Getting started — Moonkale for VS Code and Obsidian users

You use VS Code for code and Obsidian for notes. Moonkale is one app that does both — and something neither does: it treats everything you open as one graph. This page is for you; it stays away from the internals (those are behind Overview when you want them).

The four ideas

1. Folders and databases are the same kind of thing. In VS Code you open a folder; in Obsidian you open a vault. In Moonkale you open sources: a folder, but also a SQLite/DuckDB file, a CSV directory, a graph database. Each shows up in the Sources panel with its own colour and icon, and each contributes to the same graph. You can have several open at once — two repositories, two vaults you are merging — and see them together.

2. The graph is the point, not a feature. Obsidian’s graph shows notes and links. Moonkale’s shows files and the functions, structs and modules inside them, and the wiki-links between notes, and the tables of a database — all connected. The Graph panel is a real renderer (GPU, 100 000 nodes), with a Local mode around the file you are in and a 3D mode with one plane per kind of thing. Click a node: it opens.

3. Your vault stays your vault. Notes are plain markdown with Obsidian’s [[wiki-links]], [[note#heading|alias]], front matter and $…$ / $$…$$ KaTeX. Open the same folder in Obsidian tomorrow; nothing was changed behind your back. What Moonkale adds lives in one hidden folder, .moonkale/, that you can delete.

4. Everything is an extension, and the agent is part of the app. The editors, the terminal, git, the graph — each is an extension you can switch off in the Extensions panel (the puzzle icon). The Agent panel is a chat with an LLM that can use your sources: list them, read files, query the graph and the databases, search — and, only with your click on Allow, edit files. It works with your own keys (Anthropic, OpenAI-compatible, Ollama) or with Claude Code on your subscription, no key — a Log in button in Settings runs its browser sign-in. You can save several agents and run several sessions at once; their history stays in the folder.

Coming from VS Code

you are used to	in Moonkale
Ctrl+Shift+P palette, Ctrl+P quick open	the same keys, same idea
the activity bar on the left	the same: Files, Search, Links, Git, History, Agent, Terminal, Graph; Settings, Extensions and People at the bottom
the editor	CodeMirror by default (language servers, completion, rename, references, diagnostics) — you point Moonkale at the same rust-analyzer, pyright, clangd… on your PATH; a second, Rust-built editor with tree-sitter colours for Lean, Nix and Typst too, one click away (Rust in the toolbar)
the integrated terminal	Ctrl+`; on a remote folder the shell runs on the remote machine
Source Control	the Git entry: stage, commit, diffs, and the history as a graph
Remote-SSH	File → Open Remote Folder…: your system ssh (keys, config aliases, passwords typed in the terminal tab), the folder, its terminal, git and language servers run on the other machine, the editor here
Settings JSON	Settings panel with user and workspace scopes (.moonkale/settings.json in the folder); each extension’s on/off switch and settings sit under the extension in the Extensions panel
extensions marketplace	none yet — built-in extensions, plus wasm modules you drop into a folder (Extension Catalogue)

Differences you will notice: no debugger, no tasks, no multi-cursor in the Rust editor, and the language-server features exist in the CodeMirror editor only.

Coming from Obsidian

you are used to	in Moonkale
the editor (live preview)	Rich mode (WYSIWYG, the default for .md) or Source mode (a code editor with [[ completion); the buttons are above the note |
| [[links]], backlinks, unresolved links	the same links; Links in the activity bar shows backlinks; unresolved targets are dashed and a click creates the note
the graph view	the Graph panel — with the code and the databases in it too, not only notes
properties / front matter	a Properties bar above a rich note; the YAML is edited there, the source is untouched
MathJax	KaTeX, inline and block, with your .moonkale/katex.json macros
community plugins	extensions (fewer, mostly built in); Obsidian’s plugins keep working on the same vault in Obsidian
Sync / mobile	no sync of its own (use git, Syncthing, or Obsidian Sync on the same folder); an Android app exists and can connect to a Moonkale server running on your desktop

Differences you will notice: no canvas, no daily notes, no templates plugin, fewer themes; tabs, Mermaid and TikZ in notes are on the list, not done (Markdown Diagrams and Math).

A first session (ten minutes)

1. Install — Install. Start moonkale.
2. File → Open Folder… — pick a repository or a vault. The Sources panel fills (and follows changes made on disk from then on); the status bar says index: N files · links · symbols when the graph is ready.
3. Click Graph (bottom-left). Whole shows everything; Local shows two hops around the file you have open; 3D for the layered view. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, click a node to open it.
4. Open a .md note: you are in Rich mode. Type [[ — completion lists the notes. Type $\int_0^1$ — it renders. The Properties bar holds the front matter.
5. Open a .rs/.py/.jl file: CodeMirror with the language server if you have one installed (the status bar says what it found). Try Rust in the toolbar for the other editor.
6. Agent (right): ask “what does this folder contain?” — the mock provider answers offline; in Settings → Agents add an agent: Claude Code (subscription; Log in opens the browser) or a provider with a key stored as a secret (never in settings). New starts a second session while the first works.
7. Terminal (Ctrl+`): a shell in the folder. Ctrl+click a path:line in its output to open the file.
8. Ctrl+Shift+F searches the folder — keyword search always; semantic search when an embedding model is configured.

What to expect

Moonkale is at version 0.1: usable daily by its author, rough at the edges. Things that are solid: opening folders and databases, the graph, the rich editor with wiki-links and KaTeX, CodeMirror with language servers, git, history, the agent, remote folders over SSH. Things that are not there: a debugger, a marketplace, sync, most of Obsidian’s plugin ecosystem, signed Windows/macOS builds. When something is wrong, say so — Feedback says where it goes (the issue forms label it for you), and the Problem Log is where every reported problem ends up with its fix.

Next: Install · Feedback (how to report anything) · the Extension Catalogue (what each extension does and where it runs) · Remote and Server Modes (working on another machine) · Overview (how it is built).