Obsidian 1.9.0 (Desktop) is now available in early access and comes with some hefty updates. If you have not heard of it, Obsidian is a powerful tool for building a "second brain" right on your machine. Its whole deal is "file over app" – your notes are just plain Markdown files, stored locally. That means you own your data forever. No cloud lock-in; grab any text editor, and your note is still there, even if Obsidian disappears tomorrow. The headline feature in the 1.9.0 update is a new core plugin called Bases. This tool lets you turn collections of notes into structured databases, which can be especially useful for organizing projects, managing research, planning travel, or tracking your reading list. With Bases, you can create custom table views, filter notes by specific properties, and define formulas to generate dynamic values. To support this functionality, Obsidian introduces a new .base file format and syntax. However, all your data remains stored in local Markdown files and YAML frontmatter, so nothing about your current setup changes in that regard. The Obsidian team notes that Bases is still in early beta, so you can expect more improvements and features over time. Also included in this release is a new Footnotes view core plugin. This feature adds a dedicated sidebar tab for managing all footnotes within a document, which helps you stay focused without constantly scrolling through long texts. It is particularly useful for academic writing or any work that involves detailed citations. One important note: this update includes some breaking changes. Obsidian has removed support for the singular forms of certain properties: tag, alias, and cssclass. You now need to use the plural forms tags, aliases, and cssclasses, and the values must be formatted as lists. If you have been using single text values, you will need to update your files to maintain compatibility. A bunch of smaller tweaks landed, too. For example, fuzzy search for file suggestions is now a thing, making it easier to find what you are looking for, and dark mode text selection contrast got a boost. Other notable improvements include better whitespace handling in Sync history, and the "Export PDF" button now receives initial keyboard focus. Additionally, the "Move file to..." option now remains available even if the Files plugin is turned off. The "Save file" command will only appear in the Command Palette when a file is actually active, reducing clutter. And for those using the Unique Note Prefix plugin, there's a new "Add unique internal link" command that lets you quickly link selected text with a unique reference. Lots of old annoyances got squashed. The command palette search results make more sense now, which was needed, and Canvas cards finally play nice with callouts, which is a relief for those who use that feature heavily. Other important fixes include consistent list numbering in callouts and the PDF view no longer stealing focus when opened in the background. Markdown tables that include partially complete HTML now render correctly, and autocompleting code blocks properly handle indentation as well as cursor placement inside list items. Developers get some goodies too. For instance, ButtonComponent now automatically shows a loading spinner if the onClick event is asynchronous, and you can now bypass the Web viewer to specify that a URL is opened in the user's default browser. Since version 1.9.0 is still in Early Access, you'll need a Catalyst license to use it. If you're not looking to test the latest release and just want to explore Obsidian, you can download the most recent stable version instead: Windows | macOS | Linux (AppImage | Snap | DEB). Obsidian is also available on mobile: Android | iOS. You can check out the full version 1.9.0 changelog here.