Film Artist Search

An Obsidian plugin that lets you search for actors, directors, producers, and other film-adjacent artists on TMDb and bring their data directly into your vault — either as a full note or as a quick wikilink.

Features

Create Film Artist note

Opens a search palette, searches TMDb as you type, and creates a structured Markdown note for the person you select. The note is placed in your configured folder and opened immediately. If a note with that name already exists, the plugin skips creation and notifies you.

Insert Film Artist link

Opens the same search palette but inserts a [[Name]] wikilink at the cursor position in the active editor. Useful for quickly linking to a person while writing without leaving your current document.

Note: This command only appears in the command palette when the active note is in edit mode (not reading/preview mode).

Insert film artist metadata

Opens the search palette pre-populated with the active note's title. On selection, fetches full person details from TMDb, renders your configured template, and replaces the entire note content with the result.

Note: This command only appears in the command palette when the active note is in edit mode (not reading/preview mode).

Warning: This command replaces the entire content of the current note. If no template file is configured, the built-in default template is used. Make sure you have the right note open before running it.

Requirements

• Obsidian 1.4.10 or later
• A free TMDb API key (v3) — get one at themoviedb.org/settings/api

Installation

Community plugins (recommended)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins and disable Safe mode if prompted.
2. Select Browse and search for Film Artist Search.
3. Select Install, then Enable.

Manual install

1. Download main.js, manifest.json from the latest release.
2. Copy them to <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-film-artist-search/.
3. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin under Settings → Community plugins.

Setup

1. Go to Settings → Secret storage and add a new secret containing your TMDb v3 API key.
2. Go to Settings → Film Artist Search.
3. Under TMDb API key, select the secret you just added from the dropdown.
4. Optionally set a notes folder and a template file (see Customization below).

Usage

Create a note

Open the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P) and run Film Artist Search: Create film artist note.

1. Type a name in the search box — results appear as you type.
2. Select a person from the list.
3. The plugin fetches their full details from TMDb and creates a note at <notes folder>/<Name>.md.

Insert a wikilink

Place your cursor where you want the link, then run Film Artist Search: Insert film artist link.

1. Search and select a person the same way.
2. [[Name]] is inserted at the cursor.

Insert film artist metadata into the current note

Open a note in edit mode, then run Film Artist Search: Insert film artist metadata.

1. The search box opens pre-filled with the note's title — results load immediately.
2. Select a person to confirm.
3. The plugin fetches their full details from TMDb and replaces the entire note content with your rendered template.

Customization

All settings are in Settings → Film Artist Search.

Template variables

When a template file is set, the plugin renders it by replacing {{variable}} placeholders with data fetched from TMDb.

Built-in default template (used when no template file is configured):

---
name: "{{name}}"
born: "{{birthday}}"
died: "{{deathday}}"
birthplace: "{{placeOfBirth}}"
tmdb: "{{tmdbUrl}}"
image: "{{localProfileImagePath}}"
---

![[{{localProfileImagePath}}]]
![{{name}}]({{profileImageUrl}})

{{biography}}

Example custom template (Templates/Actor.md):

---
name: "{{name}}"
born: "{{birthday}}"
birthplace: "{{placeOfBirth}}"
tmdb: "{{tmdbUrl}}"
image: "{{localProfileImagePath}}"
---

![[{{localProfileImagePath}}]]

## {{name}}

- Born: {{birthday}} in {{placeOfBirth}}
- TMDb: {{tmdbUrl}}

Any {{variable}} that has no value is replaced with an empty string.

Privacy & network usage

• All network requests go directly to api.themoviedb.org (metadata) and image.tmdb.org (profile photos, when Download profile images is on).
• No data is collected or transmitted to any other service.
• Your API key is stored in Obsidian's built-in Secret storage, not in the plugin's own data files.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run npm install then npm run dev to start the watch build.

License

MIT