Would like a READ ONLY instance of Obsidian

[JJ72]

Things I have tried

Looked through the forums. Nothing intersects exactly

What I’m trying to do

I am creating a knowledgebase to share with other students but only in a read-only setting. I know I can simply publish, but none of the options (including static-site options or Obsidian’s own Publish platform) gives you the feel of the app itself. Also taking advantage of the many community plugins.

Having user permissions don’t seem to be an option. Technically I can have everyone launch in presenter view and never switch to edit view but that’s not ideal since human error is always triumphant.

The other option is to make “production” and “backup” copies of the vault. I could set up a one-way sync and let users only use the production vault, but that’s also less than ideal.

Essentially an “Obsidian-lite” for just review of content while editing and addition of updated content is done in the full client.

[rigmarole]

This sounds fairly identical to this feature request. Don’t forget to throw a “like” their way.

Read only folders

The idea is to be able to set certain folders as read only. Use case or problem When sharing a vault with collaborators, it would be useful to make particular folders as read-only to prevent change. This can include resources for use in writing. Proposed solution Include a setting in the context menu for read only. Current workaround (optional) You can use Publish, but that is no longer available for internal referencing.

And similar:

Preview Mode LOCK on a Note Level

++ I thought about posting a new topic in Feature requests, but I’ll just post here for now. I have been playing with the Templates and Templater plugins and have managed to template my template files (write over) multiple times. Probably a mix of trying things out, using macOS, setting up iOS and iPadOS, and user error, but it’s frustrating. What I’m trying to do Lock a note so it can’t be written over or accidentally changed. I don’t know how this could be implemented and aware this ‘lock’…

[JJ72]

Yes, both of these requests look to create a focused restriction (specific file/folder).
But I think a completely read-only instance of Obsidian opens a whole unique experience. It’s more like a museum tour. You can’t mess around with the artwork but the way you can explore the art remains rich and the ability for discovery better than a static site.

Right now, Obsidian is an amazing experience for the creator. But I think it can also be a tremendous asset as a vehicle to distribute knowledge as well. Imagine an entire presentation being developed in Obsidian where you could explore the framework that the author is conveying.

Of course, you may then want to take some notes along the way…