Caldera

Product Introduction

1. Definition: Caldera is an open-source Obsidian plugin and self-hostable web service that functions as a social knowledge management layer. It transforms a local Obsidian vault into a dynamic, auto-updating public profile and a network of interconnected digital gardens.
2. Core Value Proposition: It exists to solve the problem of static, isolated digital gardens by creating a living, connected, and privacy-first public presence directly from private notes. Its primary value is enabling users to grow a digital garden in public while maintaining strict private-by-default control, and to form a social graph between Obsidian vaults for sharing notes and collaboration.

Main Features

1. Living Profile & Automated Journaling: Caldera scans your local Obsidian vault to generate a public profile page that updates automatically. It integrates with a daily journaling system where the AI-assisted prompt helps create structured daily notes (caldera_headline, caldera_focus, caldera_wins, caldera_themes). The system aggregates activity data (meetings, emails, commits, AI tokens) from local logs and calendars to populate an activity score and streak tracking, turning a private vault into a quantified, living resume.
2. Connected Digital Gardens: Users can "plant" notes by moving them into a designated Garden folder. Each note becomes a public webpage with a maturity stage (seedling, budding, evergreen) and a user-selectable license. The system automatically creates bi-directional backlinks; linking to a note in a friend's garden creates a visible backlink on their public page, creating a decentralized web of connected thought.
3. Vault-to-Vault Social Protocol: Friendship is established via cryptographic handles. Users can share notes as end-to-end encrypted cards that appear as native notes in a friend's vault and sync upon edits. The system includes a "gravity" metric (non-transferable help credits) for rewarding assistance, and features for posting public "asks" and "offers," facilitating collaboration without leaving the knowledge management environment.

Problems Solved

1. Pain Point: The friction and manual effort required to maintain a current public profile or digital garden. Traditional static site generators require manual builds and lack real-time connections between publishers.
2. Target Audience: Obsidian power users, knowledge workers, researchers, writers, and developers who value networked thought and want a low-friction, privacy-centric way to publish and connect their work. It's also suited for teams using Obsidian for project management who want internal or external-facing status pages.
3. Use Cases: A researcher publishing evolving notes on a topic and connecting with peers' work; a developer maintaining a public engineering journal that automatically reflects commit activity; a writer growing public essays from private drafts and easily sharing early versions with trusted colleagues for feedback.

Unique Advantages

1. Strengths & Limitations (Pros & Cons):
   • Pros: Unmatched privacy model where data processing happens locally; only rendered HTML is published. Deep, native integration with Obsidian workflows. Innovative social protocol built on cryptographic identity, not centralized accounts. Free and open-source (MIT licensed). Supports self-hosting for full control.
   • Cons: Requires technical comfort for initial setup, especially the AI agent prompt. Currently tethered to Obsidian, excluding users of other note-taking apps. The social network effect is limited to other Caldera adopters. Advanced features (GitHub city, activity aggregation) require configuring external data sources.
2. Key Alternatives & Differentiation:
   • Obsidian Publish: A paid, official service for publishing Obsidian vaults. Differentiation: Caldera is free, enables social connections between vaults, offers automated journaling/activity tracking, and can be self-hosted. Obsidian Publish is a simpler, managed publishing solution without social features.
   • Traditional SSGs (Hugo, Jekyll) with Digital Garden Themes: A common approach for creating static digital gardens. Differentiation: Caldera automates publishing directly from the live vault, provides real-time backlinking across gardens, and integrates social features. SSGs require manual export/build cycles and lack native inter-garden linking.
   • Are.na / Notion Public Pages: Visual or document-based platforms for sharing ideas. Differentiation: Caldera's content resides in a user-owned, plain-text Markdown vault with no vendor lock-in. It offers deeper semantic connections (backlinks, graph) and a focus on gradual, gardener-like content development.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Is Caldera safe for private notes? Yes, Caldera operates on a strict private-by-default principle. Notes are only published if explicitly placed in the Garden folder or tagged caldera: public. The plugin runs locally, scrubs private data (emails, comments), and only uploads the final rendered HTML. Your private key never leaves your device.
2. How does the "social layer" between vaults work? Users add friends by their Caldera handle, which represents a public key. Shared notes are encrypted end-to-end using these keys, so the hub only stores ciphertext. Backlinks between public garden notes are discovered and displayed by the hub, creating a visible web of connections without compromising vault privacy.
3. Do I need to use the AI agent prompt to use Caldera? No, the AI agent prompt is an optional automation tool for setting up the journal and activity tracking. The core plugin can be installed manually and used without any AI integration. The prompt is provided to reduce setup complexity for users comfortable with AI assistants.
4. Can I self-host Caldera completely? Yes, the entire stack is open-source. You can self-host the central hub (which facilitates discovery and connection between gardens) and your own profile page, severing reliance on caldera.social. This is ideal for organizations or individuals requiring full data sovereignty.
5. What happens if I stop using Caldera? Your data remains in your Obsidian vault as standard Markdown files. The public pages hosted by the hub would become static. You retain ownership of all your content, and the social connections are based on open protocols, minimizing lock-in.