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📝 Lesson 1.2: Installing Obsidian & Creating Your First Vault

Time to build your workshop. In this lesson you'll download Obsidian, create the vault you'll keep for the whole course, see exactly where your notes live on your computer, and write your first real note inside it.

📚 What You'll Learn

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Download and install Obsidian on your operating system
  • Create a new vault and explain what a vault is on disk
  • Find your vault's folder in your file manager and recognize the .obsidian settings folder
  • Create, name, and save your first note — and know where the .md file actually is

⏱️ Estimated Time: 45 minutes

🎯 Project: Create your "Second Brain" vault and add your "Why I'm Here" note as note #1.

In This Lesson

Downloading Obsidian

Obsidian is free for personal use and there's no account to create before you start. Here's the whole process.

  1. Open your web browser and go to obsidian.md.
  2. Click the big Download button. The site detects your operating system, but you can pick manually — there are installers for Windows, macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon), and Linux (AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, deb).
  3. Run the installer like any other app:
    • Windows: run the .exe and follow the prompts.
    • macOS: open the .dmg and drag Obsidian into your Applications folder.
    • Linux: make the AppImage executable and run it, or install the deb/Flatpak/Snap.
  4. Launch Obsidian. You'll see a welcome window asking you to create or open a vault — we'll do that in Section 3.

💡 On your phone instead?

Obsidian is also free on the iOS App Store and Google Play. You can absolutely start on mobile, but this course assumes a computer for the early lessons because typing and file management are easier there. We dedicate Lesson 8.1 to getting your vault onto your phone properly.

⚠️ Watch Out

Only download Obsidian from the official obsidian.md. As with any app, avoid third-party "download sites" that repackage installers. The official site is the one safe source.

Vaults, Explained Properly

We touched on this last lesson, but now it matters practically, so let's nail it down.

📖 Definition

Vault = a folder on your computer that Obsidian opens. Every note, image, and attachment inside that folder is part of the vault. Obsidian doesn't hide your notes in a secret database — it just reads and writes files in that folder. Point Obsidian at a folder and it becomes a vault; that's the entire concept.

A few consequences worth understanding before you create one:

  • You choose where it lives. Documents folder, a dedicated "Notes" folder, wherever. You can move it later by just moving the folder.
  • You can have more than one vault. Some people keep separate vaults for "work" and "personal." For this course, use a single vault — one brain is easier to grow than five.
  • Settings travel with the vault. Obsidian stores each vault's settings, enabled plugins, and theme inside a hidden .obsidian subfolder in that vault. Copy the whole folder and you copy the setup too.
graph TD A["📁 My Vault (a folder)"] --> B["📄 note-one.md"] A --> C["📄 note-two.md"] A --> D["🖼️ attachments/"] A --> E["⚙️ .obsidian/ (settings, plugins, theme)"] B --> F["Just plain text you fully own"] C --> F
⚠️ Important Note: Where you put your vault matters for one reason: sync. If you later want your notes on multiple devices, the vault's location determines your options. We cover this fully in Lesson 7.2 — for now, a normal local folder is perfect. Don't overthink it.

Creating Your First Vault

When Obsidian opens for the first time, you'll see options like "Create new vault," "Open folder as vault," and "Open vault from Obsidian Sync." We want the first one.

  1. Click Create new vault.
  2. Vault name: type something meaningful. We'll use Second Brain (this becomes the folder name, so keep it simple — letters and spaces are fine).
  3. Location: click Browse and pick where the folder should live — your Documents folder is a fine default. Obsidian will create a Second Brain folder there.
  4. Click Create. Obsidian opens your brand-new, empty vault.

✅ Pro Tip

Pick a location you can find again and that is not already inside a syncing folder you don't understand yet (like a half-configured cloud drive). A plain local folder now saves confusion later. You can always move it in Lesson 7.2 once you know your sync plan.

That's it — you have a vault. It's empty, which is exactly how every great note collection begins.

Where Your Notes Really Live

This is the part that turns Obsidian from "mystery app" into "thing I trust." Let's go look at your vault outside Obsidian, in your regular file manager.

  1. Open File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (macOS) or your Linux file manager.
  2. Navigate to where you created the vault (e.g. Documents → Second Brain).
  3. Open the folder. Right now it may look almost empty — that's normal. You'll see a hidden .obsidian folder (you may need to enable "show hidden files").
What you'll see What it is
YourNote.md files Your notes — plain text you can open in Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code, anything
.obsidian/ (hidden) This vault's settings, enabled plugins, hotkeys, and theme. Safe to leave alone.
Image / PDF files Attachments you paste or drag into notes live here too

🧠 Mindset

Try this once and let it sink in: open one of your .md notes in a plain text editor like Notepad. There's your writing — no lock, no proprietary blob, just words. That is what "you own your notes" means, made visible. Any worry about being trapped in an app should melt right here. Your knowledge is yours, in the most literal way.

