Notes should turn into a life, not a storage locker.
I was good at saving things and bad at using them, and I suspect you are too. Sylvics is my answer: one place where what you save becomes what you know and what you do, in files you own.
Sylvics, in facts.
| What it is | A finished life and knowledge system for Obsidian: a ready-made vault plus the sylvics-core plugin |
| Made by | Verdant Cybernetics, an independent studio founded by Matthieu |
| Runs on | The Obsidian desktop app on macOS, Windows and Linux. Desktop only. |
| Your data | Plain Markdown files in a folder on your computer. No account, no Sylvics server. |
| Structure | Ten numbered folders, eight life areas, a four-part daily note, weekly to yearly reviews |
| Methods | An extended version of PARA for where notes live, and an adaptation of the Zettelkasten method for how ideas mature |
| The graph | The Canopy: a 3D graph with twelve views |
| AI | Sage, optional and off by default: a local model through Ollama, or your own API key |
| Status | Closed beta from November 2026. Prices not yet set; a free version and a one-time licence are planned. |
| Affiliation | Independent. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Obsidian. |
Five things I would not give up.
Fragmentation is the real problem
Not a lack of productivity. A life scattered across a dozen apps makes you the only thing connecting them.
Storage is not learning
A note that is never processed is a debt. Every note in Sylvics has a path from where it lands to where it is used.
You should own your files
Plain text on your own disk outlives every company that might host it, including mine.
A system should feel alive
It should show you what is growing and what is going quiet, without asking you to maintain it by hand.
Intelligence should be quiet
Assistance only when you ask, from your own notes, with its sources shown. Sage proposes; it never decides.
Learn, do, review.
Three modes, and what a vault becomes when one is missing. More ideas, with things to try.
Knowledge informs action. Action produces results that reflection examines. Reflection adjusts both.
Why Sylvics.
From the Latin sylva, forest, and -ics, a discipline: the system of the forest. Silvics is also the forestry science of how trees grow and live together.
The project began as Life Vault. Then it became clear that nothing living belongs in a vault.
Pronounced SIL-viks.
One person, and a small studio name.
No photo, at least for now. The work is the face.
Hi! I'm Matthieu, a law student in France. I built Sylvics for my own studies and my own life, and only later decided to make it usable by others. Verdant Cybernetics is the name I publish it under: a studio of one.
I prefer exact claims to big ones. When something is in beta, partial or planned, I say so on the page, next to the claim.
You won't see my face, but you can watch the work. The live vault is a real Sylvics vault, published straight from Obsidian, and it will grow in public alongside my social media series. The closed beta is run personally: I read every application, and every tester gets a direct line to me.
Write to me: sylvicsapp@gmail.com
Matthieu
Founder · Verdant Cybernetics