Files.md Review: Turn Your Whole Computer into a Markdown Knowledge Base

On May 18, 2026, a tiny open-source project called Files.md hit 730 points on Hacker News' Show HN and shot to the front page. What it does is brutally simple: it loads all your .md files from a folder and turns that folder into a queryable knowledge base.

The top comment on that HN thread is the line every reviewer will quote: "The real Obsidian killer is not another app — it's stopping to use an app." Files.md is the philosophical counter-movement to 5 years of note-taking apps piling on features. It has no plugins, no Electron bundle, no backend. Your Markdown folder is the database.

This post is a hands-on review of Files.md from a content creator's perspective, compared to Obsidian, Logseq, and SiYuan, with notes on how to pipe the result into LinkedIn / X Articles / Medium (where md2rich comes in).

1. The core paradigm: the folder IS the database

Open the Files.md GitHub repo. The entire app is one HTML file. No backend, no database, no Electron. Its core idea is one sentence:

"Your ~/notes/ directory is already a database. I'm just giving you a folder browser with full-text search and tag filtering."

Concretely, Files.md does three things:

1. Directory tree browser: renders your local Markdown folder as a left-side nav, almost identical to VS Code's file tree.
2. Real-time full-text search: ripgrep-style index, sub-50ms response on a 10k-note vault.
3. Tags and backlinks: filename prefixes implement #tag; [[wiki-link]] references work in-file; all parsing is offline and client-side.

The biggest payoff is zero lock-in. Your notes are always plain-text .md. Move computers: rsync, git, or iCloud. Switch software: a few minutes. Any tool that reads Markdown reads your notes.

2. 5-minute setup

Installation is delightfully nerdy:

Step 1: Pick a notes directory

Create a folder anywhere, e.g. ~/Documents/notes/, and drop a few .md files in it:

~/Documents/notes/
├── inbox/
│   ├── 2026-06-06-files-md-review.md
│   └── 2026-06-05-llm-cost-control.md
├── projects/
│   ├── md2rich-product.md
│   └── vpstier-com-audit.md
└── archive/
    └── 2025-notes.md

Step 2: Launch Files.md

Grab a binary from GitHub Releases (macOS / Windows / Linux all available), or run it from source:

git clone https://github.com/zakirullin/files.md.git
cd files.md
python3 -m http.server 8000
# Open http://localhost:8000
# Point the notes path to your folder in Settings

Step 3: Write your first note

Files.md ships a minimal editor (literally a <textarea> with live preview). New note:

# 2026-06-06 First Files.md Note

First time using Files.md. Compared to Obsidian there's no sidebar graph view, but the startup is instant. #obsidian-alternative

What I plan to use it for:
- Drafting LinkedIn posts #publish-workflow
- Drafting X Articles long-form #x-articles
- Drafting Medium cross-posts #multi-publish

How it pairs with md2rich
Write .md -> md2rich one-click -> paste into LinkedIn / X Articles.
Way better formatting than raw Markdown paste.

3. Real-world usage after 2 weeks

I drafted about a dozen posts in Files.md over two weeks. The single word that captures it is "frictionless."

Wins

• Startup speed: click to notes list in 0.5s. Same vault takes Obsidian 3-4 seconds.
• Zero learning curve: if you know VS Code's file tree, you know Files.md.
• Fully offline: every feature works without network. When Google, Cloudflare, or Notion AI goes down, Files.md is still there.
• Git-friendly: it's just a folder. git diff, git blame work like they do for code.

Trade-offs

• No whiteboards / Canvas: Obsidian's .canvas free-form board, not supported.
• No plugin marketplace: Dataview, Templater, Excalidraw — all gone.
• No mobile client: desktop-first; mobile means pairing an editor (iA Writer, plain text) with iCloud sync.
• No AI integration: Obsidian has official Copilot, Notion has AI, Files.md is strictly local for now.

4. Files.md vs Obsidian vs Logseq vs SiYuan

A comparison table for content creators:

Bottom line: if your workflow is "write in Markdown → publish to LinkedIn / X / Medium," Files.md fits better than anything else. It doesn't steal your attention, it keeps your .md files as plain text, and that's exactly what you need to feed downstream tools.

5. Files.md + md2rich: the content creator's publish loop

Files.md solves "writing." But once you have a Markdown file, you can't just paste it into LinkedIn, X Articles, Medium, or Notion — the **, #, and - all show up as raw text.

That's why I built md2rich. It's a 100% client-side Markdown → rich-text converter:

1. Finish a note in Files.md
2. Copy the Markdown, paste into md2rich
3. Click Copy rich text
4. Paste into the LinkedIn composer — formatting preserved (headings, lists, blockquotes, code blocks)

Zero upload, zero account, zero cloud storage — your .md never leaves the browser, which makes it a natural fit for local-first tools like Files.md.

Real example: Files.md → LinkedIn

Say you wrote this in Files.md:

## Why Files.md beats Obsidian for writers

- **Zero lock-in**: notes stay plain .md, switch tools for free
- **Zero distraction**: no whiteboard, no plugin marketplace
- **Zero cloud**: local-first, works offline

> Show HN 730 points. Top comment: "The real Obsidian killer is not another app."

Paste into md2rich, click Copy rich text, paste into the LinkedIn editor, and you get:

• Zero lock-in: notes stay plain .md, switch tools for free
• Zero distraction: no whiteboard, no plugin marketplace
• Zero cloud: local-first, works offline

Not **Zero lock-in** as raw Markdown.

6. FAQ

Q1: Is Files.md better than Obsidian?

Files.md has no proprietary database; notes are plain .md files, so migration is zero-cost. Obsidian has richer canvas and a 2000+ plugin marketplace, but ties your vault to a .obsidian/ directory. Pick Files.md for lightweight writing, Obsidian for heavy plugin workflows.

Q2: Does Files.md support backlinks?

Files.md itself does not parse backlinks, but you can grep / ripgrep for [[wiki-link]] across the directory, and editors like VS Code, Helix, and Zed provide LSP-based jump-to-definition. Backlinks are an Obsidian-specific concept; Files.md delegates that to the OS and editor.

Q3: Is Files.md local-first or cloud-synced?

Local-first. Notes are .md files; sync with iCloud, Dropbox, Syncthing, or Git — no vendor lock-in. Several Show HN commenters put their notes in ~/Documents/notes/ alongside other work documents.

Q4: Can I publish Files.md content to LinkedIn or X Articles?

Yes — convert Markdown to rich text first. md2rich is a 100% client-side converter: copy the rendered HTML to your clipboard and paste into LinkedIn, Medium, X Articles, or Notion with formatting intact.

7. Verdict: is Files.md the Obsidian killer?

Files.md is not here to "kill" Obsidian. They serve different people.

Files.md serves writers who are already tired of feature creep: you open Obsidian to write a LinkedIn post, then spend 20 minutes tweaking Dataview queries, installing plugins, and arranging the graph view. Files.md pulls you back to writing itself.

If your loop is:

• Draft in Markdown →
• md2rich converts to rich text →
• Paste into LinkedIn / X Articles / Medium

Files.md is built for that pipeline. It doesn't steal your attention, it doesn't lock your notes, and it keeps every .md plain-text forever.

Try md2rich for the publish step — convert any Markdown (including Files.md notes) to LinkedIn / X / Medium rich text in one click. 100% client-side, zero upload, zero account.

Related: Markdown to LinkedIn: The Honest Guide (2026) · How to Convert Markdown to X Articles (X Premium Required) · Why You Should Use a Client-Side Markdown Converter