Rustidian: Obsidian but fast.

A Rust-based Obsidian.

I never found a note editor I liked that was fast. I liked Obsidian, but its startup stayed slow even after several optimization attempts. That's why I built Rustidian: a native Rust app for Markdown notes.

It is an early Linux alpha, and I am releasing before it is finished so others can help shape it.

You can write and navigate ordinary Markdown vaults, follow linked notes, use backlinks, and explore global and local graphs. The app includes reading and editing modes, tasks, tables, highlights and Mermaid rendering. Your notes stay in normal files.

Try the Linux alpha · Source

Startup, measured

Median complete note frame	Time
Rustidian measured baseline	0.61 s
Obsidian 1.14.4	3.77 s

This is a warmed test on one host: ten balanced pairs,100 synthetic notes, software rendering and screenshot/OCR overhead. It measures the baseline before later graph work. It does not establish cold startup or every workflow's speed. Original paired screenshots, raw measurements and limits.

Help build it

Contributors are welcome. Reproduce a Markdown rendering mismatch, improve keyboard accessibility, or try Linux/Wayland and report exact steps and versions. Rust/egui contributors can pick an incomplete workflow from the coverage ledger; CONTRIBUTING explains setup.

Full Obsidian parity is unfinished. Canvas, Bases, math and parts of Settings remain incomplete; existing Obsidian JavaScript plugins do not run. The current package is verified on Linux x86_64/X11.

Rustidian is an independent MIT-licensed project, unaffiliated with Obsidian.