Import from Obsidian or Markdown
Bring your existing notes into Hjarni. Upload a ZIP of your Markdown folder. Structure, frontmatter, wiki-links, and attachments come with it.
How to import
- Zip the folder that contains your Markdown files.
- Go to Import from your Personal page, or visit /import/new.
- Optionally pick a target folder. If you do, the zip's structure nests under it. If you leave it empty, top-level folders in the zip become top-level folders in Hjarni.
- Upload and wait. Progress updates in place. You can close the tab and come back later.
Imports run in the background, so you can close the tab.
Export from Obsidian
Obsidian vaults are plain folders of Markdown files, so the export is just a zip of your vault directory.
Right-click your vault folder in Finder and choose Compress.
Right-click the vault folder and choose Send to then Compressed (zipped) folder.
zip -r vault.zip my-vault/
You can delete .obsidian/ and .trash/ from the zip if you want a cleaner upload, but the importer skips those anyway.
What is supported
Each folder in the zip becomes a folder in Hjarni. Nested folders nest. Hjarni reuses folders with matching names.
Obsidian-style [[Other Note]] links are rewritten to Hjarni's [[id:Title]] format, so they stay clickable and show up in the note's linked-notes section. Display overrides like [[Other|alias]] are preserved. Heading anchors like [[Other#Heading]] resolve to the note itself; Hjarni doesn't link to specific headings, so the anchor is dropped.
Images and files embedded via ![[file.png]] come across as attachments on their note. Up to 25 MB per file. Orphan files that nothing references are skipped.
YAML frontmatter with title, tags, summary, and source_url is parsed. If there's no title, the filename is used.
The importer skips __MACOSX/ entries, .obsidian/, .trash/, and other dotfiles.
Frontmatter example
Notes with YAML frontmatter come in with their metadata preserved:
---
title: Weekly retro
tags: [team, retro]
summary: Notes from the April 12 retro
source_url: https://example.com/retro
---
This week we shipped the importer.
See [[Roadmap]] and ![[retro-board.png]] for context.
The frontmatter block is stripped from the body. Tags are created if they don't exist. The wiki-link and the embed both resolve against other files in the same zip.
FAQ
I'm on the Free plan. What happens if my vault has more than 25 notes?
We save your upload and send you to checkout. After you upgrade, the import runs and you land back on the import page. If you close the tab, it still resumes the next time you visit /import/new as a Pro user.
Can I import the same vault twice?
Yes, but you'll get duplicates. Titles don't have to be unique, so a second run creates a second copy of each note. If you want to replace, delete the previous import's notes first.
Can I pick which folder the import lands in?
Yes. The upload form has an Import into folder dropdown. If you pick one, the zip's hierarchy is built under that folder. Leave it empty to land at the top level.
What if two files share a name in different folders?
Both come in as separate notes. A bare link like [[note]] resolves to whichever was encountered first, matching Obsidian. Include the folder like [[Folder/note]] and it always resolves to the right one.
Are attachment images shown inline?
Imported attachments are attached to their note and appear in the photo carousel and attachments section on that note's page. The inline ![[...]] embed syntax is removed from the body since Hjarni renders attachments in a dedicated section.
Can I import from something other than Obsidian?
Yes. Any folder of Markdown files works. Bear, iA Writer, Logseq exports, or a folder you assembled by hand all import the same way. Wiki-links are Obsidian-style, but that's optional.
Related docs
Running into trouble with an import?
Email evert@hjarni.com