# Shida Li Shida Li is a software developer and entrepreneur, co-founder of [[Obsidian]] and [[Dynalist]] along with [[Erica Xu]]. Known online as "Silver" in the Obsidian community, Li handles much of the backend architecture and core functionality. The pair created Dynalist in 2016 as a feature-rich [[Outliner]], then launched Obsidian in 2020—a [[Local-First Software|local-first]] knowledge management tool that stores notes as [[Plain Text|plain text]] Markdown files. Li is particularly focused on performance, extensibility, and long-term software sustainability. He architected Obsidian's plugin system, which enabled a thriving ecosystem of community extensions. His approach emphasizes that personal knowledge tools should outlive any company—hence local files, open formats, and the [[File over app principle]]. Under Li and Xu's leadership, Obsidian has become a leading PKM tool while remaining a small, bootstrapped company without venture capital pressure. ## Key Contributions | Contribution | Description | |--------------|-------------| | **[[Dynalist]]** | Co-created outliner (2016) | | **[[Obsidian]]** | Co-created local-first PKM (2020) | | **Plugin architecture** | Designed extensible system | | **Performance** | Fast even with large vaults | ## Timeline | Year | Event | |------|-------| | 2016 | Co-founded [[Dynalist]] | | 2020 | Co-founded [[Obsidian]] | | 2020s | Built plugin ecosystem | ## Quotes <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #type/quote AND [[Shida Li]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> ## Books <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #type/book AND [[Shida Li]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> ## References - https://obsidian.md/ - https://dynalist.io/ ## Related - [[Obsidian]] - [[Dynalist]] - [[Erica Xu]] - [[Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)]] - [[File over app principle]] - [[Local-First Software]]