Lina

Privacy-first note assistant and search engine for Obsidian. Fast local text search out of the box, with optional semantic search and AI-powered note enrichment.

Current version: 0.3.2 (Alpha).

Alpha: Lina is usable but under active development. Behaviour and internal formats may still evolve between versions. Keep regular backups of your vault.

Help | Glossary | User Manual | Commands Guide | Changelog | Roadmap

What is Lina?

Lina helps you find, connect, and enrich your Markdown notes in Obsidian without taking control away from you. It operates across three distinct layers:

1. Local Search (Works Immediately): Lina reads your Markdown notes locally to build and maintain a fast search index. Text indexing and keyword search happen entirely on your device. No AI provider, API key or network connection is required for local search.
2. Semantic Search (Optional): Find notes by meaning and conceptual relationships even when using different phrasing. Semantic search is powered by vector embeddings and works alongside local text search in a single hybrid-ranked list.
3. AI Note Assistance (Optional): Analyze active notes and execute contextual slash commands (/ask, /tags, /yaml) directly from the sidebar. AI suggestions are only applied to your notes after your explicit review and confirmation.

Quick Start

Get up and running in a few simple steps:

1. Install: Download manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css from the latest release and place them into <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/lina/ (or install via Obsidian Community Plugins once listed).
2. Enable: Turn on Lina under Obsidian Settings > Community Plugins.
3. Set up the Producer first: On the device that will prepare the search data (usually your desktop), choose the Producer role in Settings > Lina and let the initial index finish. Companion devices only consume what the Producer publishes (see Producer and Companion).
4. Synchronise .lina: If you use more than one device, synchronise the whole .lina folder, with all its files and subfolders, together with your vault.
5. Search Notes: Type directly in the Lina sidebar to search your vault immediately with fast local text search.
6. Enable Optional AI Features (Optional): Open Settings > Lina to configure a supported AI provider for semantic search, note analysis, and slash commands.

Features & Capabilities

Search Modes & Resilience

• Search Interface: Features a clean search bar with a compact mode selector dropdown (Text, Hybrid, Semantic), an actions dropdown menu for secondary note analysis tools, a discrete "silent-success" operational status indicator, and direct access to device diagnostics.
• Text Search: Fast, local keyword search matching note titles, paths, and content. Works out of the box with zero external configuration.
• Hybrid Search (Recommended with AI): Blends local text matching with semantic similarity into a unified, ranked list when embeddings are available. If vector embeddings are unavailable or unconfigured on a Companion device, hybrid search automatically and gracefully degrades to local text search.
• Semantic Search: Meaning-based vector search that discovers conceptually related notes across your vault.
• Content Boundaries: Folder, path, and content exclusions are respected across all search modes.

Contextual Slash Commands (/ask, /tags, /yaml)

Type a slash command into the sidebar search bar to interact with your active note context:

• /ask <prompt>: Ask questions about the current note or selected excerpt.
• /tags: Get tag suggestions with checkboxes to apply non-duplicate tags. Suggestions come from the same engine as the note analysis: they start from the vocabulary already used by related notes in your vault and only ask the AI to fill the gaps.
• /yaml: Suggest frontmatter properties safely without overwriting existing data, using the same engine.

/ask, /tags and /yaml act on your active note or selection; they are not search modes.

Explicit Confirmation: Lina never modifies your notes silently. Every AI suggestion requires explicit confirmation before changes are saved to disk.

Supported AI Providers

Lina supports independent configuration for AI Analysis (chat and commands) and Vector Embeddings (semantic search). You can mix and match providers according to your workflow:

• Local AI (Ollama): Operates entirely on your local machine with complete privacy and zero API billing.
• Remote AI (Mistral, OpenRouter): Requires an API key and internet connectivity. API keys are stored securely per device in app.secretStorage and never exposed in logs, manifests, or sync channels. Embedding updates on external providers always require explicit confirmation to prevent unintended API credit consumption.
• API Cost Disclaimer: Lina does not manage, bill, or resell API credits. External API usage is billed directly to your account by the respective provider according to their pricing.

Semantic Search Across Devices

Lina keeps semantic search practical and predictable across desktop and Android:

• Producer prepares search data: The active Producer handles the heavier work of generating embeddings and publishing search artefacts for the vault.
• Companion consumes published data: Companion devices use the synchronised search data without performing heavy background generation or taking ownership of the Producer configuration.
• Safe fallback: If semantic search is not available on a Companion, hybrid search continues with local text search instead of producing misleading results.
• Clear cost control: Cloud embedding updates always require confirmation, so external provider costs remain under your control.

