Obsidian is a deep markdown vault you assemble yourself. Morion is a polished workspace where notes and a kanban your agents can work from are built in from day one. Tinker vs. ship.
| Morion | Obsidian | |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | One local file | Folder of .md files |
| Markdown export | Yes, any time | Native (it is markdown) |
| MCP server | Built in, all clients | Community plugins, often need REST API plugin running |
| Hybrid search | Keyword + semantic, on-device | Keyword native; semantic via plugin |
| Audit log of AI writes | Built in | Not built in |
| Folder-level AI permissions | Paid tier — built in | Not available |
| Mo work packets + assistant | Mo on paid tier — BYO LLM key | Smart Connections / Copilot plugins (per-plugin) |
| Auto-code build/review loop | Closed beta on paid tier | Not available |
| Plugin ecosystem | Not yet | Huge — 2,000+ community plugins |
| Graph view / Canvas | No | Yes |
| Mobile apps | Not yet | iOS & Android |
| Sync | Local only for now | Obsidian Sync $50/yr, or bring-your-own |
| Kanban / agent task queue | Built in, MCP-native | Community Kanban plugin |
| Price (personal) | Free $0 | Free |
Dataview queries, custom CSS, Templater macros, community plugins for every niche. Obsidian is infinitely moldable. Morion is opinionated.
Visual thinking tools — backlinks graph, whiteboard canvas, spatial notes. Morion is list-and-editor focused.
Obsidian has polished iOS and Android apps. Morion ships on macOS, Windows, and Linux (Ubuntu/Debian x86_64) today. No mobile yet.
Obsidian's MCP story lives in community plugins — several competing implementations, most require keeping the Local REST API plugin running. Morion ships an MCP server as a core feature. Install, click Connect, done.
Hybrid keyword + semantic search runs on-device by default. Obsidian does keyword natively; semantic requires a plugin, an embedding model, and manual configuration.
Choose which folders each AI client can read, which it can write, which stay invisible. Obsidian's plugin model doesn't offer this kind of granular control.
Know which client wrote what, when. Standard in Morion. Not available in Obsidian without building it yourself.
Pick Obsidian if you enjoy assembling your own knowledge system, need mobile sync today, or live in the plugin ecosystem.
Pick Morion if you want a polished notebook and task board your AI can use the moment you install it — with permissions, audit, and on-device semantic search built in.
They can coexist. Some people keep Obsidian as their long-form markdown archive and Morion as the daily board where agents pick up work. Both speak markdown.
No account, no cloud, no telemetry. If it's not for you, your notes export straight back to markdown.
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