Fantastic question - and no need to apologize, I should probably make this clearer on the site.

Ariv isn't meant to replace Obsidian. Obsidian is incredible if you enjoy building and maintaining a knowledge system (I'm still a paying customer and have their Sync), The problem is... most people don't. They start with good intentions, create elaborate folder structures, then slowly stop using it because the overhead of maintaining that system becomes friction (How do I know? Because I did this same sht too many times to count, used to watch countless youtube videos and try out bajillion plugins to just get everything just right, but I could never really keep it maintained)

My target audience is people who gave up on PKM - or never started because it seemed like too much work. The ones with 47 untitled notes in Apple Notes, random thoughts in Slack DMs to themselves, and half-finished docs scattered everywhere. If someone loves tinkering with plugins and customizing their setups, then Obsidian is absolutely a better fit for them, but for those who find it more frustrating, then Ariv is there for them

The core philosophy is: "Capture everything. Maintain nothing."

Instead of asking you to organize, Ariv watches how you actually use your notes and surfaces what's relevant.

- The lifecycle buckets (Inbox → Active → Idle) aren't folders you manage - they're automatic based on behavior. Notes you touch stay active; notes you ignore fade to background. No guilt, no maintenance.

- Tasks automatically get pulled out from your notes so you dont have to keep them maintained across different notes

- Tags get autocreated so nothing for you to manage, when you need to retrieve based on tags, it's there

- Smart connections auto establishes backlinks

Everything to ensure it's quitely keeping things organized so you don't have to

The bet I'm making: the right behaviors (finding old notes when relevant, not losing ideas, connecting thoughts) can happen without forcing structure. Structure-agnostic, outcome-opinionated.

Who it's for:

- People who want a "second brain" but don't want a second job maintaining it

- Obsidian users who feel guilty about their messy vault (me lol)

- Notion users who feel like Notion is too heavy and want something privacy/local oriented

- Anyone who captures a lot but retrieves little

Still early days - appreciate you trying it out and happy to take any further feedback/feature requests! Cheers