If you're a small business leader without a traditional coding background and you've started creating apps with tools like Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex, you've probably come across the concept of **Markdown files**. AI tools will often offer to save their output as a Markdown file. If you're like me, you might have found this confusing at first. What is Markdown? # What is Markdown? Markdown is a lightweight markup language used to format plain text using simple characters (like * or #) rather than complex HTML tags. Created in 2004, it allows users to write readable text that is easily converted into HTML for websites, documentation, or notes. It is widely used in GitHub, forums, and note-taking apps. It can be created in any text file editor and it uses very simple formatting codes that allow you to format text (bold, underline, italics), to make headings (h1 ,h2, h3 etc), to insert tables, bullet or numbered lists, links, and horizontal lines. [Read about Markdown on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown). The reason markdown is so popular among developers is its very small file size, which enables it to use AI tokens and context efficiently, as well as its simplicity. # Why can't I keep using OneNote or Evernote? You might use a note-taking app like Evernote or OneNote, but these files are saved in proprietary formats that aren't easy for your AI to read, write, or edit. You have to do all the manual cut-and-paste from the AI chat back and forth. Over time, you'll find this manual work slow and frustrating. # Switch to Obsidian for AI work The leading free Markdown app is **[Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/)**. In the last few months, I've seen many people on LinkedIn referring to it, so I finally got curious and installed it, and it's a game-changer! While you can use a simple text editor like Text Edit or BBEdit, by far the best approach is to use [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/). It hides the markdown syntax and looks and works like a familiar note-taking app. You get the power of markdown but in a really user-friendly, familiar interface. # How Obsidian optimizes your app building workflow The general workflow of solving problems by building workflows and software with AI is often a series of iterative steps that follow a pattern like this: 1. Research and summarise how experts solve this particular problem. 2. Turn that summary into a specification for an app that I could build. 3. Read these guideline files on my preferred software development stack and approach and incorporate my preferences. 4. Evaluate my software plan using this expert software development skill I downloaded from GitHub and recommend improvements. 5. Update all my plan files with those recommended improvements. 6. Create user and admin user documentation for my future users. 7. Create technical documentation so that if I involve a developer, they can quickly understand how the app was designed and built. 8. Build the v1 code 9. Evaluate my code using this expert code review skill I downloaded from GitHub and recommend improvements. 10. Create a plan file with those recommended improvements. 11. Log all my daily work and next steps in a context-log.md file in my project folder You will experience a huge boost in speed and efficiency once you have a documentation system to capture and iterate all the steps listed above, in a format you and the AI tools you use can easily read and edit. You will be speaking the language of AI. # AI-managed batch edits to multiple plan files are a huge time-saver For example, if you are mapping out a complex process or app, you might end up with one master plan index file linked to 10 subfiles with subparts of the app. Because AI can both read and write to the files, you could say to it, "Find all the references to this feature and update them to this new specification," and the AI can do it all for you across eleven files, versus you having to go and find and edit them all. It's a huge efficiency improvement. # What to use Obsidian for I would recommend that you download and start using [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/) to: - Make notes about planned apps or problems you want to solve - Plan and organize prompts - Plan software builds - Make documentation - Organize and maintain the files that tell Claude or ChatGPT how you want to work (like CLAUDE.md or AGENT.md files and sub-folders and Skills). # About Obsidian **Platforms:** You can get it on [most major platforms](https://obsidian.md/download) , including Mac/PC and iPhone/Android. **Sync:** You don't have to pay for the [sync feature](https://obsidian.md/sync) if you don't want to, although it's only $48 US annually. You can sync through iCloud or possibly like Dropbox. **Web clipper:** it has a [web clipper for various browsers](https://obsidian.md/download). So, download Obsidian for your laptop and mobile. Start writing your prompts there and creating planning notes for what you want to build there. Point your Claude CoWork and Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex to those folders. # Where to put your Obsidian folder I use Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. My main document storage is in Dropbox. What I love about it is that it's always backed up, and that I never worry about losing important files. The challenge with putting your Obsidian folder in Dropbox is that you want the AIs to be able to write to it, and ideally in auto mode, which is dangerous because you're then giving the AI access to potentially your entire Dropbox folder structure, and if something went wrong, it might lead to catastrophic data loss in your main document and file system. One way to protect your Cloud storage files and limit the potential for data loss is to create the folder for your Obsidian notes **outside of any of your cloud storage**. That's what I've done. My Obsidian folder sits in my root user folder on my Mac. So it sits at the same level as Dropbox and Drive, not inside them. Any potential data erasure or overwriting by AI auto mode is limited to just that folder. # Create a daily backup for this folder The downside of this "notes folder outside of Cloud storage" approach is that this folder is no longer backed up unless you have an external hard drive plugged into your laptop and a backup tool like Time Machine running. If you have an external drive backup system, then make sure your Obsidian notes folder is included in the backup. I asked Claude Code to help me create a simple app that runs every few hours or daily and copies, with a one-way copy, the contents of your Obsidian notes folder to your cloud storage, so it's always backed up at least once a day. I work on a Mac, so I had Claude Code create me an rsync app that runs daily. It seems to be working well. [[Mac Dropbox rsync backup — prompt | Here is the sync app prompt]] you can copy and use to build that app and avoid my learning curve.