Tandem Comments

Quote-anchored comment threads for Obsidian notes. Comments live in a single block at the end of the file — your prose stays untouched, and AI assistants can read, write, and act on them with nothing but file access.

Features

• Comment on any selection — via command palette, hotkey, or right-click menu
• Sidebar threads — reply, resolve, reopen, delete, re-anchor orphaned comments
• Live highlights in the editor; click a highlight to jump to its thread
• Live re-anchoring — comments follow your text as you edit; if an anchor's text disappears, the comment becomes orphaned and can be re-attached to a new selection
• Resolve = remove by default, keeping files clean (history mode available in settings)
• Reading view pill — the comment block renders as a compact "💬 N comments" pill
• AI-ready by design — the block is plain, self-describing JSON; the settings tab exports a skill file that teaches Claude Code the format

Installation

Tandem Comments is in the Obsidian community plugin directory: in Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Tandem Comments, then Install and Enable.

Manual install: download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/tandem-comments/ and enable it in Settings → Community plugins.

How it works

Comments are stored in a fenced code block at the end of the file. The text above it is never modified by commenting — no inline markers, no HTML spans, no IDs in your prose.

Your note text. We should cut prices hard in Q3.

```tandem-comments
// Schema: { "<id>": { anchor:{exact,prefix,suffix,pos?}, status:open|resolved, thread:[{author,ts,text}] } }
// Anchor = quote from the prose. To locate: search for "exact", disambiguate via prefix/suffix.
{
  "a1f3": {
    "anchor": { "exact": "cut prices hard", "prefix": "We should ", "suffix": " in Q3", "pos": 26 },
    "status": "open",
    "thread": [
      { "author": "Leon", "ts": "2026-06-10T10:24:00Z", "text": "Too aggressive?" }
    ]
  }
}
```

Each comment is anchored by a quote (W3C TextQuoteSelector): the exact text plus a little surrounding context, with a character offset as tie-breaker.

Usage

1. Select text in a Markdown note
2. Run Add comment (command palette or right-click)
3. Write your comment in the sidebar — reply, resolve, or delete from the comment cards

Working with AI assistants

Because comments are plain JSON inside the note, an assistant needs no plugin, API, or MCP server — reading and writing the file is enough. Ask it to review a note and it can answer in your comment threads; ask it to address your comments and it can edit the passage and explain the change in the thread, so every edit stays trackable and discussable.

This shines on long-form writing, where you usually want subtle, surgical changes — not an AI rewrite of the whole piece. Comments pin your feedback to exact passages, and the assistant edits only what you pointed at:

The morning market in Hoi An wakes before the tourists do. Vendors stack
mangosteen into careful pyramids while the river light is still gray.
…2,000 more words…

You leave comments where the draft needs work — "weaker verb here?" on one sentence, "this paragraph drags, tighten it" on another — then hand off:

❯ claude "address my comments in hoi-an-draft.md — keep everything else exactly as it is"

Claude edits those two passages, replies in each thread with what it changed and why, and the other 2,000 words stay byte-for-byte identical. You review the highlighted edits in Obsidian, reply where you disagree, resolve where you're happy.

For Claude Code, Settings → Export Claude skill writes a ready-made skill to ~/.claude/skills/obsidian-tandem-comments/ that teaches it the format and conventions.

Why a block at the end of the file?

Inline comment markers break plain-text workflows: they show up in exports, confuse other tools, and make diffs noisy. Tandem Comments keeps annotations out of your prose entirely — the file remains a normal Markdown document that happens to carry its review thread with it.

License

MIT