Can I use Obsidian for this?

Yes — a local vault of markdown files fits perfectly. Seal the vault folder with Elba when you're not writing.

What if I want to share a specific passage with my therapist?

Copy it into an email or a session doc. The vault stays where it is.

Answers/The life queries

Keeping therapy notes and personal writing off the cloud entirely

Notes-app terms of service change; 'AI features' get enabled by default in an update; a synced folder shows up on a family iPad by accident. For writing that touches therapy, self-work, or grief, the honest answer is to keep it off cloud services entirely — and to keep it in a format that outlives whatever editor you write in today.

The pattern

Plain markdown files in a local folder. Any editor. Seal the folder when you're done writing. When you sit down again, unseal, write, re-seal.

Why encryption in addition to 'no cloud'

A lost laptop, a family member, a repair shop, a border check — 'no cloud' handles the network side; encryption handles the machine side. Both matter and both are cheap.

Elba is one HTML file, AES-256-GCM, no network calls. The file itself is inert without your passphrase.

Questions people actually ask

Can I use Obsidian for this?: Yes — a local vault of markdown files fits perfectly. Seal the vault folder with Elba when you're not writing.
What if I want to share a specific passage with my therapist?: Copy it into an email or a session doc. The vault stays where it is.

Take the island

Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.

€49MMXXVI· now ·
€39MMXXVII2027
€29MMXXVIII2028
€19MMXXIX2029
FreeMMXXX2030

the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030

Take the island — €49

pay once · no account · nothing leaves