Comparison - Local Markdown notes

Winy vs Obsidian

Obsidian is a local Markdown vault with a canvas for laying out notes; Winy is a canvas where your coding agents run live beside them.

Obsidian is a free, local-first notes app built on Markdown files, with Canvas for laying out notes, images, PDFs and web pages on an infinite board.

Winy is a native infinite-canvas notebook for Mac, iPad and iPhone where real agent sessions such as Claude Code and Codex live as cards next to your notes, Pencil ink and images.

The real difference is the cards: an Obsidian Canvas card holds a note or a file, while a Winy card can be a live terminal or agent session you work with on the board.

At a glance

Question	Winy	Obsidian
What it is	Infinite-canvas notebook with live agent cards	Local Markdown notes app with Canvas
Platforms	Mac, iPad and iPhone	macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, iPadOS and Android
Canvas cards	Text, ink, images, arrows, terminals, agents, browser	Notes, images, PDFs, video, web pages
Live terminals and agents	Yes, as cards on the board	Not built in
Handwriting	Pencil ink at full frame rate	Not built into Canvas
File format	Winy's own board format	Markdown and open JSON Canvas files
Agent access	Agents see the board they sit on	Obsidian CLI gives agentic tools vault access
Plugins	None	Plugin API for community plugins
Pricing	Early access waitlist; no public pricing	Free; Sync from $4/month; Publish from $8/month

Which one is for you

Choose Obsidian if

You want your notes as plain Markdown files you own, in a free app on every platform.
You want an open canvas format, JSON Canvas, that other tools can read and write.
You rely on plugins, backlinks and a large vault built over years.

Choose Winy if

You want Claude Code or Codex running live on the canvas, not just a note about them.
You want to draw with the Pencil straight across a running terminal or a note.
You run several agents and want to see which are working or waiting by zooming out.
You want one board shared across Mac, iPad and iPhone with the Mac running the agents.

Questions

Is there an Obsidian Canvas alternative with AI agents?

Obsidian Canvas holds notes, media and web pages. Winy is an infinite canvas where live Claude Code and Codex sessions sit as cards next to your notes and ink.

Is Obsidian free?

Yes. Obsidian is free with no sign-up. A commercial license is optional at $50 per user per year, and Sync and Publish are paid add-ons.

Can AI agents use my Obsidian vault?

Obsidian's CLI can give agentic tools the ability to interact with your vault while the app is running. In Winy, agents run on the board itself and can see the notes, ink and images around them.

Can I put AI agents on a canvas?

That is what Winy is for. Each agent session is a card on an infinite canvas, and zooming out shows which agents are working and which are waiting on you.

Is Winy available now?

Winy is in early access. You can join the waitlist on winy.ai.

Thinking is Winning