Ask AI

Ask AI is a mobile- and desktop-compatible Obsidian plugin that opens note context in a new consumer AI chat. It uses the chat websites you already use; it does not require an API key or developer subscription.

Requires Obsidian 1.13.0 or newer.

Commands

• Open selection in AI chat includes the active filename and selected text.
• Open entire note in AI chat includes the active filename and full Markdown content, then repeats the current selection under Request:.

The draft always ends with Request:. Complete the request in the AI chat, review it, and send it yourself. Ask AI never submits a message automatically.

Providers and transfer behavior

Choose ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or a custom HTTPS new-chat URL in the plugin settings.

• ChatGPT and Claude receive short selections and notes through an unsent URL-prefilled draft when the resulting encoded prompt is no longer than 6,000 URL characters. The same draft is copied as a fallback.
• Gemini and custom chat sites use the clipboard because they do not offer a reliable external prefill contract.
• Longer selections and notes use the clipboard, keeping large content out of browser history URLs. Obsidian displays a warning and copy confirmation before you paste the complete draft manually. The provider receives an explicitly empty prompt to clear a previously restored unsent draft.

URL-prefilled text is transmitted to ChatGPT or Claude as soon as the browser opens, before you press Send, and may remain in browser or synchronized history. Use the clipboard-only providers for sensitive content.

Every command opens a new chat page in the system browser. For clipboard-only transfers, paste the draft into the new chat before editing the Request: field. Whole notes are transferred as Markdown text rather than automatic attachments, which consumer chat sites do not expose reliably across desktop and mobile. Ask AI only writes prepared drafts to the clipboard; it never reads existing clipboard content.

Development

Requires Node.js 24 or newer and pnpm.

pnpm install
pnpm check

The project follows the validation and strictness conventions used by Todoist-Plug: Zod validation at persisted-input boundaries, strict TypeScript, Biome, Vitest, and an esbuild CommonJS bundle for Obsidian.

Releasing and updates

The release command follows Todoist-Plug and accepts patch by default:

pnpm release
pnpm release minor
pnpm release major

It runs all checks, updates package.json, synchronizes manifest.json and versions.json, creates a version commit and tag, and pushes both. The tag triggers the GitHub release workflow, which builds and publishes main.js and manifest.json for Obsidian updates.

The repository must have a clean committed worktree and a configured Git remote before running a release. Publishing the repository as an Obsidian community plugin is a separate registration step.