📓 Obsidian Weekly Brief

Period: Mar 16 – Mar 23, 2026

Official News: The “Bases” Polish & Mobile Stability

Following the major v1.12.x series, the Obsidian team released v1.12.7 this week, focusing on refining the internal data engine. (Source: Obsidian Changelog)

• Bases Advanced Sorting: You can now create “Multi-level Sorts” within Bases. For example, you can sort a project table by “Priority” first, then by “Due Date.” This was a top-requested feature for those using Obsidian as a task manager.
• Encrypted Sync Enhancements: Updates to the Obsidian Sync backend have improved the speed of syncing large “Bases” files across devices, specifically addressing a “collision” bug where simultaneous edits on mobile and desktop could create duplicate rows.
• Mobile Hotkeys: The iPad version received new customizable toolbar options, allowing users to pin specific “CLI commands” as buttons for one-tap automation on the go.

Trending Community Topics

• The “Dataview to Bases” Migration: The most discussed topic on r/ObsidianMD and the Obsidian Forum is the transition from the community plugin Dataview to the native Bases. Users are sharing CSS snippets to make the native Bases look as “minimalist” as their old Dataview tables.
• CLI Productivity Hacks: On YouTube, “Day in the Life” videos from software engineers are showcasing how they use the Obsidian CLI to auto-log their git commits directly into their Daily Notes. This “silent logging” trend is gaining traction as a way to build a work journal without manual effort.
• Privacy & Local LLMs: Discussion continues around the Model Context Protocol (MCP). More users are setting up local servers (using tools like Ollama) to allow AI to query their vault via the CLI, reinforcing the “Private AI” advantage of Obsidian over cloud-based alternatives.

Plugin & Workflow Highlights

• Datacore Alpha: As the successor to Dataview, Datacore developers released an update this week that allows for “Inline Editing” within its views, further blurring the line between notes and databases. (Source: Datacore GitHub)
• Longform Plugin Updates: The Longform plugin, popular with novelists, saw a significant update to support the new “Properties” UI, making it easier for writers to track character arcs and world-building metadata across thousands of files.
• Web Clipper Recipes: A community-shared “Obsidian Clipper Recipe” went viral this week for its ability to strip all ads and trackers from academic papers and save a clean, Markdown-formatted version directly into a “Research” Base.

Source Summary

• Obsidian Official Changelog (v1.12.7): Official release notes.
• YouTube: “Is Dataview Dead?”: A deep dive into the native Bases vs. Community Plugins.
• r/ObsidianMD: CLI for Non-Coders: A popular thread providing “copy-paste” automation scripts.
• Obsidian Forum: Bases Calculated Fields Feedback: Ongoing dev-community dialogue on upcoming math features.