Obsidian bases let you display your digital notes in highly customisable and editable tables, create intelligent filters and automate data collection. Bases can be used to create a custom navigation scheme and partially replace the feared and revered Dataview plugin. With Bases, Obsidian inches closer to Notion and gains a very distinct advantage over it.
Learn the foundational systems researchers are rarely taught: from powerful note-taking and knowledge management methods to modern lit review tools, ethical AI and productive research workflows.
What are Obsidian Bases?
An Obsidian Base is a table displaying some of your notes based on specific filters like tags or folders. You get the ability to customise how the notes are displayed and which columns these tables have. Most importantly, every entry is always directly editable.
In the example below, I use the base to display papers related to a project called XAIP. So all these papers are tagged with the tag #paper/XAIP, and I am displaying the link to the paper as summary, a year, and the journal. We will look into this example in detail later in this article.
Obsidian bases show notes in a table, you change view, use filters, and adjust columns.
Why use Obsidian bases?
Obsidian bases provide a variety of ways to interact with your notes and resources in Obsidian. You can use bases to:
- Collect relevant papers in a project
- Display notes in a visual card layout
- Create context-aware content like custom navigation
- Analyse or review notes using code
Share Obsidian Bases easily
One of the benefits of Obsidian bases is how easy it is they are to share with others, because they are stored in files.
An Obsidian base, technically speaking, is a file containing a small piece of code that is executed to extract the files you want to display and defines how these files are displayed. Here’s an example. On the left, you see the base how Obsidian displays it, and on the right, you see the actual file:
obsidian base as table and as file
This allows you to share these base files with other people. And if these people use the same values for tags (e.g. “paper/xaip” in my example above), properties, and folders, then the base will function identically in their vault and yours.
Embed Obsidian Bases into a file
The real flexibility of Bases comes from embedding them into files. In the example below, I have a project file and I embed a base that shows all the papers related to this literature review project.
To embed a base, type an exclamation mark followed by two square brackets and the name of the base. The base will automatically appear with the correct formatting, as is shown below.
Embed obsidian base into any note with![[ ]] notation.
Obsidian Bases for collecting relevant papers in a project
One of the most best use cases for Obsidian Bases it to display a collection of papers. Here’s why that matters and just how to do it.
As I described in the academic knowledge course, all of my academic work is centred around projects. Each project consists of a set of detailed notes, specific goals, and most importantly, a reading list. I don’t just collect papers in Zotero, but integrate them into Obsidian, providing an intention why I want to read a certain paper and what context it relates to.
In order to easily visualise papers using bases, you can keep track of papers in the same project. To mark a paper as belonging to a project, I usually give it a tag, starting with #paper/project ID (in this case XAIP). This allows for easily filtering out all papers related to this project and also allows papers to belong to multiple projects. Then, these papers can be selected using a filter in the base.
use obsidian base to view papers based on different tags
How to use Obsidian bases to view paper collections
Each base in Obsidian can have a global filter applied to all views, and then special filters and settings applying to single views.
A global filter, for instance, can filter for any papers that have a specific tag, like the paper/project ID tag, to only contain source notes on papers. Then there is a specific setting for each view, allowing you to bundle a subset of data you want to display in a particular way. In the example above, I use two views:
- “Reading List”: This view displays only papers where the summary property is set to the string ‘Unread’. This is the default state that signals to me that I haven’t read this paper yet, and I display the columns, the title, and link which allows me to reach the paper’s website with one click (in case the PDF is not available yet).
- “Papers by Year”: This view displays only papers where the summary is not unread, giving me only papers that I have looked at and displays a summary along the journal year and my rating for the paper.
The reading list now gives me a quick stop to figure out what to read next for my literature review. While the papers by year view already start synthesising ideas all within the same base.
Use Obsidian Bases to visualise cards
If you are a visual person, Obsidian Base’s feature allows you to display the nodes in a card layout rather than a table. This creates cards of flexible sizes that can have a thumbnail to quickly visually identify the content. Here is an example:
Use Obsidian Bases to visualise cards
In the project management system of the academic knowledge course, I present the idea that we track small incremental results to our science and dedicated result notes. For my research, this usually implies that these notes will contain plots, explanations, and speculations about the data, and that is what you see in the image above. Using the card layout makes it incredibly easy to find specific results in your research, and sorting it by the modified time gives you a timeline of your project.
Use Obsidian Bases for context-aware content
Obsidian bases can refer to the note that is currently focused. This allows them to be used more dynamically and display notes that in some way relate to these open notes. For instance, based on the location or tag of the note, you might want to display notes that have similar tags or locations to this one.
If you drag and drop that Obsidian base into your sidebar, you will see it updating as you navigate to different parts of your vault. Using this method, you can create a custom navigation structure, which is an incredibly powerful feature. Let’s look at an example.
Create a custom navigation sidebar
One of the most powerful navigation schemes is the parent-child-related relationship structure.
This is a mental model where each note relates to a set of child notes that describe aspects of it. For instance, if you write an academic paper and create a note related to this paper, then this big project note is your parent note, while many smaller child notes can contain open questions, results, writing snippets, data, tasks etc. The different child notes are considered siblings of one another. Additionally, any note can have multiple notes that are related to it.
The parent-child relationship is done by adding a “Parent” property to any note and referring to the parent note, while the Related property identifies notes that we relate to. In other words, this is a hierarchy, and using Obsidian, we can access different parts of this hierarchy by comparing nodes in your vault to the properties of the node that is currently open.
use obsidian bases to separate sibling, children and parent notes.
Having one parent per note is similar to using folders, as any file can only be in a single folder. Having multiple related notes is identical to using tags, as a note can be tagged in different ways. However, using links in properties for both of these purposes is a much more readable and accessible way that does not rely on any file structures or hard-coded tags that you need to remember.
