Journal Recap

Turn a long journal entry into one personal sentence you can revisit later.

Journal Recap is an Obsidian plugin that saves an AI-generated recap in your note's Properties, under summary. Your journal entry stays intact, and the recap gives you a quick reminder of what mattered that day.

The default prompt aims for a natural, diary-like sentence of about 20–35 words, with concrete details and room for mixed feelings. You choose when to generate it, then review or edit the result yourself.

Requirements: Obsidian 1.8.7 or later on desktop, an internet connection, and an API key. The default connection uses OpenAI. API usage is billed separately from ChatGPT subscriptions.

Install Journal Recap · Demo · Setup · Privacy and cost · Get help

Demo

After setup, open an entry, run Summarize current journal entry, and read the recap in Properties.

An 18-second loop with two fictional entries. The interface and sample recaps are illustrative, not a live recording; actual wording and processing time vary.

View a still image or read the before-and-after examples below.

Before and after

These entries and example recaps are fictional. Actual wording varies by entry and model.

A day with something to keep

Before: a journal entry in 2026-10-20.md.

---
tags: [journal]
---
# Tuesday

Spent the morning fixing my budget spreadsheet and finally worked out why the totals were off. I was annoyed that it took so long. In the evening, Maya came over and we made soup from whatever was left in the fridge. We talked until ten, and I stopped thinking about the spreadsheet.

Run Journal Recap: Summarize current journal entry from the command palette.

After: a summary property appears above the same entry.

---
tags: [journal]
summary: "The budget spreadsheet ate my morning, but making fridge-leftover soup with Maya and talking until ten was the part of the day I wanted to keep."
---
# Tuesday

Spent the morning fixing my budget spreadsheet and finally worked out why the totals were off. I was annoyed that it took so long. In the evening, Maya came over and we made soup from whatever was left in the fridge. We talked until ten, and I stopped thinking about the spreadsheet.

Obsidian usually displays this field in Properties at the top of the note. The block between --- lines is the same information in Markdown, called frontmatter.

A day that stayed frustrating

Before: another entry.

The client sent another round of changes after saying yesterday's version was final. I spent most of the afternoon redoing it and skipped the walk I'd planned. I called my sister after dinner. She made me laugh, but I'm still irritated and tired.

After: the example summary property, with the entry body preserved.

summary: "Another supposedly final revision swallowed my afternoon and the walk I'd planned, and even laughing with my sister after dinner didn't quite shake the irritation."

Setup

1. Install and enable

1. Open Obsidian on desktop and go to Settings → Community plugins.
2. If community plugins are disabled, select Turn on community plugins.
3. Select Browse, search for Journal Recap, then select Install and Enable.

You can also open the community listing. For a downloaded release, see Manual installation.

2. Connect your API account

1. Sign in to the OpenAI API platform and make sure your API account has available billing or credits.
2. Create a key on the API keys page. OpenAI's getting started guide explains API-key setup.
3. In Obsidian, open Settings → Journal Recap and paste the key into API key.
4. For your first recap, keep Base endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1 and Model at the plugin default, gpt-4o-mini. Leave Use custom request template off.
5. Select Test API call. A successful test displays when the key was tested. If you see an error, check Troubleshooting before continuing.

The test sends a short test message rather than your journal entry. It makes a real API request and may incur a charge.

3. Generate your first recap

1. Open a Markdown note with journal text. You can copy a fictional entry above to try it first.
2. Open the command palette with Ctrl+P on Windows/Linux or Cmd+P on macOS.
3. Search for and run Journal Recap: Summarize current journal entry.
4. Wait for the Summarized. notice, then look for summary in the note's Properties. Read it and edit it if needed.

The command works on the active Markdown note; no special folder, filename, template, or Daily Notes setup is required. It processes one entry each time you run it. You can assign a shortcut in Settings → Hotkeys by searching for Journal Recap.

Running the command again replaces the existing summary. With the default settings, other properties and the entry body are preserved.

Use recaps for a journal review

At the end of the week, skim your recaps and open the entries you want to revisit. Here is a fictional overview:

Journal Recap saves the individual summaries. To display them together, you can set up an Obsidian Bases table, filter it to your journal folder, and show the note name and summary property. That overview needs separate setup; the plugin does not create it for you.

Privacy and cost

• What is sent: when you run the summary command, the active note's text, excluding its frontmatter, is sent to the configured endpoint with the prompt and output schema. The default endpoint is OpenAI.
• When requests happen: summaries run on your command. Test API call sends a short test message to the same endpoint. There is no automatic background summarization or telemetry.
• What is saved: the generated recap is written into the note's Properties. Your API key, endpoint, model, prompt, schema, and API-test timestamp are saved in this vault's plugin data. Treat those settings as private when sharing or syncing vault files.
• Provider retention: requests include store: false. This does not guarantee zero data retention; the endpoint provider's policies still apply. See OpenAI's data controls before sending sensitive entries.
• Cost: OpenAI requires an API account with available billing or credits. A ChatGPT subscription does not cover this plugin's API calls. Charges depend on the model and amount of text; see OpenAI API pricing.

Customize your recaps

The defaults are enough to start. To change the recap's voice or focus, open Settings → Journal Recap → Advanced and enable Use custom request template.

• Custom prompt template controls the instructions given to the model. For example, ask for a plainer tone or more focus on the day's relationships.
• Custom output schema controls which properties are returned. Leave it unchanged if you only want to change the writing style. Returned properties replace existing properties with matching names.
• Use each field's Restore default button to reset it, or turn off Use custom request template to use the default prompt and schema again.

You can also change Model or Base endpoint under Connection. A custom provider must support the Responses API and the structured-output request format this plugin uses. Support for Chat Completions alone is not enough.

Troubleshooting

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.

2. Create a journal-recap folder inside your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ folder and copy all three files into it:

   VaultFolder/.obsidian/plugins/journal-recap/
   

3. Restart Obsidian, then enable Journal Recap in Settings → Community plugins.

4. Follow Setup to connect your API account and generate a recap.

Get help

For a bug or suggestion, open an issue. Include your Obsidian and plugin versions, model, endpoint provider, steps to reproduce, and error message. Use a fictional entry when an example is needed, and leave out API keys and private journal text.

For development, testing, and release instructions, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Credits and license

Journal Recap is based on Auto Classifier by Hyeonseo Nam.

This project uses the Dynalist permissive license included in LICENSE.