{"slug": "tolaria", "name": "Tolaria", "category": "notes", "category_name": "Notes and knowledge", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 3.124, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-04-23", "latest": "2026-06-26", "why": "It is like you have taken all the things I want from Obsidian (plus plug-ins) and made them into a single, well designed app.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It is like you have taken all the things I want from Obsidian (plus plug-ins) and made them into a single, well designed app.", "icon": true, "domain": "tolaria.md", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://tolaria.md", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Tolaria"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 770894816, "item_id": 48180926, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48180926", "by": "alwillis", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Check out Tolaria [1]. Open source, works locally, uses markdown, no-databases.", "excerpt": "> waffling about moving from Notion to something local/markdown based for a while. Check out Tolaria [1]. Open source, works locally, uses markdown, no-databases. Git client built-in. Even has Notion-style input. [1]: https://tolaria.md", "context": "", "use_case": "local markdown notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Files.md \u2013 open-source alternative to Obsidian"}, {"id": 766202848, "item_id": 47887678, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47887678", "by": "james-bcn", "date": "2026-04-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is like you have taken all the things I want from Obsidian (plus plug-ins) and made them into a single, well designed app.", "excerpt": "I love this! It is like you have taken all the things I want from Obsidian (plus plug-ins) and made them into a single, well designed app. Great! Feedback: * This is so good you should find a way to keep it open source but also profit from it so you can develop it full-time. You could just have an official app version - I would pay for that. * Feature creep. I am a big fan of Bear App for it's wonderful simple design", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown knowledge base", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tolaria \u2013 open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases"}, {"id": 766156849, "item_id": 47884803, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47884803", "by": "dhruv3006", "date": "2026-04-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love how you have used markdown here !", "excerpt": "I love how you have used markdown here ! We kind of have used the exact philosophy in https://voiden.md/ - offline-first, file based and support for git. This is exactly the format agents will use pretty well. We have done this for APIs. We are open source too. Take a look here : https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown knowledge bases", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tolaria \u2013 open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["markdown knowledge base", "knowledge base / notes", "local markdown notes", "markdown knowledge bases"], "compared": [{"slug": "obsidian", "name": "Obsidian", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "notion", "name": "Notion", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47882697", "title": "Show HN: Tolaria \u2013 open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48675435", "title": "Show HN: OpenKnowledge \u2013 open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48179677", "title": "Show HN: Files.md \u2013 open-source alternative to Obsidian", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"compare": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 778953008, "item_id": 48684563, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48684563", "by": "zihotki", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I wonder how it compares to https://github.com/refactoringhq/tolaria They look similarly scoped.", "excerpt": "I wonder how it compares to https://github.com/refactoringhq/tolaria They look similarly scoped. I haven't used it yet and it's great that there is more choice now", "context": "", "use_case": "knowledge base / notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: OpenKnowledge \u2013 open-source alternative to Obsidian/Notion"}, {"id": 770894816, "item_id": 48180926, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48180926", "by": "alwillis", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Check out Tolaria [1]. Open source, works locally, uses markdown, no-databases.", "excerpt": "> waffling about moving from Notion to something local/markdown based for a while. Check out Tolaria [1]. Open source, works locally, uses markdown, no-databases. Git client built-in. Even has Notion-style input. [1]: https://tolaria.md", "context": "", "use_case": "local markdown notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Files.md \u2013 open-source alternative to Obsidian"}, {"id": 766202848, "item_id": 47887678, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47887678", "by": "james-bcn", "date": "2026-04-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is like you have taken all the things I want from Obsidian (plus plug-ins) and made them into a single, well designed app.", "excerpt": "I love this! It is like you have taken all the things I want from Obsidian (plus plug-ins) and made them into a single, well designed app. Great! Feedback: * This is so good you should find a way to keep it open source but also profit from it so you can develop it full-time. You could just have an official app version - I would pay for that. * Feature creep. I am a big fan of Bear App for it's wonderful simple design", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown knowledge base", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tolaria \u2013 open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases"}, {"id": 766193987, "item_id": 47887124, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47887124", "by": "jimmypk", "date": "2026-04-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "any macOS tool (Tolaria, Obsidian, whatever) reads from the same repo", "excerpt": "The mobile capture gap is real and it's what kills most of these tools as daily drivers. The flow that's worked for me: Drafts (iOS) with an action configured to append to a dated inbox.md in a git repo, synced via Working Copy. The Markdown files are the source of truth; any macOS tool (Tolaria, Obsidian, whatever) reads from the same repo with no conversion step. It's a few moving parts to set up, but the payoff is", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown knowledge base", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tolaria \u2013 open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases"}, {"id": 766156849, "item_id": 47884803, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47884803", "by": "dhruv3006", "date": "2026-04-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love how you have used markdown here !", "excerpt": "I love how you have used markdown here ! We kind of have used the exact philosophy in https://voiden.md/ - offline-first, file based and support for git. This is exactly the format agents will use pretty well. We have done this for APIs. We are open source too. Take a look here : https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden", "context": "", "use_case": "Markdown knowledge bases", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Tolaria \u2013 open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases"}]}