Install with Cargo

Already have Rust? This is the fastest path to a working obsidianlog if you don’t want to download a release archive or clone the repository. Want the latest, possibly-unreleased code instead of the last published version? See Building From Source.

Prerequisites

You need Rust and Cargo installed. Check:

cargo --version

If that fails, install Rust via rustup:

macOS / Linux
Windows

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Follow the on-screen prompts, then restart your terminal (or run the source command it prints at the end) so cargo is on your PATH.

Download and run rustup-init.exe, or install via winget:

winget install Rustlang.Rustup

Restart PowerShell afterward so cargo is on your PATH.

Installing

cargo install obsidianlog-cli

This matches the local backend’s default: no Sia support, obsidianlog init defaults to the local backend. To include Sia support (what the official release binaries ship with):

cargo install obsidianlog-cli --features sia

Either command installs the obsidianlog binary into your Cargo bin directory (~/.cargo/bin by default, %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin on Windows), already on your PATH if you’ve used cargo install before. Unlike the release binary or Docker paths, there’s no folder to extract or cd into, obsidianlog runs from wherever you are. Want the standalone ingest server too?

cargo install obsidianlog-ingest

Most people don’t need this separately, obsidianlog serve already wraps it and manages its encryption key for you. See Running the standalone ingest server directly if you do.

Archive your first log and get it back

The same setup, ingestion, retrieval, and integrity-check loop as the Quickstart, just running obsidianlog directly instead of ./obsidianlog from an extracted folder.

macOS / Linux
Windows

Two terminals. Leave the first running serve; use the second for everything else.1. Set up.

obsidianlog init --non-interactive

You’ll see:

obsidianlog initialized.
  config:      /Users/you/.config/obsidianlog/config.toml
  credentials: the OS keychain

2. Start the server.

obsidianlog serve

The terminal won’t return to a prompt after this, it keeps running until you stop it. Leave it running and use your second terminal for the rest.3. In the second terminal, send a log.

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:7080/ingest \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '[{"timestamp":"2026-07-06T10:00:00Z","service":"api","level":"info","msg":"hello"}]' \
  -w '%{http_code}\n'

A successful ingest has an empty body, so the 200 printed on its own line (from -w) is the actual confirmation, not the absence of output.4. Query it back.

obsidianlog query --service api --level info --from 24h --format human

2026-07-06T10:00:00Z  api  info  -  hello

5. Verify the hash chain.

obsidianlog verify

OK   api: 1 chunk(s) verified, chain intact

Two PowerShell windows. Leave the first running serve; use the second for everything else.1. Set up.

obsidianlog.exe init --non-interactive

You’ll see:

obsidianlog initialized.
  config:      C:\Users\you\.config\obsidianlog\config.toml
  credentials: the OS keychain

2. Start the server.

obsidianlog.exe serve

The terminal won’t return to a prompt after this, it keeps running until you stop it. Leave it running and use your second terminal for the rest.3. In the second terminal, send a log. Assign the JSON to a variable first, PowerShell’s quoting breaks on a curl command written the Unix way:

$json = '[{"timestamp":"2026-07-06T10:00:00Z","service":"api","level":"info","msg":"hello"}]'
curl.exe -s -X POST http://localhost:7080/ingest -H "content-type: application/json" -d $json -w "%{http_code}\n"

A successful ingest has an empty body, so the 200 printed on its own line (from -w) is the actual confirmation, not the absence of output.4. Query it back.

obsidianlog.exe query --service api --level info --from 24h --format human

2026-07-06T10:00:00Z  api  info  -  hello

5. Verify the hash chain.

obsidianlog.exe verify

OK   api: 1 chunk(s) verified, chain intact

See the full CLI reference for every command’s flags.

On macOS, init will prompt at most once for your login-keychain password. This is the OS asking permission for obsidianlog to store the credentials it just generated, not an ObsidianLog password. Click Always Allow rather than just Allow, so later serve/query/verify runs read them without prompting again.

What’s next

Your First Test Run: the same loop again, with more detail on what to expect at each step.
Choosing a Backend: local disk, hosted Sia Storage, or bring your own indexer.
Docker Compose Quickstart: the same loop, containerized.

Get Started

Tutorials

Using the CLI

Storage Backends

Deployment

Integrations

Architecture & Security

Contributing & Support

Prerequisites

Installing

Archive your first log and get it back

What’s next

​Prerequisites

​Installing

​Archive your first log and get it back

​What’s next

Prerequisites

Installing

Archive your first log and get it back

What’s next