Ignis server - a different way to get Obsidian

I really like Obsidian with its local Markdown notes. However, one thing that was always missing for me was the ability to easily access my notes from the browser.

My notes are synced between devices via OneDrive and they also live on my NAS. I could access them there, but then I'd open pure Markdown files without the ability to follow links or view embedded images. Since I'm not using Obsidian Sync and my notes are not in Apple iCloud, I also couldn't easily access them on my iPad.

Over the years I've tried different solutions to solve this problem. I've tried VS Code with remote access (I discovered vscode.dev) and plugins that imitate Obsidian. Lately I almost thought I got it with running Obsidian inside a Docker container, but the issue there was performance. I couldn't write comfortably because the latency was too high.

Fortunately, while browsing a thread about a similar topic on Reddit, I found that someone mentioned Ignis. It's an attempt to recreate what's powering Obsidian underneath (Electron) inside the browser. I don't understand the details, but I think it's quite clever. Configuration is not that difficult because it also runs inside Docker. It's different from previous options because it's not using remote desktop but a more native approach.

It took me 2 afternoons to configure it to run on a small MiniPC in my network, mostly because I screwed up the path to notes on my NAS on the first attempt. But it's now running and I have to say, it looks good. Works almost like standalone Obsidian but inside the browser.

There are some things that can still be problematic, like some plugins, but fortunately I don't use that many and what's offered is enough for me now. I still need to configure it a bit more to have access from outside my network, but I'm not moving around that often right now and I still have access to my vault on my phone.

Overall I happy with a current solution and highly recommend giving Ignis a try if you're looking for a solution like this.