Granola Meetings Simple Sync

Sync your Granola meeting notes to Obsidian.

This plugin uses Granola's official MCP API to sync meeting notes, AI summaries, and transcripts into your vault. One-time OAuth setup, then fully automatic.

Features

• Official API: Uses Granola's MCP API with OAuth authentication
• Multiple accounts: Connect more than one Granola account and sync them all into the same vault
• Auto-sync: Automatically sync meetings at configurable intervals (1m to 12h)
• Template-based: Customize output format with your own template
• Smart deduplication: Tracks meetings by ID to avoid duplicates
• Preserve edits: Option to skip existing notes so your local changes aren't overwritten
• Attendee linking: Automatically link attendees to existing notes by email
• Transcripts: Optionally include full meeting transcripts

There are other (1, 2) Granola plugins for Obsidian, but I found their implementation lacking for my needs. They either had unnecessary complexity or didn't support features like bringing in private notes, linking to attendee Person notes, or customizing the note template/frontmatter. This plugin fits my workflow better.

Installation

Install from the Obsidian Directory (recommended)

Click "Add to Obsidian" from https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/granola-meetings-simple-sync

Install via BRAT

1. Install the BRAT plugin from Obsidian's community plugins
2. In BRAT settings, click Add Beta plugin
3. Enter philfreo/obsidian-granola-plugin
4. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

BRAT will automatically keep the plugin updated.

Manual Installation

1. Create a folder <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/granola-meetings-simple-sync/
2. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release into that folder
3. Reload Obsidian, then enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Setup

1. Open plugin settings
2. Click Connect to Granola — this opens your browser for OAuth authentication
3. Authorize the plugin in your browser
4. You'll be redirected back to Obsidian automatically
5. Meetings will start syncing!

To sync more than one Granola account, click Add Granola account in settings and repeat the OAuth flow. All connected accounts sync into the same folder, deduplicated by meeting ID.

Settings

Usage

1. Sync meetings: By default your meetings will be synced every 15 minutes. This setting is customizable, and you can also trigger a sync by clicking the ribbon icon, using the command palette ("Granola Meetings Simple Sync: Sync meetings"), or clicking "Sync now" in settings.

Template Variables

Create a template file to customize how your meeting notes look. Use these variables:

Core

• {{granola_id}} - Unique meeting ID
• {{granola_title}} - Meeting title
• {{granola_date}} - Date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• {{granola_url}} - Link to meeting on Granola web
• {{granola_start_time}} - Start time (e.g., "3:00 PM")

Timing

• {{granola_end_time}} - End time (e.g., "3:35 PM")
• {{granola_duration_formatted}} - Length written out (e.g., "1h 14m"), in the style chosen by the "Duration format" setting
• {{granola_duration_min}} - The same length as a plain number of minutes (e.g., "74"), for arithmetic

The MCP API Granola gives the plugin reports no end time and no duration, so these are blank unless you add a Granola API key in settings. With a key the plugin reads the transcript from Granola's REST API instead, where every utterance carries its own start and end timestamp, and the length is measured rather than guessed. The key needs a Business or Enterprise plan.

A meeting is measured from the time Granola lists for it rather than from the first word spoken, so the length covers waiting as well as talking. A call booked for 2:00 that got going at 2:06 and held thirty minutes of conversation is reported as thirty-six minutes long. Ad-hoc recordings were never scheduled, so Granola lists the moment capture began and there is no waiting to account for. A recording whose first word lands before its listed time is measured from whichever came first.

Both times are rendered in your own locale, following the language Obsidian is set to, so a 24-hour locale gets "14:06" where an English one gets "2:06 PM".

Duration format

{{granola_duration_formatted}} is written in one of three styles, chosen in settings. Unit names follow the language Obsidian is set to, so a German reader gets "1 Std. 14 Min." without configuring anything.

A component is left out when it would read as zero, so an hour-long meeting is "1h" rather than "1h 0m". Hours are not capped at a day.

For any wording the three styles don't cover, build your own from {{granola_duration_min}}, which is a plain number of minutes.

Content

• {{granola_private_notes}} - Your notes from the meeting
• {{granola_enhanced_notes}} - AI-generated content (Summary, Action Items, etc.)
• {{granola_transcript}} - Full transcript (requires "Include transcripts" enabled)

Attendees

• {{granola_attendees}} - Comma-separated names
• {{granola_attendees_linked}} - With Obsidian links: [[John]], [[Jane]]
• {{granola_attendees_list}} - YAML list format
• {{granola_attendees_linked_list}} - YAML list with links

Conditional Blocks

Use {{#variable}}...{{/variable}} to only render content when a variable is non-empty:

{{#granola_transcript}}
## Transcript

{{granola_transcript}}
{{/granola_transcript}}

Default Template

The plugin writes this default template when you first enable it, and again at sync time if no template exists at the configured path:

---
granola_id: {{granola_id}}
granola_url: {{granola_url}}
title: "{{granola_title}}"
date: {{granola_date}}
attendees:
{{granola_attendees_linked_list}}
tags:
  - meeting
  - granola
---
{{#granola_private_notes}}## Notes

{{granola_private_notes}}
{{/granola_private_notes}}
{{#granola_enhanced_notes}}## Summary

{{#granola_duration_formatted}}{{granola_start_time}}-{{granola_end_time}} ({{granola_duration_formatted}})

{{/granola_duration_formatted}}{{granola_enhanced_notes}}
{{/granola_enhanced_notes}}
{{#granola_transcript}}

## Transcript

{{granola_transcript}}
{{/granola_transcript}}

Requirements

• Desktop only: This plugin requires Node.js APIs available only in Obsidian's desktop app
• Granola account: You'll be prompted to authenticate via OAuth on first use

Development

npm install
npm run dev        # Build (watch mode)
npm run build      # Build (production)
npm run lint       # ESLint
npm run typecheck  # tsc --noEmit
npm test           # Run unit tests (Vitest) once
npm run test:watch # Run unit tests in watch mode
npm run package    # Build + copy main.js/manifest.json/versions.json into release/

Testing in a real vault

Unit tests cover the parser and template logic, but to exercise the plugin inside Obsidian:

1. Copy .env.example to .env and set OBSIDIAN_PLUGINS to the plugins folder of the vault you want to test against, e.g.:

   OBSIDIAN_PLUGINS="$HOME/path/to/YourVault/.obsidian/plugins"
   

2. Run npm run deploy-local. This builds the plugin and copies it into $OBSIDIAN_PLUGINS/granola-meetings-simple-sync/, preserving any existing data.json (your settings/auth) so you don't have to reconnect each time.
3. In Obsidian, reload (or toggle the plugin off/on) to pick up the new build.

Releasing

Releases are automated by .github/workflows/release.yml: pushing a tag of the form X.Y.Z builds the plugin and creates a GitHub release with main.js and manifest.json attached. BRAT and manual installs pull from that release.

To cut a release:

1. Bump the version: npm version patch (or minor/major). This first runs preversion (lint, typecheck, tests, build) and aborts without committing or tagging if anything fails, so a release cannot be cut from a broken tree. It then runs version-bump.mjs, which updates manifest.json and versions.json, and stages them in the version commit.
2. Push the commit and the tag: git push && git push --tags.
3. The Release workflow runs on the tag and publishes the GitHub release.

Per Obsidian's guidelines, tags must not use a v prefix (use 1.0.0, not v1.0.0) — npm version already creates tags without the prefix here, and the workflow only triggers on [0-9]+.[0-9]+.[0-9]+ tags.

License

MIT