Sync Obsidian Vault to Public Repo with GitHub Actions

Overview

┌──────────────────┐      ┌──────────────────┐
│ duyet/obsidian   │      │ duyet/obsidian-  │
│ (private)        │      │ public (public)  │
├──────────────────┤      ├──────────────────┤
│                  │      │                  │  build             GitHub Pages
│ Personal/        │      │ note-1.md        │  (GitHub Actions)  duyet.github.io/
│ Work/            │      │ note-2.md        │──────────────────► obsidian-public
│ Journals/        │      │ .github/fumadocs │
│ Public/     ───────────►│                  │
│   note-1.md      │      │                  │
│   note-2.md      │      │                  │
│                  │      │                  │
└────────┬─────────┘      └──────────────────┘
         │                            ▲
         │  repo-file-sync (Public/)  │
         └────────────────────────────┘
              GitHub Actions

The idea: keep your full Obsidian vault private, but expose a Public/ folder to a separate public repo that can be served via GitHub Pages.

Setup

1. Create a Personal Access Token (PAT)

1. Go to GitHub Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens (classic)
2. Generate new token with repo scope
3. Copy the token

2. Add Secret to Private Repo

1. Go to your private obsidian repo → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
2. Add new secret: GH_PAT with your token value

3. Create Sync Configuration

Create .github/sync.yml in your private repo:

your-username/obsidian-public:
  - source: Public/
    dest: ./
    deleteOrphaned: true

• source: folder in private repo to sync
• dest: destination in public repo (./ = root)
• deleteOrphaned: remove files in dest that no longer exist in source

4. Create Workflow

Create .github/workflows/sync.yml:

name: Sync Public Files
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
    paths:
      - 'Public/**'
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run GitHub File Sync
        uses: BetaHuhn/repo-file-sync-action@v1
        with:
          GH_PAT: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}
          SKIP_PR: true
          COMMIT_PREFIX: 'chore(sync):'

5. Enable GitHub Pages on Public Repo

1. Go to obsidian-public → Settings → Pages
2. Source: Deploy from branch
3. Branch: main (or master), folder: / (root)
4. Your notes will be available at https://your-username.github.io/obsidian-public/

How It Works

1. Add/edit notes in Public/ folder of your private vault
2. Commit and push to master branch
3. GitHub Actions triggers on changes to Public/**
4. repo-file-sync-action syncs files to public repo
5. GitHub Pages serves the public repo

Tips

• Only put notes you want public in the Public/ folder
• Use workflow_dispatch to manually trigger sync
• deleteOrphaned: true keeps public repo clean when you remove notes
• Consider adding an INDEX.md as landing page

Note

This page is rendered using fumadocs.dev. See the .github/fumadocs folder for configuration.

You can build the public repo with any static framework (Next.js, Astro, etc.) and deploy to any platform (Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, etc.).

References

• duyet/obsidian-public - Live example of this setup
• BetaHuhn/repo-file-sync-action
• GitHub Pages Documentation
• fumadocs.dev