference down to notes in a child vault. It creates a sense of direction in links. Encryption could be added as a feature on a per-vault basis, so you can right-click the vault name in the sidebar and configure it. Etc.

Vaults then become essentially “named groups of folders” from the app view.

And it keeps app configurations (themes, CSS, plugins, etc) consistent across sets of notes. (although I am currently finding a benefit in having a vault for zettelkasten and one for project management, with the same themes/CSS but different plugins to meet the needs of each – so perhaps workspaces can help out here?)

2 Likes
#33

Agreed. I would love this feature.

I think you are onto something here, especially with the encryption part. I may have been onto a similar something in this request: Internal vaults

As usual, I think my description could have been clearer, but the idea of the internal vaults being separate comes through.

Thanks.

1 Like