Flint

Obsidian plugin that syncs your vault across devices using your own Firebase Storage bucket. Concurrent edits from multiple devices are merged automatically using Automerge CRDTs — no conflicts, no lost work.

Features

• CRDT sync — concurrent edits from different devices are merged, not overwritten.
• Bring-your-own Firebase — your data lives in your bucket; no third-party server involved.
• Firebase Authentication — sign in with email/password to scope reads/writes to your account.
• Force Push — command-palette escape hatch to overwrite remote state with local vault.
• Android/Mobile compatible.

Setup

Firebase Project

1. Create a new project at console.firebase.google.com.
2. Register a Web App (Project Settings → Your apps → Add app) and copy the firebaseConfig values.
3. Enable Firebase Storage (Build → Storage → Get started). Choose a region, start in production mode.
4. Enable Email/Password authentication (Build → Authentication → Sign-in method → Email/Password → Enable).
5. Create a user account (Authentication → Users → Add user).
6. Set your Storage rules:

   rules_version = '2';
   service firebase.storage {
     match /b/{bucket}/o {
       match /vaults/{vaultName}/{allPaths=**} {
         allow read, write: if request.auth != null
                            && request.auth.token.email != null;
       }
     }
   }
   

7. Configure CORS on your bucket. Create a cors.json file:

   [
     {
       "origin": ["app://obsidian.md"],
       "method": ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE", "HEAD", "OPTIONS"],
       "responseHeader": ["Content-Type", "Authorization", "Content-Length", "X-Requested-With"],
       "maxAgeSeconds": 3600
     }
   ]
   

   Apply it with: gsutil cors set cors.json gs://YOUR-BUCKET-NAME

Plugin Installation

1. Enable Community Plugins in Obsidian settings.
2. Search for Flint and install, or manually copy the plugin folder into VAULT/.obsidian/plugins/.
3. Enable the plugin under Community Plugins.

Plugin Configuration

1. Open Settings → Flint.
2. Paste your Firebase firebaseConfig values and click Save.
3. Enter your email/password and sign in.

Usage

Sync — click the refresh icon in the left ribbon. Flint merges your local files with remote state and uploads the result. The first sync uploads everything; subsequent syncs are incremental.

Force Push — open the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + P) and run Flint: Force push vault to Firebase to overwrite remote state with your local vault, skipping the merge step.

New device — configure Flint with the same Firebase credentials and click Sync. Your notes will be downloaded and merged into the local vault.

Storage Layout

vaults/
  <vault-name>/
    path/to/note.md        ← Markdown with _flint_id frontmatter
    path/to/note.md.am     ← Automerge binary (CRDT state)

Troubleshooting

• CORS errors — apply the CORS config to your bucket (step 7 above).
• auth/configuration-not-found — Email/Password sign-in is not enabled in Firebase Console.
• No changes after sync — check that your Storage rules allow authenticated writes and that the bucket name in settings matches exactly.