LiteSync

LiteSync

Private, self-hosted sync for Obsidian. Your notes sync through a lightweight server that you run yourself — end-to-end encrypted, with version history and automatic merge. No third-party cloud, no account, no telemetry.

Works on desktop and mobile (Obsidian 1.13+). 中文文档 / Chinese documentation →

Requires a LiteSync Server — a single Docker container you deploy with one command (runs happily on a 1-core / 256MB VPS): https://github.com/KJoner/litesync-server

Getting started (first device)

1. Deploy the server — one line on your VPS, it prints your API token when done:

   bash <(wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KJoner/litesync-server/master/scripts/litesync-install.sh)
   

2. Install LiteSync in Obsidian and open its settings

3. Fill in Server URL and API Token, hit Test Connection

4. Follow the onboarding wizard — it will offer to initialize the remote vault from this device

5. (Optional) Enable end-to-end encryption in settings and set a password

That's it — edits now sync automatically in the background.

Adding a new device (QR pairing)

You never type the server config twice:

1. On a configured device: Settings → Devices & migration → Add device
2. On the new device: install LiteSync, then scan the QR code with the system camera (or open the pairing link) → Open in Obsidian → confirm import
3. If E2EE is enabled, type your password once (it is never transmitted)
4. In the onboarding wizard, pick Restore from remote — done

The pairing package is encrypted on-device and expires in 5 minutes after a single use; the server only ever sees ciphertext. If your vault on the new device already has notes, the wizard offers a safe merge instead — nothing is ever silently overwritten, and nothing is ever permanently deleted.

Features

• Incremental sync — per-file revisions + SHA-256 + a global change sequence; offline edits queue up and retry with exponential backoff; mobile catches up automatically when the app returns to the foreground
• Conflict handling — automatic three-way merge for Markdown (diff3); overlapping edits open a conflict resolver UI; anything unresolvable falls back to keeping both versions — no content is ever lost
• Version history — every change creates an immutable version on the server; compare, restore, or save a copy of any revision
• End-to-end encryption — PBKDF2 (600k iterations) + AES-256-GCM; the password and master key never leave your devices, the server only ever stores ciphertext
• Trusted device — remember device authorization (split-key wrapping via Obsidian SecretStorage) instead of your password
• Encrypted sharing — share a single note via a link whose key lives only in the URL fragment; revocable, with optional expiry
• Onboarding wizard — new devices explicitly choose restore from remote or merge before any sync happens; the server's stable vault identity is verified so a reinstalled server can never silently clobber your notes
• Deletion safety — remote deletions go to the trash on every platform; if trashing fails the file is kept and flagged, never permanently deleted
• Web read-only client & off-site backup — the server ships an embedded browser reader (decrypts locally) and optional Restic → Cloudflare R2 disaster backup, managed from a web admin page

Privacy & Network Access

• LiteSync connects only to the LiteSync Server URL configured by the user. It makes no other network requests — no telemetry, no analytics, no third-party services, no accounts.
• LiteSync does not operate a hosted sync service. Your notes are synchronized exclusively to your own server.
• When end-to-end encryption is enabled, note contents are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before leaving the device; the server only stores ciphertext and cannot read your notes.
• Path and filename encryption is available as an experimental (RC) feature, disabled by default: the server only sees random pseudonyms and real paths live inside encrypted metadata. Since v0.13 the migration keeps deletion barriers intact (tombstones are converted, never dropped), but the erasure step is still irreversible and pre-migration backups still contain plaintext paths — do not enable it on your only real vault.
• Each device holds its own least-privilege credential (v0.10): the root server token is exchanged for a per-device token on first sync and never stays on devices afterwards. A lost device can be revoked individually on the server without rotating anything else.
• The API token is stored in Obsidian's SecretStorage (never in plain-text data.json).
• Non-loopback http:// server URLs are rejected — credentials and notes never travel over plain HTTP.
• As a sync plugin, LiteSync enumerates the files in your vault to determine what needs syncing. File paths and contents go only to your own configured server, nowhere else.
• The system clipboard is written only when you explicitly click "Copy link" for an encrypted share or a device-pairing link. LiteSync never reads the clipboard.
• Device pairing never transmits your E2EE password. The pairing package (server URL, a one-time enrollment secret, sync settings — not the root token as of v0.10) is encrypted on-device; the decryption key lives only in the link's #fragment, which browsers do not send to servers.
• The server component is a separate open-source project: https://github.com/KJoner/litesync-server

Known limitations & remaining threats

Being explicit about what LiteSync does not protect against is part of the design. The list below is accurate as of v0.17.0-rc.1.

What a malicious or compromised server can still do

End-to-end encryption means the server cannot read your notes. It does not mean the server is trusted with everything else. Today the client detects and hard-fails on the attacks it can anchor locally:

That last row is the honest, structural gap — not a missing feature. The accurate claim is:

A malicious server cannot roll back or swap content you have already synced without being detected, and cannot keep showing different repository states to different devices of yours. It can still refuse to serve you, and it can still hide a file you have never seen.

Signed checkpoints (v0.15) are signed by your devices, never by the server. A new device does not trust the first manifest the server offers — it receives a trusted anchor through device pairing, whose key travels only in the link's #fragment.

Path and filename encryption is still RC

Disabled by default. The migration is resumable and keeps deletion barriers intact, but the final erasure step is irreversible and any backup taken before the migration still contains plaintext paths. Do not enable it on a vault that has no copy.

Platform limitations

• On platforms that cannot guarantee an atomic file replace, overwriting an existing file automatically degrades to saving the incoming version alongside the local one, rather than risking a half-written file. Every platform we have measured so far (Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android) does support atomic installs, so this path is a safety net rather than an everyday behaviour. The plugin probes for it at runtime instead of assuming — run "LiteSync: Platform compatibility probe" to see the result for your own device.
• Note.md and note.md are treated as the same file regardless of which operating system you are on, and café.md written as NFC or NFD is likewise one file. This is deliberate, and measurement backs it up: on real devices iOS is case-sensitive and normalises Unicode, while Android is the opposite — case-insensitive and non-normalising. Judging by the local platform would make those two devices disagree about whether two names collide, and they would then overwrite each other. The rule therefore takes the strictest interpretation across all platforms. The cost is that you cannot keep Note.md and note.md as separate files even on a system that allows it; the benefit is that no device can silently overwrite another's.
• Network drives and cloud-sync folders (Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud Drive) are not supported as vault locations. Two synchronizers writing the same files will corrupt each other's state.

Scale

Officially supported and tested limits are documented in the server README: 20 000 files per vault, 100 MB per file, 90 days offline. Beyond those numbers things are not broken by design — they are simply untested.

Manual installation

Until LiteSync is available in Community Plugins:

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, styles.css from the latest release
2. Copy them into <YourVault>/.obsidian/plugins/litesync/
3. Enable LiteSync in Settings → Community plugins

Development

npm install
npm run build        # type-check + bundle to main.js
npm run lint         # eslint-plugin-obsidianmd recommended rules
npm test             # unit tests (merge engine / crypto / pairing / state)
npm run test:mobile  # mobile CI: Node/Electron dependency audit + build + tests
npm run dev          # watch mode

Releases are automated: pushing a tag that matches manifest.json's version lints, builds, attests provenance, and drafts a GitHub Release with main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css attached.

License

MIT