Note Companion AI

Turn messy captures into clean, searchable notes — transcribe audio/YouTube, chat with your vault, and auto-organize files right inside Obsidian. Works with Note Companion Cloud, your own AI API keys, or self-hosting.

✅ Best for: researchers, students, meeting-heavy workflows, and anyone with an "Inbox" full of unprocessed notes.

What you can do

• 🎬 Transcribe YouTube videos (multi-language, works even when captions aren't available in the usual way)
• 🎙️ Transcribe audio & video files (handles large files reliably)
• 🧠 Chat with your notes using vault context (mention files/folders/tags)
• 🗂️ Auto-organize & format notes (folder/tag/title/template suggestions; optional "Inbox" automation)
• 🧾 Meeting recorder → Enhance note (transcript, discussion points, action items, embedded audio)
• 🔌 Multiple AI providers: OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq, Ollama/local models, and custom base URLs
• 🏠 Self-hosting supported (Docker + service examples)

Screenshots

AI-powered tags, folders, and formatting suggestions

YouTube link → Transcript + Summary + Structured Notes

Chat with your notes using @mentions for files, folders, and tags

Record meetings, then enhance notes with transcript, discussion points, and action items

Install

Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins → Browse → "Note Companion" → Install → Enable

Platform support (Obsidian)

This plugin is for Obsidian on desktop only (Windows, macOS, and Linux). It is marked desktop-only in the plugin manifest, so Obsidian on iPhone, iPad, and Android will not load it and may show it as unsupported on mobile.

The plugin is built and tested for desktop Obsidian. Some features assume a typical desktop environment (for example, certain local integrations). We do not test or support the Obsidian plugin on mobile today.

Related: This repo also includes a separate Note Companion mobile app for capture and cloud-backed workflows. Development on that app is currently on pause. It is not a replacement for running the Obsidian plugin inside the mobile Obsidian app.

60-second setup

1. Open Settings → Note Companion
2. Choose your mode:
   • Note Companion Cloud (sign in at notecompanion.ai and enter your license key)
   • Bring your own keys (OpenAI / Claude / Gemini / etc. — paste your API key)
   • Self-hosted backend (paste your Base URL + key if needed)
3. Test it:
   • Open Command Palette → Note Companion: Open Chat
   • Ask: "Summarize this note and suggest tags"

Quick workflows

1) YouTube → Note

1. Copy a YouTube link
2. In Note Companion Chat, paste the link
3. Get transcript + summary + optional structured notes

2) Audio recording → Meeting note (best demo)

1. Open Meetings tab → Start Recording
2. Stop Recording → select a note → Enhance Note
3. You'll get:
   • embedded audio
   • transcript
   • discussion points + action items

3) Inbox auto-organization

1. Create an Inbox folder (configured in settings)
2. Drop raw notes / links inside
3. Note Companion suggests (or auto-applies) folder + tags + title + formatting

Providers & privacy

Note Companion can run using:

• Note Companion Cloud, or
• Your own API keys (OpenAI/Claude/Gemini/etc.), or
• Local/self-hosted models (e.g., Ollama + custom base URL)

Your data handling depends on the provider you choose. View our full privacy policy at notecompanion.ai/privacy

Cloud Service:

• Files are processed through our secure API for AI analysis
• Usage statistics collected for billing and rate limits
• Your vault content remains private and is only processed when you explicitly use plugin features

Self-hosted / Your API Keys:

• All processing happens on your own infrastructure
• Data never leaves your control
• No usage tracking

Self-hosting

Want full control and local infrastructure?

➡️ See SELF-HOSTING.md for Docker + service setups and security notes.

Troubleshooting

If transcription fails:

• Check provider key, model availability, and file size limits
• Verify API key is valid and has sufficient credits
• For large files (>25MB), consider splitting or compressing

If YouTube import fails:

• Try a different fallback method
• Ensure the video is accessible and not private/restricted
• Check network connectivity

If local model doesn't respond:

• Verify Base URL and CORS/network settings
• Ensure the local server (e.g., Ollama) is running
• Check firewall settings

If plugin can't connect to server:

• Verify server URL in settings (check for typos)
• Test connection using "Test Connection" button
• Check firewall/network settings

If chat doesn't work:

• Verify API key is set correctly
• Check model availability for your provider
• Review error messages in plugin console (Settings → Note Companion → Advanced → Open Console)

Support / feedback

• GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features
• Documentation: notecompanion.ai/docs
• Website: notecompanion.ai
• Obsidian Forum: Share feedback and discuss (add forum thread link when available)

For developers

If you want to build or contribute, start here: CONTRIBUTING.md

Important Disclosures

Account & Payment Requirements

• Payment required for cloud service: The plugin requires a paid subscription to use the cloud-hosted service
• 7-day free trial: New subscriptions include a 7-day trial period
• Self-hosting option available: You can run your own instance for free (see Self-Hosting above)
• Account creation: Using the cloud service requires creating an account at notecompanion.ai

Network Usage

This plugin communicates with the following remote services:

• Note Companion API Server (cloud service): For AI-powered features including file classification, formatting, transcription, and chat
• YouTube API: For fetching video transcripts when processing YouTube links
• AI Provider APIs: When self-hosting or using your own keys, you'll connect directly to your chosen AI provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.)

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.