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Obsidian SCIM guide

Connector Only

How to automate Obsidian user provisioning, and what it actually costs

Native SCIM not available

Summary and recommendation

Obsidian does not support enterprise SSO or SCIM provisioning on any plan. As a local-first note-taking application, Obsidian is designed for individual use with files stored locally as plain-text Markdown. While Obsidian offers optional cloud sync for $8-10 per user per month, this requires individual subscriptions and provides no centralized management capabilities. There's no way to provision users, manage access, or integrate with enterprise identity providers like Okta or Entra ID.

This architecture creates significant challenges for IT teams trying to manage Obsidian usage at scale. Without centralized provisioning, you can't automate onboarding/offboarding, enforce compliance policies, or maintain visibility into who has access to what data. Each user must manage their own subscription and account, making it impossible to ensure consistent security posture or handle employee lifecycle events systematically. For organizations needing knowledge management with proper governance, Obsidian's individual-focused model creates unmanageable gaps.

The strategic alternative

Obsidian has no native SCIM. Automate offboarding, user access reviews, and license workflows across every app, including the ones without APIs. We maintain the integration layer underneath. You focus on judgment, not plumbing.

Quick SCIM facts

SCIM available?No
SCIM tier requiredN/A
SSO required first?No
SSO available?Yes
SSO protocolN/A
DocumentationNot available

Supported identity providers

IdPSSOSCIMNotes
OktaVia third-partyNo Okta integration. Obsidian is a local-first app without enterprise SSO capabilities.
Microsoft Entra IDVia third-partyNo Microsoft Entra ID integration. Obsidian is designed for individual use with local file storage, not enterprise identity management.
Google WorkspaceVia third-partyNo native support
OneLoginVia third-partyNo native support

The cost of not automating

Without SCIM (or an alternative like Stitchflow), your IT team manages Obsidian accounts manually. Here's what that costs:

Source: Stitchflow aggregate data across apps with 2+ instances, normalized to 500 employees
Orphaned accounts (ex-employees with access)7
Unused licenses12
IT hours spent on manual management/year101 hours
Unused license cost/year$3,925
IT labor cost/year$6,088
Cost of compliance misses/year$1,741
Total annual financial impact$11,754

The Obsidian pricing problem

Obsidian gates SCIM provisioning behind premium plans, forcing significant cost increases for basic user management.

Tier comparison

PlanPriceSSOSCIM
Core AppFree
Sync (per user)$8/month (annual)
Publish (per site)$16/month (annual)

Pricing structure

PlanPriceSCIM
Core AppFree
Sync (per user)$8/month (annual)
Publish (per site)$16/month (annual)

Note: The core Obsidian app is completely free and works offline. Sync and Publish are separate per-user/per-site subscriptions for cloud features.

What this means in practice

IT admins face a completely decentralized model:

No user provisioning
Each employee downloads and manages their own app
No access control
Users control their own local files and sync subscriptions
No visibility
IT has zero insight into who's using Obsidian or how
Individual billing
Each user who wants sync pays their own $8/month subscription

For a 50-person team wanting cloud sync, you're looking at 50 separate $8/month subscriptions ($4,800/year) with zero administrative oversight.

Additional constraints

Local file storage
Notes are stored as Markdown files on individual devices
No real-time collaboration
Multiple users can't edit the same note simultaneously
Sync conflicts
Manual resolution required when the same file is edited on multiple devices
No audit trail
No logging of who accessed or modified what information
Shadow IT risk
Users can freely install and use without IT knowledge or approval

Summary of challenges

  • Obsidian does not provide native SCIM at any price tier
  • Organizations must rely on third-party tools or manual provisioning
  • Our research shows teams manually provisioning this app spend significant hidden costs annually

What Obsidian actually offers for identity

No Enterprise Identity Management

Obsidian is fundamentally designed as a local-first, individual productivity tool. There are no enterprise identity features:

FeatureSupported?
SAML SSO❌ No
OIDC SSO❌ No
SCIM provisioning❌ No
User management❌ No
Group management❌ No
Centralized admin console❌ No

How Obsidian Actually Works

Core app: Completely free, runs locally, stores notes as Markdown files on your device. No account required.

Optional cloud services:

Sync ($8-10/user/month)
End-to-end encrypted sync between devices
Publish ($16-20/site/month)
Web publishing for specific vaults

Each user must individually subscribe to Sync if they want cross-device access. There's no way to centrally provision, manage, or pay for a team.

The Reality for IT Teams

Obsidian isn't an enterprise application—it's personal knowledge management software that happens to be used by knowledge workers. You cannot:

Provision users through your IdP
Enforce SSO authentication
Centrally manage subscriptions
Monitor usage or compliance
Control data retention policies

This is by design. Obsidian prioritizes individual privacy and local data control over enterprise manageability.

What IT admins are saying

Obsidian's local-first architecture creates unique challenges for IT teams trying to manage enterprise deployments:

  • No centralized user management or enterprise SSO capabilities
  • Each team member requires individual Sync subscriptions ($8-10/month per user)
  • No visibility into who's using the app or how data is being shared
  • Local file storage makes data governance and backup policies difficult to enforce

Obsidian is great for individual use, but it's not built for enterprise management. We can't centrally provision users or enforce security policies.

IT Director, Reddit r/sysadmin

The lack of SSO integration means we can't include Obsidian in our identity management workflows. It's essentially shadow IT even when we approve it.

System Administrator, Spiceworks Community

The recurring theme

Obsidian's design philosophy prioritizes individual control over enterprise manageability. IT teams must treat it as personal productivity software rather than a managed business application.

The decision

Your SituationRecommendation
Individual researchers or knowledge workersUse Obsidian directly - it's designed for personal use
Small team sharing notes occasionallyManual file sharing or consider team-focused alternatives
IT team needing centralized user managementSkip Obsidian - no enterprise identity capabilities
Organization requiring SSO/SCIM complianceUse Stitchflow with enterprise note-taking alternatives
Teams needing real-time collaborationConsider Notion, Confluence, or other collaborative platforms

The bottom line

Obsidian is a powerful local-first note-taking tool, but it's fundamentally designed for individual use without any enterprise identity management. For organizations that need centralized provisioning and SSO capabilities, Stitchflow can automate user management for enterprise-ready knowledge management platforms that actually support team collaboration.

Make Obsidian workflows AI-native

Obsidian has no native SCIM. We build complete offboarding, user access reviews, and license workflows across every app, including the ones without APIs.

Covers apps without native SCIM, including the ones without APIs
Less than a week, start to finish (~2 hours of your time)
Built with your team; extend to anything else in the company
Book a Demo

Technical specifications

SCIM Version

Not specified

Supported Operations

Not specified

Supported Attributes

No enterprise SSO/SAMLNo SCIM provisioningSync is per-user subscriptionLocal-first architectureNo real-time collaborationIndividual subscriptions required for Sync

Plan requirement

Not specified

Prerequisites

Not specified

Key limitations

  • No enterprise SSO/SAML
  • No SCIM provisioning
  • Sync is per-user subscription
  • Local-first architecture
  • No real-time collaboration
  • Individual subscriptions required for Sync

Documentation not available.

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Obsidian

Obsidian has no native SCIM. We still automate end-to-end workflows across every app, including the ones without APIs.

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Last updated: 2026-01-11

* Pricing and features sourced from public documentation.

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