Groundwork

Groundwork is a tutor inside Obsidian. It maps the concepts you're learning, marks how well you know each one, and plans the next step toward a goal.

Install it from Obsidian's community plugins. Sign in at groundworklearn.com. A free plan is included. Paid plans are optional.

Install

You need Obsidian on a desktop computer.

1. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins. Turn community plugins on if they are off. Choose Browse, search for Groundwork, then Install and Enable. You can also install from the community plugin page.
2. Sign in with Google at groundworklearn.com. That creates the account that holds your plan and your progress.
3. On your account page, choose Open Obsidian. That links the plugin on this computer. If Groundwork isn't installed yet, the site opens the community plugin page.

Groundwork does not run on a phone. You can sign up on your phone and install on your computer later.

Plans

A free plan is included. Paid plans ($6 and $20 per month) unlock a model you already pay for, or models Groundwork runs.

• Free starts on Light, Groundwork's smaller model. You can switch to Heavy in the plugin. Tutor use has a monthly limit. Your account shows the share of that month you've used.
• Bring your own model is $6 per month. It uses the Claude subscription on your computer, or a key from OpenRouter, Anthropic, Google, xAI, or OpenAI. Model use on that subscription or key is billed by that provider. The $6 covers Groundwork.
• Groundwork is $20 per month. Groundwork runs the models, Light by default. Switch to Heavy in the plugin when you want the stronger tutor.

The study tools are the same on each plan. Paid plans are billed on the Groundwork website through Stripe. You can change or cancel a paid plan from Manage billing on your account page.

What you can do

• Set a goal with a due date. If you don't name a date, a new goal is due in 14 days. The plan starts from the foundations and works up.
• See a concept map. Each concept is marked solid, shaky, learning, rusty, or not started. The goal sits in red at the top.
• Take diagnostic quiz cards at levels 1 to 5. A careless slip isn't counted as a gap.
• Study a flashcard deck in one sitting. Again shows the card next, Hard brings it back later in that sitting, and Good or Easy sets it aside. Those ratings do not set the marks on the concept map.
• Drop in lecture slides, homework, a study guide, or a practice exam. Groundwork turns that into an exam goal.
• Chat with the tutor in Obsidian. Math renders in LaTeX. You can attach slides, PDFs, or images from folders you allow.

Progress stays on your account and syncs across computers. Your vault stays on your computer. The tutor reads only the vault folders you allow in settings.

Payment, account, and network

A free plan is included. Paid plans ($6 and $20 per month) unlock Bring your own model, or Groundwork running the models. Paid plans are billed on the Groundwork website through Stripe.

An account is required before the tutor will run. Sign in with Google on that website. Tutor memory — concept notes, goals, quiz evidence, chats, and the learner profile — is stored on the account.

The plugin uses the network for these services:

• Groundwork (https://groundwork-6f9ca.web.app in production builds) stores the account, tutor memory, plan routing, and grades written answers. Sign-in happens in the browser on the Groundwork website. Open Obsidian connects this device through Obsidian; if the plugin is not installed yet, the site opens the community plugin page.
• Google (https://securetoken.googleapis.com) refreshes the website sign-in into an ID token the plugin sends to Groundwork.
• Google Fonts (https://fonts.googleapis.com) loads Jost for the Groundwork panel stylesheet.
• Stripe — billing for the $6 and $20 plans happens on the website, not inside the plugin.
• Anthropic, through Claude Code on this computer, runs the tutor when you use your own Claude subscription. Claude Code may reach Anthropic's API and related sign-in endpoints. On hosted Groundwork plans, model calls go through your account API instead. Bring-your-own-model keys saved on the account are used only on the Groundwork server (OpenRouter, Anthropic, Google, xAI, or OpenAI), not sent from the plugin.

The plugin does not send telemetry. On the desktop it uses the filesystem (node:fs) to see whether the Claude Code executable is installed, and it starts that program with child_process (through the bundled Agent SDK) so the tutor can run under your Claude subscription. Claude Code's working directory is the vault. The plugin reads PATH (and, on Windows, APPDATA) only to find that executable when Obsidian was not launched from a shell. It does not read the hostname, username, or network interfaces. Device labels default to Obsidian until you set one in the panel.

The separate groundwork CLI (not the plugin) reads and writes ~/.config/groundwork/config.json and can run git to sync the vault. It does not read other files outside the vault. The only notes the tutor opens as extra context are in vault folders you pick in settings. Python figures that need a local runtime stay in the Obsidian window; the plugin does not download a Python package with a dynamic import().

The plugin is desktop-only.

Obsidian community plugin

The section above — payment, a required account, network services, and files outside the vault — is what the Obsidian community plugin directory asks this README to state. Groundwork is MIT licensed.

The plugin is laid out so it can be submitted:

node scripts/check-community-plugin.mjs checks that list. The plugin id is groundwork, which is also the community install folder.

From the website, Open Obsidian opens Obsidian and connects this device. Manual install: community plugin page.

The plugin is desktop-only because it bundles Node-based tooling (Claude Code / Agent SDK) and does not run on mobile Obsidian. Publishing the map is off until you sign in and turn it on. That request goes to the Groundwork account API (https://groundwork-6f9ca.web.app in production builds).

The Groundwork panel uses the website's dark look: Jost, and the red, amber, blue, and green status dots. Learn, Concept map, and Goals are three views of the same memory. A goal has a due date and a weight for each concept. The concept map is Groundwork's own map of that goal, not Obsidian's graph view. The rest of Obsidian keeps its theme.

The manifest, release checklist, and node scripts/check-community-plugin.mjs are described in docs/development.md.

For developers

Clone, setup, the CLI, and how the repo is laid out: docs/development.md.