Obsidian Copilot: The Best AI Integration for Your Notes
TL;DR
The Obsidian Copilot plugin brings AI assistance directly into Obsidian, eliminating the need to switch between your notes and a browser. The video covers installation, setup, built-in use cases (summarizing, explaining, translating), and creating custom prompts for automating recurring workflows like weekly reviews. ---
Key Concepts
Copilot plugin
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A community Obsidian plugin that embeds an AI chat interface directly in your vault
Custom prompts
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User-defined instructions that can automate complex, repeatable note-taking tasks
Saved conversations
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Chat history that can be stored as notes inside Obsidian for later reference
Notes
§Installation & Setup
- Install via Community Plugins → search "Copilot" → Install → Enable
- Key settings to configure immediately:
- Default model: supports GPT-3.5, Claude 3.5, Gemini, Llama, and others
- API key: paste your OpenAI (or other provider) key under API Settings
- Always Save and Reload after changes or they won't apply
§UI Overview
- Model switcher lets you change AI models on the fly — ensure matching API key is set
- Save as Note button preserves conversations to a
copilot-conversationsdirectory inside your vault
§Use Case 1 — Summarize Notes
- Select all text in a long note → run "Summarize Selection"
- Useful for quickly refreshing memory on old notes without re-reading in full
§Use Case 2 — Explain Like I'm Five
- Highlight a difficult concept → prompt AI to explain it in simpler terms
- Example: understanding the LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) topic modeling concept in plain language
§Use Case 3 — Translation
- Select text → ask AI to translate to target language (e.g., Korean)
- Eliminates need for a separate translation tool; output is ready to share immediately
§Use Case 4 — Custom Prompt: Automated Weekly Review
- Problem: manually carrying over incomplete tasks and building next week's agenda is tedious
- Solution: a custom prompt that reads the current weekly note and generates the next one
- Weekly note template structure used:
- Review of last week (achievements, highlights)
- Goals for next week
- Schedules → subdivided into: Key Tasks (prioritized), Appointments, Deadlines
- Steps:
Actionable Takeaways
- Install the Copilot plugin and configure your API key — save and reload to activate
- Use "Summarize Selection" to quickly re-engage with old or lengthy notes
- Use translation prompts to share notes across languages without leaving Obsidian
- Build a weekly review custom prompt referencing a template note to automate agenda creation each week
- Save important AI conversations as notes so they're searchable and persistent in your vault
Quotes Worth Keeping
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The only limitation is your imagination.