Obsidian Authorship

Track and visualize text authorship in Obsidian — see what you typed vs what you pasted.

Inspired by iA Writer's Authorship feature. Compatible with the open Markdown Annotations spec (v0.2).

What it does

• Automatically tracks whether text was typed or pasted using CodeMirror 6 transaction events
• Visual distinction in the editor: AI text gets a gradient highlight, pasted text is subtly marked, reference material is italicized
• Manual marking via commands: select text and mark it as AI, Self, or Reference
• Persists authorship at the end of your markdown files using the Markdown Annotations format
• SHA-256 validation detects when files are modified outside Obsidian
• 100% local — zero network calls, zero cost, open source (MIT)

Commands

Command	Description
Mark selection as AI	Mark selected text as AI-generated
Mark selection as self	Mark selected text as self-authored
Mark selection as reference	Mark selected text as reference material
Toggle highlighting	Show/hide authorship decorations

How authorship data is stored

Authorship annotations are appended to the end of your markdown files, following the Markdown Annotations spec:

Your regular markdown content here...

---
Annotations: 0,42 SHA-256 abc123def456789012345678901234
@Self: 0,20
&AI: 20,22
...

• @ = human-authored text
• & = AI-generated text
• * = reference material
• Ranges use grapheme cluster indexes: start,length
• SHA-256 hash validates integrity when reopening

Settings

• Enable authorship tracking — global on/off toggle
• Author name — your name in annotations (default: "Self")
• Default paste source — how pasted text is classified (Pasted / AI / Reference)
• Show in status bar — per-author character count percentages

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (coming soon)

1. Open Settings > Community plugins
2. Click Browse and search for "Authorship"
3. Click Install, then Enable

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a folder authorship in your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory
3. Copy the downloaded files into that folder
4. Enable the plugin in Settings > Community plugins

With BRAT (Beta Testing)

1. Install the BRAT plugin
2. Add rflpazini/obsidian-authorship as a beta plugin in BRAT settings

Development

npm install
npm run dev      # watch mode
npm run build    # production build
npm test         # run tests
npm run test:coverage  # coverage report

Architecture

Built with SOLID principles. Core domain logic is fully decoupled from Obsidian/CodeMirror APIs:

• src/core/ — Pure domain logic (RangeManager, HashValidator, AuthorshipTracker)
• src/annotations/ — Markdown Annotations parser/serializer
• src/editor/ — CodeMirror 6 integration (StateField, decorations, input detection)
• src/commands/ — User-facing commands
• src/ui/ — Settings tab, modals, status bar
• src/utils/ — Cryptographic hashing, grapheme cluster utilities

License

MIT