5 Steps From Markdown Files to a Digital Garden

Last updated Jan 19, 2023

In this “getting started” guide, you’ll learn how to turn your markdown files (or your Obsidian vault) to a digital garden available served from a custom domain using Timeattic.

You need 3 things to get started:

• a set of markdown files - an Obsidian vault will be perfect
• a GitHub account - to backup your markdown files
• a custom domain name like example.com - to be an entry point into your digital garden

If you’re using Obsidian, then there’s a great plugin Obsidian Git. You need to set it up just once and then the backup process will run automatically.

If you’re not using Obsidian, then you’ll need to manually push your changes to the GitHub repo. The repo could be both private and public (whatever you prefer).

At the end of this step, you should get something like this:

Read more about Timeattic directory structure and how it works here.

Once your markdown files are backed up in the GitHub repo, go ahead and start creating your Timeattic website

You’ll be asked to select a GitHub repo with your files, fill in your custom domain name, a website title and an (optional) description.

The domain name could be both the root domain like example.com or a subdomain like demo.example.com

On this step, Timeattic generates an SSL certificate for your custom domain name to make sure your website is served securely via HTTPS protocol.

You’ll need to validate the SSL certificate by adding one CNAME record to your DNS config.

Usually it takes 3-5 minutes to verify your custom domain.

You can click the button VERIFY SSL to manually check the verification status. If you’re stuck at this stage try manually refreshing the page or send an email to welcome@timeattic.com describing your problem.

At this point most of the work is done and you just need to click the DEPLOY button.

All future deploys will be automated, but you’ll need to manually control the very first one.

If there are any issues, you’ll see it in the Recent builds table.

The most common issue is the missing _index.md file, so make sure to follow the rules.

The last step is similar to verifying the domain name for the SSL certificate. The only difference is that this time you’re linking your custom domain to a CloudFront distribution domain.

Once you add the required CNAME record, you’ll be able to access your website via the custom domain name you’ve added on Step 2.