Writing Note #1

Back in Obsidian, let's create your first note.

  1. Click the New note icon (a small page with a pencil) in the top-left sidebar, or press Ctrl/Cmd + N.
  2. A new untitled note appears. Type a title on the first line or in the title field — call it Why I'm Here.
  3. Paste (or retype) the "Why I'm Here" note you drafted in Lesson 1.1.
  4. There's no "Save" button — Obsidian saves automatically, constantly. The file is written to your vault folder the moment you type.

Want proof it saved? Flip back to your file manager and you'll see Why I'm Here.md sitting in your vault folder. The note you see in Obsidian and the file on disk are the same thing.

What your note file looks like on disk:

# Why I'm Here

## What I want Obsidian for
- Organize my study notes and actually find them later

## What frustrates me about my notes today
- They're scattered across three apps and a notebook

## My goal
By the end of this course, I want to be able to keep everything I learn in one connected place.

💡 A tiny taste of what's coming

Notice those # and ## marks? That's Markdown — the simple formatting language that makes plain text look great. In Obsidian's default view it already renders as headings. You'll learn Markdown properly in the very next module. For now, just enjoy that it works.

🎯 Project: Your Second-Brain Vault

🏋️ Set up the vault you'll keep for the whole course

Objective: Have a real, permanent vault with your first note in it, and know where it lives on disk.

Steps (about 15 minutes):

  1. (5 min) Install Obsidian from obsidian.md and launch it.
  2. (3 min) Create a new vault named Second Brain in a location you'll remember.
  3. (3 min) Open the vault folder in your file manager and confirm you can see it (and the hidden .obsidian folder).
  4. (4 min) Create the note Why I'm Here and paste in your Lesson 1.1 draft. Confirm the .md file appears in the folder.
💡 Hint — can't find hidden files?

Windows: in File Explorer, View → Show → Hidden items. macOS: in Finder, press Cmd + Shift + . (period). Linux (most file managers): press Ctrl + H. The .obsidian folder starts with a dot, which is why it's hidden by default.

✅ Project Completion Checklist

  • Obsidian is installed and opens on your computer
  • You created a vault named "Second Brain" (or your own name)
  • You located the vault folder in your file manager
  • You created a "Why I'm Here" note and saw the .md file on disk
  • You understand that the note and the file are the same thing

🎯 Quick Quiz

Question 1: What is an Obsidian vault?

Question 2: How do you save a note in Obsidian?

📓 Learning Journal

Now that you have a vault, keep your journal inside it. Make a note called Learning Journal (or a note per lesson) and record after each lesson:

  • Key concepts you learned
  • Techniques that clicked for you
  • Questions or confusion points to revisit
  • Ideas you want to try
  • Your progress and feelings about learning this

✍️ This lesson's prompt: How did it feel to open your .md file outside Obsidian and see your own words in plain text? Did anything about "owning your notes" land differently once you saw it?

📝 Lesson Summary

🎓 Key Takeaways

  • Obsidian is free and installs like any normal app from obsidian.md.
  • A vault is just a folder Obsidian opens; each vault keeps its settings in a hidden .obsidian subfolder.
  • Your notes are real .md files on disk — openable anywhere, saved automatically.
  • Use one vault for this course and grow it into your real system.

🎉 What You've Accomplished

You've gone from zero to a working setup: Obsidian installed, a vault created, and note number one written and verified on disk. You also proved to yourself — by opening the raw file — that your words are truly yours. That trust is the foundation everything else is built on.

❓ Common Questions at This Stage

Should I make separate vaults for work and personal notes?

Not yet. Multiple vaults mean multiple systems to maintain and notes that can't link across the divide. Start with one vault; you can always split later if a real need appears. For learning, one brain is simpler and more rewarding.

Can I move my vault to a different folder later?

Yes. Close Obsidian, move the whole vault folder wherever you like, then in Obsidian choose "Open folder as vault" and point it at the new location. Because everything (including settings) lives in that one folder, nothing breaks.

Do I need to back it up already?

It's good practice, but you don't have to solve it today — you have one note. We devote Lesson 7.2 to proper sync and backup. For now, if you want peace of mind, just copy the vault folder somewhere safe occasionally.

🔭 Looking Ahead

Next, in Lesson 1.3, we'll take a guided tour of the Obsidian interface — the sidebars, panes, tabs, the command palette, and the settings you'll actually use — so you feel completely at home before we start writing in earnest.

✅ Before the Next Lesson

  • Make sure your "Second Brain" vault exists and opens
  • Confirm you can find the vault folder on disk
  • Write your Learning Journal entry for this lesson (inside the vault!)

📚 Additional Resources

🌟 Encouragement for the Journey

Your workshop exists now. It's empty and quiet — and that's the most exciting kind of empty, because everything you're about to learn will fill it with connected, lasting knowledge. See you in the tour. 🔮