GNO vs Obsidian Search
A comparison of GNO with Obsidian’s built-in search.
Key insight: GNO and Obsidian are complementary. Use Obsidian for note-taking and editing. Use GNO for AI-powered search and external access.
Quick Summary
| Aspect | GNO | Obsidian Search |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Search & AI access | Note-taking app |
| Unique strength | MCP/Skills, CLI, multi-format | Visual editing, graph view |
| Works with | Any folder | Obsidian vaults only |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | GNO | Obsidian Search |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic Search | ✓ Vector + rerank | Plugin-dependent |
| File Formats | MD, PDF, DOCX, etc. | Markdown only |
| AI Integration | MCP, Skills, RAG | Plugin-dependent |
| External Access | CLI, MCP server | Obsidian app only |
| Works With | Any folder structure | Obsidian vaults |
| Graph View | ✗ | ✓ |
| Note Editing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Plugins | MCP ecosystem | Obsidian plugins |
Planned Features
| Feature | GNO | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Web UI | 🔜 gno serve |
✓ (Obsidian app) |
| Raycast | 🔜 macOS native | ✓ (community extension) |
Complementary Workflow
GNO works with Obsidian, not instead of it:
# 1. Take notes in Obsidian (your vault at ~/Documents/Obsidian)
# 2. Index your vault with GNO
gno init ~/Documents/Obsidian --name vault
gno index
# 3. Search via CLI
gno query "what were my notes about project planning"
# 4. Get AI answers from your notes
gno ask "summarize my meeting notes from last week" --answer
# 5. Let Claude search your vault
gno mcp install --target claude
# Now Claude can search your Obsidian notes
When to Use GNO (with Obsidian)
CLI search: Quick searches without opening Obsidian.
# Search from terminal
gno query "authentication best practices"
AI agent access: Let Claude, Cursor, or other AI tools search your notes.
# Install MCP for your tool
gno mcp install --target cursor
# Now your AI assistant can search your Obsidian vault
RAG answers: Get AI-generated answers with citations from your notes.
gno ask "what is our team's deployment process" --answer
Multi-format search: Search PDFs and docs alongside your markdown notes.
# Index everything in your vault, including attachments
gno init ~/Documents/Obsidian --name vault
gno index
gno query "contract terms" # finds in PDFs too
Automation: Script searches in your workflows.
# Find related notes programmatically
gno query "project alpha" --format json | jq '.results[].path'
When to Use Obsidian Search
Visual exploration: Graph view, backlinks, outgoing links.
Note editing: Creating and modifying notes.
Obsidian plugins: Plugin-specific features (Dataview, Canvas, etc.).
Quick vault navigation: Opening notes by name.
Integration Setup
Index Your Obsidian Vault
# Install GNO
bun install -g @gmickel/gno
# Initialize with your vault
gno init ~/Documents/Obsidian --name vault
# Index all notes
gno index
Enable AI Access
# For Claude Desktop
gno mcp install --target claude
# For Cursor
gno mcp install --target cursor
# For Claude Code
gno mcp install --target claude-code
Search Examples
# Semantic search
gno query "ideas for improving user onboarding"
# Find specific topics
gno query "meeting notes about Q4 planning"
# Get AI answers
gno ask "what were the action items from the team sync" --answer
Best of Both Worlds
| Task | Use |
|---|---|
| Take notes | Obsidian |
| Edit notes | Obsidian |
| Visual graph exploration | Obsidian |
| Quick search from terminal | GNO |
| AI agent access to notes | GNO |
| RAG answers | GNO |
| Search PDFs in vault | GNO |
| Script/automate search | GNO |
GNO extends Obsidian’s capabilities rather than replacing it. Your Obsidian vault becomes searchable from anywhere—terminal, AI assistants, scripts—while Obsidian remains your note-taking home.