---
title: 'Knowledge Management for Software Developers'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=AMxrjL0UpeE'
video_id: 'AMxrjL0UpeE'
date: 2026-08-02
duration_sec: 420
---

# Knowledge Management for Software Developers

> Source: [Knowledge Management for Software Developers](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AMxrjL0UpeE)

## Summary

This video discusses Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) for software developers, comparing popular note-taking apps like Notion, Obsidian, Dendron, Inkdrop, and Bear, and offering advice on how to organize and retain technical knowledge.

### Key Points

- **The Need for Knowledge Management** [00:01] — Software developers need to retain both general knowledge (syntax, design patterns) and domain-specific knowledge. A Knowledge Management System (KMS) helps by linking and organizing notes.
- **Note-Taking Methods** [00:41] — Methods like PARA and Zettelkasten are mentioned. PARA is structured with folders for projects and knowledge areas, while Zettelkasten uses a single folder with linked notes. For developers, simpler methods may be better.
- **Essential Features for Developer Notes** [01:20] — A note-taking app for developers should support code blocks and diagrams. Mermaid is recommended for creating flowcharts, sequence diagrams, class diagrams, and state diagrams.
- **Notion Overview** [02:01] — Notion is easy to use, has a generous free tier, works on all devices, supports syntax highlighting and Mermaid diagrams. However, it converts Markdown to a proprietary format, making it less flexible for pure note-taking.
- **Obsidian Overview** [03:07] — Obsidian is the creator's favorite. It's free, uses plain Markdown files, supports syntax highlighting and Mermaid, and has many themes and community plugins. It lacks free cloud sync, but you can use existing cloud storage or GitHub.
- **Dendron Overview** [04:29] — Dendron is a VS Code extension, ideal for developers who live in VS Code. It supports syntax highlighting and Mermaid, and you can use all VS Code extensions. Downside: no official mobile app.
- **Inkdrop Overview** [05:09] — Inkdrop is a simple, developer-focused app from an indie developer. It costs $4.99/month, supports syntax highlighting and Mermaid, and has a clean UI similar to Apple Notes.
- **Bear Overview** [05:36] — Bear has a clean interface but is Mac/iOS only. It lacks full Markdown support (no tables/images via Markdown), doesn't support Mermaid, and stores notes in SQLite. Bear Pro costs $1.49/month.
- **Other Options and Final Advice** [06:15] — Roam Research is mentioned but costs $15/month. The creator recommends Notion for ease and cross-device access, but prefers Obsidian for its plain-text files and portability. He advises backing up notes in multiple places.

### Conclusion

The video concludes that while Notion is user-friendly, Obsidian is the preferred choice for developers due to its plain-text Markdown files and portability, with a recommendation to back up notes in multiple locations.

## Transcript

order to do our jobs there is the general knowledge such as language syntax as well as design patterns and Architectural best practices that we to be a lot of domain specific knowledge that you need to remember in order to
solve problems for those that you work for when I used to work in the payments processing worked from end to end and that was just too much knowledge to to learn how to code or you're trying to work your way up the career ladder it's
place so you can retain all of this information this is where Knowledge Management Systems come in or KMS for short KMS is really just a fancy way of taking notes linking them all together and organizing them now you may have
or the little castle method these are just different ways that you can organize your notes the second brain area is a bit more structured and it has folders for things like projects and knowledge areas whereas the zettel
custom method mostly consists of all of your notes in one folder it really especially if your main goal is just to remember more of what you're learning these methods are mostly for writers and creators who want to retain knowledge
and combine them into new ideas the software developers your notes will than some of these other methods it can be very easy to get sidetracked and with the perfect system to organize all your notes please don't do that just
focus on taking notes and you can always change how things are organized in the Applications there's quite a few to choose from but not all of them are that be writing notes about software development then you're likely going to
need an app that supports code blocks as well as the ability to add diagrams one notes to your diagrams is to use mermaid mermaid has support for loads of different diagrams such as flowcharts sequence diagrams class diagrams State
what you want to do with your notes you may want some features such as API different plugins so let's have a look at some of the options the first is notion I'm sure you've probably heard of notional it's one of the easiest
has lots of different features and it has a very generous free tier and it also works on all your different devices one of the great things about notion is free which is often a paid feature in a lot of the different note-taking
applications notion has great support for syntax highlighting and you can also use mermaid diagrams as well notion does support markdown but it's not a proper markdown editor as soon as you write something in markdown it'll convert it
means that you have to either use your mouse or delete what you've just written to change the style when notion shines is not in its ability to take notes but how it organizes the data that you put in I use notion for all of my planning
between a kanban board and a calendar view is really useful notion also has an cool things with different applications as well there's also a whole load of ready-made Integrations that you can use personally I have my notion connected
via API to a self-hosted nan instance this allows me to do things such as schedule tweets update my kanban board doing my videos or posts go live as well that I'm trying to rank for for Pure note taking though there are better
options out there for developers number two is Obsidian obsidian is my personal favorite it's completely free and has native support for markdown in fact all markdown files which means if you do choose to switch applications in the
future it's going to be easier obsidians support syntax highlighting and mermaid diagrams just like notion and it also supports a large number of themes and Community plugins you can even set it up to use Bim key bindings for all of those
Precision is it doesn't have a free Cloud syncing option but for the Privacy probably a good thing you can pay for obsidian sync for ten dollars a month because all of your notes are just marked out files you can just use your
existing cloud storage whether that be iCloud Dropbox or OneDrive on top of can use to sync all your notes up to a GitHub repository obsidian does come with apps for IOS and Android but to be on I haven't had the best experience
with them the apps are fine if you don't use a lot of community plugins but for if the community plugins aren't important to you on a mobile device you can copy your obsidian settings folder and rename it to Dot obsidian.mobile and
the new settings folder and then disable the plugins without it affecting really like obsidian but it's not everyone's cup of tea so let's have a look at some of the other options number three is dendron if you spend all of
your time in vs code then this option might be for you dendron isn't a separate note-taking app but an extension for vs code like obsidian and it obviously has support for syntax highlighting it also supports mermaid
you also have access to all of the different vs code extensions so if you can also use them with your note-taking as well the downside is around the mobile app as far as I'm aware there's no official mobile app for
vs code if you do want to see your notes on a mobile or tablet then potentially use dendril myself so there's a possibility that it won't work there could be some compatibility issues between the two if you use dendron and
the comments another great option this time from an indie developer is called specifically for developers so it highlighting and mermaid diagrams it seems to have a pretty good Community
plugins as well as themes that you can use ink drop however isn't free and it does cost 4.99 a month it's a lot simpler than obsidian and the UI to me looks very much like Apple notes if you want something that's simple developer
focused and also supports an indie developer then ink drop might be for you another option that's often mentioned is bear bear has a really clean interface but it's not actually that great for Developers for one it's Mac and iOS only
you're out of luck it does support markdown but it doesn't have full markdown support so you can't do things like add tables or images using markdown which is a bit disappointing but it does have syntax highlighting but it doesn't
support mermaid diagrams your notes and bear are also stored in a sqlite it's not as flexible as some of the other options I've mentioned bear does you want your notes to sync across then you'll need to pay 1.49 a month for Bear
Pro there isn't a huge amount but I think there are better free options out other options available I know a lot of people like Rome research but 15 a month the other apps that I've covered notion is probably the easiest option
especially if you want to access your notes on all your devices my only proprietary format on the cloud if anything should happen to notion and I'd something happens to obsidian I still have all my notes in an easily readable
Precision over notion I just make sure that I back up my notes in multiple might also like this one on how I take and organize my notes thank you for watching and hopefully I'll see you in the next video