Disclaimer
Is this project open source? Yes
Is this project completely free? Yes
Is this project made with AI beyond the author’s ability to comprehend how it works? No
What it is
Notes Widget for Markdown is a free Android app that shows notes from your vault on the home screen. It runs as its own app, next to Obsidian: you pick a folder in your vault and the widget reads the .md files in it.
There are two widgets. One shows cards with a Markdown preview (headings, lists, checkboxes, links), the other a compact list of note names.
How it works with Obsidian
- It reads the vault directly. You pick a folder with Android’s file picker, either the whole vault or one subfolder, and the widget lists the .md files in it. It doesn’t copy or upload anything.
- It finds the vault on its own by looking for the
.obsidianfolder, so it knows the vault name and where your folder sits inside it. - Tapping a note opens it in Obsidian through an
obsidian://open?vault=…&file=…link, in the right vault and at the right path. In settings you can switch this to your default Markdown app. - The + button creates a new .md file in the folder, and Obsidian picks it up like any other note. The quick note button adds a line to one note you choose, under its first # heading, or at the top after the frontmatter when there’s no heading.
- If you sync the vault with git (the Obsidian Git plugin, Git Sync or plain git), a small label shows when it last synced and warns about a stuck merge or commits that weren’t pushed. It only reads the vault’s
.gitfolder and never runs git itself. - You can add single notes from other folders too, say a shopping list that lives outside the folder you picked.
Why I made it
My git sync on the phone kept stopping and I didn’t notice. And after moving my notes from Google Keep to Markdown, I missed the Keep widget.
Details
The Play Store build has optional crash reporting you can turn off. The foss build on GitHub has no internet permission at all. Open source, GPL-3.0, Android 11 or newer.
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.marfolog.noteswidgetformarkdown
GitHub: https://github.com/marfolog/notes-widget-for-markdown
I work on it about once a week. Ideas and bug reports are welcome here, and I’ll post updates in this thread.