How to use Obsidian to write your Astro content (zero scripts)

If you’re building sites with Astro, you might be looking for a smoother way to manage your content. While you can write markdown directly in your code editor, there’s an elegant solution that lets you use Obsidian’s powerful writing tools while keeping everything perfectly synced with your Astro project. Without scripting or plugins.

Here’s how to set up symbolic links that bridge Obsidian and Astro consistently.

The magic of symlinks

Instead of copying files around, we’ll create symbolic links—basically smart shortcuts that point to your actual Astro content folder. Your Obsidian vault stays clean, but you’re editing the real files.

Let’s say you have a recipe blog at ~/my-astro-recipes/src/content/recipes and your Obsidian vault at ~/Documents/ObsidianVaults/MyBrainDump.

First, create a spot in your vault:

mkdir -p ~/Documents/ObsidianVaults/MyBrainDump/AstroProjects/RecipeBlog
cd ~/Documents/ObsidianVaults/MyBrainDump/AstroProjects/RecipeBlog

Then create the symlink:

ln -s ~/my-astro-recipes/src/content/recipes recipes

Done! Now you have a recipes folder in Obsidian that’s actually your Astro content. Edit files there, and your site updates instantly.

Don’t forget your images

You’ll want to link your assets too, or images won’t show up in Obsidian. If your images are in ~/my-astro-recipes/public/images/recipes, add another symlink:

ln -s ~/my-astro-recipes/public/images/recipes images

Now when you reference ../images/your-dish.jpg in your markdown, Obsidian will show the actual image.

That’s it

With everything connected, you get the best of both worlds:

Use your code editor for coding stuff - building components, managing dependencies, debugging. VS Code and friends are built for this.

Use Obsidian for writing - clean interface, great markdown tools, plugins like Templater for consistent frontmatter, and the graph view to see how your content connects.

Symlinks bridge the gap between your development environment and your writing space. You get Obsidian’s powerful content management without cluttering your vault with code files.

Quick note: This uses ln -s on Mac/Linux. Windows folks can use mklink for the same effect.

Try it out, it’ll change how you think about content workflows!