--- title: "Obsidian Insights" description: "An Obsidian plugin that generates live AI writing insights, connections, counter-arguments, and suggested edits while you write." url: "https://briansunter.com/projects/obsidian-insights" --- May 1, 2026 In development # Obsidian Insights An Obsidian plugin that generates live AI writing insights, connections, counter-arguments, and suggested edits while you write. TypeScript Obsidian Plugin AI OpenAI Anthropic Knowledge Management  ## Overview Obsidian Insights is a desktop plugin that watches the active Markdown note and generates live writing feedback in a right sidebar. It can suggest concrete improvements, next ideas, counter-arguments, references, and connections to other notes in the vault. I built it to make the AI assistant feel closer to a writing partner than a separate chat window. The plugin stays anchored to the note you are already editing, refreshes as the document changes, and keeps the output organized as structured insight cards instead of a long conversational transcript. ## Features ### Live insight sidebar - Right-pane sidebar with generated insight cards for the active note - Manual regenerate command for focused review passes - Auto-run mode with a debounce and document-change threshold so feedback does not fire on every keystroke - Per-category target counts for improvements, next ideas, connections, counter-arguments, references, and custom guidance ### Incremental refreshes Instead of regenerating every card after every edit, the plugin keeps a snapshot of the previous run and re-anchors existing insights against the current document. Small changes can update locally, while larger changes trigger a revise call or a full regenerate when the note has drifted too far. This keeps token usage lower and makes the sidebar feel less jumpy while writing. ### Vault-aware research The model can call local vault tools during a run: - Search notes - Read note slices - List backlinks and outgoing links - Inspect note metadata - Find notes by tag - List recent notes For semantic search, the plugin can use a local `qmd` binary when available. If QMD is missing or disabled, it falls back to an in-process lexical scan so the plugin still works without external setup. ### One-click fixes For concrete edit suggestions, the sidebar can ask the model for a surgical replacement of the cited lines. Fixes are applied through the editor so changes stay visible and undo-friendly. ### Provider support The plugin supports several model providers through the Vercel AI SDK: - Anthropic - OpenAI - Google Gemini - OpenRouter / OpenAI-compatible endpoints Provider credentials stay in the vault-local plugin data file. There is no hidden telemetry; note text is sent only when an insight or auto-fix run is triggered. ## Technology stack - TypeScript Obsidian plugin - esbuild bundle to a single `main.js` - Vercel AI SDK for streaming model calls and tool execution - Zod schemas for validating model-submitted insight cards - Obsidian Plugin API for commands, settings, views, editor access, and vault reads - Optional local QMD process for semantic vault search ## Project shape plaintext ``` src/ ├── agent/ # model provider selection, prompts, tool schemas, auto-fix ├── runner/ # editor watching, run orchestration, incremental re-anchoring ├── ui/ # sidebar view, insight cards, thinking panel, fix application ├── util/ # fetch shim, text diffing, qmd process bridge, hashing ├── settings.ts # provider, trigger, search, output, and guardrail settings └── main.ts # plugin lifecycle and command registration ``` The main plugin entry point stays small; most behavior lives in focused modules so the model loop, editor integration, and UI can evolve independently. ## Related projects - [Obsidian CSV Editor](/projects/obsidian-csv-editor) [An Obsidian plugin that opens .csv files in a spreadsheet-like grid with keyboard navigation, range selection, copy/paste, sorting, and debounced auto-save.](/projects/obsidian-csv-editor) - [Obsidian Data Editor](/projects/obsidian-data-editor) [An Obsidian plugin that opens .json, .yaml, and .yml files in a visual tree editor, with inline editing, schema validation, and a CodeMirror source mode.](/projects/obsidian-data-editor) - [Obsidian Schema](/projects/obsidian-schema) [An Obsidian plugin that validates note frontmatter against user-defined JSON Schema rules, with tag-driven selectors, a results sidebar, and inline error reporting.](/projects/obsidian-schema) ## Share this project