ESC

Frontend Strategy

This page captures the hosting options for the wiki.

Current recommendation

Use the included Flask app as the first hosted frontend.

Why:

  • it matches the repo immediately,
  • it can run on Railway without adding a build pipeline beyond Python dependencies,
  • it is easy to extend with auth, richer search, or ingest actions later,
  • it keeps markdown as the source of truth.

Option comparison

Flask viewer

Best when:

  • the wiki will stay private or semi-private,
  • custom workflows may be added later,
  • Railway deployment simplicity matters,
  • the markdown repo should remain the product surface.

Quartz

Best when:

  • the primary goal is a polished digital garden,
  • Obsidian-style links, backlinks, graph view, and static hosting matter more than server-side custom logic,
  • the site can be built as static output and deployed as a static service.

Quartz is probably the strongest Obsidian-native publishing frontend if the long-term goal is public read-only browsing.

Flowershow

Best when:

  • a richer docs/blog presentation is useful,
  • Next.js-based site generation is acceptable,
  • Obsidian-compatible publishing features are desired without building them from scratch.

Obsidian Publish

Best when:

  • managed publishing matters most,
  • self-hosting is not required,
  • Railway deployment is not a requirement.
  1. Start with Flask so the wiki is immediately readable and deployable.
  2. If the vault becomes public-facing and mostly read-only, reevaluate Quartz.
  3. If the product becomes more application-like, keep Flask and add search, auth, and source-ingest actions.