Migrate from Obsidian to Claspt —
Keep Your Notes, Add Encryption

Obsidian is a great tool for notes. Thousands of developers use it every day to manage knowledge bases, project documentation, and daily journals. But there is one thing Obsidian was never designed to handle: secrets. If you store API keys, database passwords, SSH credentials, or access tokens alongside your notes, they sit as plain text in .md files on your disk. Anyone with file access can read them. Claspt keeps the same markdown format you already know but adds per-block AES-256 encryption for anything sensitive. This guide walks you through moving your entire Obsidian vault into Claspt — step by step, with nothing lost in translation.

Why Migrate from Obsidian?

Obsidian treats every note as a plain text markdown file. That is its greatest strength for general knowledge management. But it becomes a liability when your vault contains credentials.

Open any Obsidian vault folder in Finder or Explorer and search for strings like password, api_key, or token. If you are a developer, you will probably find dozens of matches — AWS access keys in project notes, database connection strings in runbooks, service account passwords in onboarding docs. All sitting in plain .md files, unencrypted, synced to whatever cloud service backs your vault.

Obsidian does not offer built-in encryption. Community plugins exist, but they encrypt entire files — making them unreadable outside Obsidian and breaking search. You lose the plain-text portability that made Obsidian attractive in the first place.

Claspt takes a different approach. Your notes stay as readable markdown. Only the sensitive blocks — the API key, the password, the connection string — are encrypted with AES-256. The rest of the page remains searchable, editable, and portable. You keep the markdown workflow. You add real encryption where it matters.

What Transfers from Obsidian

Claspt's markdown importer understands Obsidian vaults natively. Here is what comes across intact:

• All markdown files. Every .md file in your vault is imported as a Claspt page. The content — headings, paragraphs, lists, blockquotes, horizontal rules — transfers exactly as written.
• Folder structure. Your Obsidian folder hierarchy becomes Claspt's folder hierarchy. If you organized notes into Projects/, Work/, and Personal/, that structure is preserved.
• YAML frontmatter. Claspt reads frontmatter blocks and extracts the title field as the page title. Other frontmatter fields are preserved in the page content.
• Code blocks. Fenced code blocks with language identifiers transfer with full syntax highlighting support. Your shell commands, config snippets, and code samples look the same.
• Links. Internal links and external URLs are preserved. Obsidian's [[wikilink]] syntax is converted to standard markdown links during import.
• Images. Image references in your markdown are preserved as-is. If your images are stored in the vault folder, they remain accessible at their relative paths.
• Tables, checklists, and formatting. Standard markdown tables, task lists (- [ ]), bold, italic, strikethrough, and all common formatting transfers without changes.

What Gets Added

After import, your notes look and feel the same. But now you have capabilities that Obsidian cannot offer:

• Encryption for credentials. Right-click any text block containing sensitive data and select Convert to Secret. That block is encrypted with AES-256 on disk. The rest of the page stays as readable markdown.
• Secret blocks. Embed structured credentials directly in your notes — username, password, URL, TOTP secret, and custom fields — all encrypted, all living alongside the documentation that gives them context.
• Biometric unlock. Unlock your vault with Touch ID or Face ID instead of typing a master password every time. The encryption key is stored in your system's secure enclave.
• Full-text encrypted search. Search across your entire vault, including the contents of encrypted secret blocks, without decrypting files to disk. Results appear instantly with Cmd+K.
• Password generator. Generate strong passwords in six modes (random, memorable, PIN, passphrase, hex, custom) directly from any secret block. No need for a separate tool.

Step-by-Step Migration

The entire process takes under five minutes for most vaults. Here is exactly what to do.

Step 1: Download Claspt and Create a Vault

Download Claspt from the download page. It is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The app is under 5 MB — it installs in seconds.

On first launch, create a new vault. Choose a location on your file system and set a master password. This password encrypts your vault's encryption key — pick something strong. You can enable biometric unlock later in settings.

Step 2: Open the Import Tool

Go to Settings → Import / Export → Import Markdown Folder. This is the option designed specifically for Obsidian vaults and any folder of markdown files.