Identify child and sibling notes
To identify related or child nodes, we need to find all nodes in our world whose parent or related property contains the name of this file. I’m using a short snippet of code that first converts the parent or related property to a string and then checks if this file’s name is contained in that string, e.g. “Related.toString().contains(this.file.name)”. (The string conversion here allows us to ignore the fact that links in Obsidian contain double brackets and that the related property is an array of these links).
define notes types using formulae
Sibling nodes, on the other hand, are identified if their parent property equals the parent property of the currently open node. The currently opened node is accessible by using the keyword “this.file.property” you want to access from the file. Obsidian will help you find the right keywords, and there is also extensive documentation on what you can use here. However, this is a very advanced feature that requires some experience with coding.
Use Obsidian Bases for formulae and computer code
Your cells and columns are not limited to displaying metadata of your nodes. Using Obsidian’s coding features, you can create short snippets of code that transform, filter, or analyse your metadata and display content based on the results. For instance, I might want to look at how many days have passed since the file was last modified, or whether or not that file matches certain criteria and display a checkbox if it does. Here are some examples:
use coding to analyse notes or papers by any meatdata value
This base displays all my papers sorted by the time that has passed since I created the note. To create dynamic properties, go to properties > add formula. Let’s look at the three formulas that I have in this table:
- Paper: This formula checks the “summary” property of my source note. If it is the string “Unread”, it will add a 🟥 to the link, or else a 🟩, allowing me to visually assess whether or not I have already read this paper. Here is the code:
if(file.properties.Summary == "Unread",link(file,"🟥 " + file.name),link(file,"🟩 " + file.name)) - Created: this formula just displays how many days have passed since I created this file. The code is:
file.ctime.relative() - PDF: This column checks if I have the PDF for that paper by looking at the first link in the file, which, by my convention, should link to the PDF. If a paper is present, a link to the PDF is displayed. If not, I use the DOI value, which is defined for all papers and display it as a link to the web. So, I can go to the website and download the PDF or at least read the abstract. Additionally, based on whether it’s a web or a file link, I add a different emoji. Here is the code:
if(file(file.links[0]).path.contains(".pdf"),link(file.links[0],"🟢 PDF"),link(file.properties.doi,"🟡 Web"))
Check out my blog post on how to take academic notes, so you have an idea what these source notes to the papers look like and why I built them the way I did. And if you are ready to start a journey, join the free course on academic note-taking.
Obsidian Bases vs Dataview
Dataview to Obsidian bases is what a manual stick-shift car is to an automatic. While in essence you can accomplish even more with Dataview, it’s disproportionately more difficult to work with it, because Obsidian bases offer a visual interface to create filters and sorting, while in Dataview everything has to be done through code. Moreover, the tables that Obsidian bases create are far faster, and can be edited in-line, and visually customised. In the long run, I believe DataView will become irrelevant for many use cases but the more complex ones.
However, DataView has a few things that Bases cannot do:
- Aggregating tasks: For instance, you can collect every single checkbox in a set of notes and display it as a list, which is a valuable way of creating dynamic to-do lists. (You can do this with the tasks plugin as well, which is easier to use).
- Embedding data view queries into templates: DataView is a snippet of code rather than a file, making it easy to add to templates. This approach is more lightweight than creating a new base file, configuring it, and embedding it elsewhere.
- DataView offers a calendar view and a list view, displaying notes in a slightly different way that can be beneficial over bases limited to cards and tables (for now).
Overall, DataView still has a place in the Obsidian ecosystem, but for the majority of use cases, it will be just too complex to use and be replaced by bases.
Obsidian vs Notion
Notion’s databases are similar to Obsidian’s new Bases, but they differ in some key ways. Notion databases are cloud-based, collaborative, and very flexible, while Obsidian Bases are more minimal, offline-first, faster, and more hackable through code. Overall, however, if you’re a heavy user of Notion databases, Obsidian Spaces will seem limited to you. The most remarkable advantage Obsidian has over Notion is that your bases can be customised to be context-aware, so they display different content based on the note you are editing (as in the previous example).
obsidian vs notion
- Speed & Scale: Obsidian Bases are optimised for speed and can handle vaults with tens of thousands of notes without lag, unlike Notion, which slows down with large datasets.
- Offline First vs Cloud Lock-in: Obsidian stores everything locally in plain text, while Notion relies on the cloud, raising concerns about vendor lock-in and data privacy.
- Views & Flexibility: Both offer multiple views (tables, cards, calendars, boards). Obsidian is limited to card and table views. While these two views are certainly the most common ones, I would expect Obsidian to catch up over time.
- Live Editing & Properties: both allow editing of contents in line.
- Dynamic Links: Obsidian’s killer feature: Context-aware, auto-updating links that surface related data in real time. For instance, you can filter notes in your vault based on properties of the open note, identifying related notes through folders, tags, links and any other metadata.
- Personal vs Team Use: Notion is stronger for teams and real-time collaboration. Obsidian allows you to collaborate on a vault, but it’s nowhere near as comfortable as Notion and does not allow for things like commenting or user management.
- Customisation & Ownership: Bases keep everything in your vault, extensible with plugins and a future API, while Notion keeps your data in its ecosystem
Summary
Obsidian Bases is likely one of the most significant updates since the introduction of Obsidian’s Canvas feature, which changes the way we interact with this note-taking software. Previously, using maps of content and index nodes was a necessary way to structure big academic vaults. These can now likely be replaced with bases. Bases are simple to use, but using formulae and their context-aware nature can become very powerful with a little bit of technical expertise.
If you want to take your note-taking to the next level (Obsidian bases are the tip of the iceberg!), then sign up for the free note-taking course.