Remote Frog

Tired of switching vaults in Obsidian?

Here’s a simple setup that lets you work from a single vault with two areas: one private and one shared with your team. The trick is combining symlinks with Google Drive so the shared folder appears inside your personal vault.

This way, you keep your own notes, templates, and messy genius exactly where they belong, while still collaborating with others in the same workspace.

What this setup gives you

• One single Obsidian vault
• A private area just for you
• A shared area synced with your team through Google Drive
• No need to keep changing vaults every time you switch context

What you need

• Obsidian installed
• Google Drive synced on your computer
• A folder in Google Drive that will act as the shared team space
• The ability to create a symbolic link in your operating system

Basic idea

Your main Obsidian vault stays local on your machine. Inside that vault, one of the folders is actually a symlink pointing to a folder stored in Google Drive. That folder is the one your team shares and syncs. Obsidian sees everything as part of the same vault. You see one clean workspace. Google Drive handles syncing the shared part. Everybody wins, and nobody has to open three vaults before coffee.

How to do it

1. Create your main local vault.
Start with the Obsidian vault you use every day, or create a new one if you prefer a clean setup for this workflow. This will be your personal workspace, where your private notes, templates, and everything else live.

2. Create the shared folder in Google Drive.
In Google Drive, create a shared folder for your team. This is the folder everyone will access and sync. Keep the name simple and obvious, because future-you deserves nice things too.

Install Google Drive for MAC/Windows and keep that folder synced

Go to your local Obsidian vault and choose the exact place where you want that team folder to show up. For example, you might want it inside a folder called Team, Shared, or Projects. The point is that it should feel natural inside your own structure.

3. Create the symlink.
Now create a symbolic link in that location, pointing to the shared Google Drive folder. This is the magic part: the folder lives in Drive, but appears inside your local vault as if it had always belonged there. Obsidian does not care about the drama. It just sees a folder.

In IOS:

Google Drive local: /Users/raulantoncuadrado/Library/CloudStorage/GoogleDrive-TUEMAIL@DOMINIO/Unidades compartidas/NOMBRE_UNIDAD/PROYECTOS/OBSIDIAN VAULT/COROLARIO

5. Open Obsidian and check everything.
Open your vault in Obsidian and confirm that the shared folder appears where you expected. Try creating a test note inside it. If everything is working, it should behave like any other folder in the vault. But… check that it is synced into your Google Drive folder too.

6. Share the folder with your team.
Once the structure is working on your side, share the Google Drive folder with the people who need access. They can reproduce the same setup on their own computers, so the shared folder also appears inside their local Obsidian vault.

Important note

Everyone on the team should use the same folder structure and be a bit disciplined with plugins, templates, and automation. If each person goes fully feral with their own setup, collaboration gets weird fast.

Why I like this approach

It keeps the personal and collaborative sides of knowledge work separate without mixing them. You can write private notes, draft ideas, and keep your own system, while still contributing to shared documentation and team thinking in the exact same vault.

For me, that removes friction. And friction is the villain at this moment.