Step 3: Select Your Obsidian Vault Folder

Click Choose Folder and navigate to your Obsidian vault directory. This is the root folder that contains your .obsidian/ configuration directory and all your markdown files. Claspt ignores Obsidian's configuration files and only imports .md files.

Step 4: Review the Import Preview

Before anything is imported, Claspt shows a full preview. You will see:

• The total number of pages to be imported.
• The folder structure that will be created.
• Page titles extracted from frontmatter or filenames.
• Any files that could not be parsed (rare, but possible with non-standard markdown).

Review this list. If your vault has hundreds of files, you can scroll through to verify that the structure looks correct. Nothing is written to your Claspt vault until you confirm.

Step 5: Import

Click Import. Claspt copies every markdown file into your vault, recreating the folder structure. A vault with 500 notes imports in about 10 seconds. Your original Obsidian vault is not modified — Claspt copies files, it does not move them.

Step 6: Encrypt Your Credentials

This is the step that makes the migration worthwhile. Go through your imported notes and find the ones containing sensitive data — API keys, passwords, connection strings, tokens, private keys.

For each credential you find:

• Select the text containing the sensitive data.
• Right-click and choose Convert to Secret.
• Claspt wraps the selected content in an encrypted secret block. The credential is now AES-256 encrypted on disk. The rest of the note stays as plain markdown.

For structured credentials (username + password + URL), use Insert → Secret Block to create a proper credential entry with labeled fields. You can choose from templates like Website Login, API Key, Database, SSH Key, and more.

You do not need to encrypt everything at once. Start with the most sensitive credentials — production database passwords, cloud provider keys, payment processor tokens — and work through the rest over time.

What About Obsidian Plugins?

Obsidian's plugin ecosystem is one of its biggest draws. The good news is that Claspt has 15 built-in markdown extensions that cover the most commonly used plugin functionality — without needing a plugin marketplace, without version compatibility issues, and without the security risk of third-party code running in your vault.

• Mermaid diagrams. Flowcharts, sequence diagrams, Gantt charts, and more. Same ```mermaid syntax you already know.
• KaTeX math. Inline and block math equations with full LaTeX syntax support.
• Charts. Bar, line, pie, and radar charts from simple data blocks.
• Kanban boards. Task management boards rendered directly in your notes.
• Spreadsheets. Editable spreadsheet grids embedded in markdown pages.
• Graphviz diagrams. DOT language graph rendering for architecture and relationship diagrams.
• Code execution. Run JavaScript, Python, and shell snippets directly in your notes and see output inline.
• Checklists, callouts, tables, and footnotes. All the standard extended markdown features, built in.

If you relied on an Obsidian plugin for Mermaid, KaTeX, Kanban, or Dataview-style tables, the functionality is already in Claspt. No installation needed. No plugin updates to manage.

Import from Other Sources Too

If your credentials are scattered across multiple tools, Claspt can consolidate them. In addition to markdown folder import, Claspt supports CSV import from:

• 1Password — export as CSV, import into Claspt with automatic credential mapping.
• LastPass — CSV export from the LastPass web vault.
• KeePass / KeePassXC — CSV export from your KeePass database.
• Bitwarden — JSON or CSV export from your Bitwarden vault.
• Chrome — export saved passwords from chrome://password-manager/settings.
• Firefox — export saved logins from the Firefox password manager.

After importing from both Obsidian and a password manager, you end up with one vault that holds both your documentation and your credentials. Notes and secrets in one place, with encryption where it counts.

After Migration

Once your vault is imported and your credentials are encrypted, a few things to do:

• Enable biometric unlock in Settings → Security. Touch ID or Face ID lets you open your vault without typing your master password each time.
• Set up Google Drive sync if you want your vault accessible across machines. Claspt encrypts secret blocks before sync — your cloud provider never sees plaintext credentials.
• Keep your Obsidian vault for a few weeks as a backup. Once you are confident everything transferred correctly, you can archive or delete it.
• Use Cmd+K search to find anything in your vault instantly. Search works across page titles, content, tags, and even the contents of encrypted secret blocks.

Your workflow stays the same. You still write in markdown. You still organize with folders. You still search with keyboard shortcuts. The only difference is that your credentials are now encrypted, and your notes and secrets live in one place instead of two.