English | 简体中文

ScholarBridge

An academic-writing bridge for Obsidian: LaTeX ↔ Markdown conversion, formula-aware diffing, and fully local AI translation.

Features

LaTeX ↔ Markdown conversion

• Convert selected text or pasted LaTeX through a shared intermediate representation (Scholar IR), so both directions round-trip predictably.
• Supports the common academic constructs: equation, align, gather, multline, tables (tabular with booktabs/multirow/multicolumn), figures, algorithm/algorithmic, lists, quotes, and verbatim blocks.
• Conservative by design: constructs outside the supported grammar are preserved verbatim, and uncertain parses never rewrite your source.
• Export the active note to .tex, export a whole folder as fragments, or run a project export that writes latex/main.tex + latex/sections/*.tex.

Formula-aware diff

• Compare two notes (or a note against any other version) block by block, with tokenization that understands Chinese, English, and math formulas.
• Tables are diffed row by row; each change can be accepted or rejected individually, and a change is only written when its original block still matches — never approximated.

Local translation (llama.cpp)

• Chinese ↔ English translation of selections, paragraphs, sections, or only the blocks changed since the last pass, with math, code, and links protected from translation.
• Powered by llama.cpp's llama-server: everything runs on your machine, nothing is sent to any cloud service.
• Every translation is shown in a preview before anything is written; you can insert below, replace, or create a translated copy.
• Glossary support (term => translation, term => preserve to keep terms verbatim) with YAML import, plus a persistent LRU translation cache so re-runs are instant.

Requirements

• Obsidian 1.8.7 or later, desktop only (the translation feature manages a local process, which mobile cannot do).
• For translation: a llama.cpp llama-server executable and a GGUF model — or any llama-server instance you already have running.

Installation

From the community plugin directory (once published): Settings → Community plugins → Browse → search for "ScholarBridge".

Manual: copy manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/scholar-bridge/, then enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins.

Getting started with translation

1. Download or build llama.cpp, then open Settings → ScholarBridge and set:
   • llama-server executable path,
   • GGUF model path,
   • host/port (defaults: 127.0.0.1:8080).
2. Run the command ScholarBridge: Start local translator. The plugin launches llama-server for you and shuts it down when idle or when Obsidian closes.
   • Leave the executable path empty to connect-only mode: point host/port at a server you started yourself.
3. Select some text and run ScholarBridge: Translate selection (or translate a paragraph/section from the command palette). Review the preview, then apply.

Privacy

All conversion, diffing, and translation run locally. The plugin performs HTTP requests only to the llama-server host you configure (default 127.0.0.1) and does not collect or send any telemetry.

Known limitations

• The LaTeX parser is intentionally conservative: unsupported macros/environments pass through verbatim rather than being converted.
• Setext-style headings (Title\n===) are not recognized; use ATX headings (#, ##).
• Formula diffs are token-syntactic — they highlight differences but do not prove mathematical equivalence.
• Diffing runs on the main thread; blocks longer than ~100,000 characters are reported as one whole-block replacement.
• Very old llama.cpp builds may use different llama-server CLI flags and need configuration adjustments.

Development

npm install
npm run dev       # esbuild watch
npm run build     # typecheck + production bundle → main.js
npm test          # vitest unit + fixture + mock-server tests

License

MIT