Privacy & Data Boundaries

Lina is built around data ownership and transparent operation:

• Local indexing is not AI sending: Lina reads your notes locally to build the search index. That is separate from sending note content to an AI provider.
• AI only when you ask: Note content is sent to an AI provider only when you explicitly start an AI action (analysis, /ask, /tags, /yaml, folder or Inbox analysis) with a provider you configured.
• Exclusion rules apply before sending: Before content is sent, Lina checks your exclusion rules (excluded folders, path terms and content terms). A note that matches a rule is not sent. If the exclusion policy cannot be validated, the request is blocked and nothing is sent.
• Companion shows, Producer changes: On a Companion the effective exclusions are shown read-only. Change them on the Producer.
• Local secrets: API keys are stored on the current device (app.secretStorage) and are not written to data.json or the synchronised .lina folder.
• Local device configuration: data.json holds this installation's preferences. Avoid synchronising it between devices.
• External API costs: Remote providers (Mistral, OpenRouter) bill you directly and receive the text you send them. Lina does not manage or pay these costs.

See the Help for details.

Settings Information Architecture

Lina organizes settings by what you want to do, using Obsidian's native page navigation:

› Geral / General (Native Page)
  ├── Plugin information, language, and multilingual guidance
  └── Device role, role actions, and friendly local device name (editable on every device)

› Pesquisa / Search (Native Page)
  ├── Semantic search enablement, provider, model, endpoint, credential and connection test
  └── Search language and hybrid ranking weights

› Assistente de IA e Análise / AI Assistant & Analysis (Native Page)
  ├── Provider, model, endpoint, credentials, timeout, and connection test
  └── Inbox and its limit, plus YAML/tag behaviour

› Privacidade e Exclusões / Privacy & Exclusions (Native Page)
  └── Excluded folders, path terms and content terms: editable on the Producer, read-only on a Companion

› Produtor / Producer (Native Page — Producer devices only)
  └── Embedding update, index maintenance, and binary-copy actions

› Diagnóstico / Diagnostics (Native Page)
  └── Synchronisation check, device diagnostics, binary-copy status, and debug

Support & Contact (Root Hub Footer)
├── Support & feedback form link
└── Email support contact with one-click copy button

Settings Experience

• Focused pages: Each area opens in a focused view, reducing scrolling on desktop and mobile.
• Mobile-Optimized Navigation: Each functional domain opens in a focused, full-width native view with a standard Obsidian back button.
• Searchable settings: Obsidian Settings Search can still find controls across all pages.
• Role-aware controls: Producer-only maintenance stays with Producer devices, while Companion shows the information it needs without taking over Producer configuration.

Multi-Device Architecture: Producer & Companion Roles

Lina coordinates multi-device vaults seamlessly across Desktop and Mobile:

• Producer: A desktop device responsible for the heavier work: building search data, generating embeddings, and publishing the artefacts used by the vault.
• Companion: A desktop or mobile device that consumes published search data and uses the existing embedding setup without becoming its source of configuration.
• Choosing a role: On first run, Lina suggests a role for the device. The choice is only saved after your confirmation in Settings > Geral / General.
• Multiple desktops: You can configure more than one Producer. Lina keeps publication controlled so that only the active Producer publishes shared search data at a time.
• Changing the active Producer: In Settings > Geral / General, use the existing role action or the Command Palette to request the transfer. Lina asks for confirmation before applying it.
• Recommended order: (1) install and configure the Producer; (2) let the initial preparation finish; (3) synchronise the vault and .lina; (4) configure the Companion. The order is functional: a Companion needs the artefacts the Producer produces, and cannot replace the Producer.
• Synchronisation: Lina does not depend on a specific sync application. The whole .lina folder, including all files and subfolders, must be synchronised between the Producer and its Companions. Excluding .lina or any part of it breaks the Producer–Companion model. Keep data.json local to each installation.
• Companion-only install: A device that only has a Companion role cannot create the search data by itself. Until a Producer has published an index and the .lina folder has been synchronised, the Companion has no search data to consume.

At startup, the active Producer recovers interrupted embedding publications under the existing ownership and writer protections. Companion and standby devices do not repair shared artefacts. Lina checks the canonical JSONL and manifest before repairing the derived binary copy; detected incomplete or inconsistent publications disable semantic search and automatic embedding updates until recovery or a confirmed rebuild. The JSONL format is unchanged. These checks use existing counts and identities; they cannot distinguish different JSONL generations with the same count and vector identity without a canonical content digest.

Support & Feedback

If you experience issues, have questions, or wish to suggest improvements:

• Support and feedback form
• Email: [email protected]

Contact details are used solely to respond to inquiries and are never shared with third parties.

Development

Contributions and feedback are welcome:

# Install dependencies
npm ci

# Run development build
npm run dev

# Validate changes
npm run lint
npm test
npm run build

License

MIT License