Clipboard Monitor

Turn your clipboard into a live feed into any note — copy something, anywhere, and it lands at your cursor automatically. Built for capturing a stream of screenshots and snippets (e.g. live-noting a meeting) without ever switching back to Obsidian.

Features

• True background capture — inserts into the target note even while Obsidian isn't the focused app. Alt-tab into a call, keep copying screenshots, and they still land in your notes.
• Pin a note and go — the active note becomes the target the moment watch mode starts; no picker, no per-copy confirmation
• One-key toggle — a single Toggle watch mode command starts or stops watching depending on current state, so one hotkey handles both directions
• Ribbon icon shortcut (on by default) — a left-ribbon button that opens the settings picker with one click, whether or not watch mode is currently running
• Text and images — copied text and copied images (e.g. screenshots, pasted from any app) are both supported, saved and linked exactly like a normal manual paste
• Content-type scope — per session, watch for text only, images only, or both
• Managed text formats — a reusable list of insertion templates (Raw, Bullet, Timestamped, Callout, or your own), selected per session and remembered as "last used"
• Automatic stop — closing, deleting, or moving the target note stops watch mode immediately, with a notice — no silent orphaned session
• Status bar indicator — always shows on/off state, target note, content-type scope, and active format at a glance
• Configurable polling frequency — Fast, Moderate, or Slow, to trade responsiveness for CPU usage
• Clear clipboard after image insert (opt-in) — clears the system clipboard right after an image is saved and inserted
• Debug logging (opt-in) — verbose watch-mode activity in the developer console, for troubleshooting
• Localised UI — English, French, Spanish, and Arabic (with right-to-left layout), automatically matching Obsidian's language setting

Desktop only. Clipboard polling relies on Electron's clipboard APIs, which aren't available on mobile — the plugin declares isDesktopOnly and won't install there.

Usage

Start watching

Run Start watch mode from the command palette (Cmd/Ctrl P) with the note you want to capture into open and active. That's it — watch mode reuses your last-used content-type scope and text format, so this is the fast path for repeat use.

The status bar shows something like:

Clipboard Monitor: Meeting Notes — Text & Images — Callout

Copy anything matching the active scope — text or an image — and it's inserted at your cursor in the target note, formatted with the active template.

Start with different settings

Run Start watch mode (choose settings) to pick the content-type scope and text format for this session before starting. Your choices become the new "last used" defaults for next time.

Stop watching

Run Stop watch mode, or just close, delete, or move the target note — any of those stops watch mode automatically, with a notice.

Toggle watching with one hotkey

Bind a single hotkey to Toggle watch mode (Settings → Hotkeys) to start or stop with one key: it starts watch mode (using the last-used scope and format, same as Start watch mode) if it's currently stopped, or stops it if it's currently running. The dedicated Start watch mode, Start watch mode (choose settings), and Stop watch mode commands are still available if you'd rather bind them separately.

Ribbon icon

A clipboard icon in the left ribbon opens Start watch mode (choose settings) on click, whether or not watch mode is currently running — cancel the modal to leave a running session untouched, or confirm new settings to restart with them. Turn it off with the "Show ribbon icon" setting (see Settings); the change takes effect the next time the plugin loads.

Text formats

Templates use {{content}} for the copied text (or an image's generated embed link) and {{time}} for the current time (HH:MM). Ships with:

Format	Template
Raw	{{content}}
Bullet	- {{content}}
Timestamped	**{{time}}** — {{content}}
Callout	> [!note]\n> {{content}}

Add, edit, delete, or reorder formats in Settings → Clipboard Monitor; a format applies to both text and images, so under Bullet, a captured image becomes - ![[Pasted image ....png]]. Reset to defaults restores the shipped four if you want to start over.

Settings

Open Settings → Clipboard Monitor to configure:

Setting	Default	Description
Polling frequency	Moderate	Fast, Moderate, or Slow — how often the clipboard is checked. Faster notices new content sooner but uses more CPU.
Clear clipboard after image insert	Off	Clears the entire system clipboard (all formats) right after an image is saved and inserted. Re-copying the same image afterward is treated as new content and reinserted.
Text formats	4 built-in	Managed list of insertion templates — add/edit/delete/reorder, or reset to defaults.
Debug logging	Off	Logs polling, dedupe, and insertion activity to the developer console, prefixed [Clipboard Monitor]. Takes effect immediately, even mid-session.
Show ribbon icon	On	Shows the left-ribbon shortcut icon. Takes effect the next time the plugin loads (e.g. after restarting Obsidian or toggling the plugin off and on).

Target note, content-type scope, and text format are deliberately not global settings — they're chosen per watch-mode session and remembered as "last used."

Localisation

The plugin UI is available in English (default), French, Spanish, and Arabic (right-to-left). Language is detected automatically from Obsidian's language setting.

To add a new language:

1. Copy src/ts/i18n/locales/en.json to src/ts/i18n/locales/<code>.json (e.g. de.json)
2. Translate all values — keys must stay identical to en.json
3. Register it in src/ts/i18n/i18n.ts:

   import de from "./locales/de.json";
   export const locales: Record<string, Partial<Translations>> = { en, fr, es, ar, de };
   

4. If the language reads right-to-left, add its code to RTL_LOCALES in the same file
5. Rebuild with npm run build

Installation

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Copy them into your vault at .obsidian/plugins/clipboard-monitor/
3. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 18
• An Obsidian vault for testing

Setup

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Copy .env.example and set your vault plugin path
cp .env.example .env

Scripts

# Production build → dist/main.js
npm run build

# Development build (inline sourcemaps)
npm run dev

# Copy dist/ to your local vault plugin directory
npm run deploy

# Build + deploy in one step
npm run dev:deploy

# Rebuild + deploy whenever src/ changes
npm run dev:deploy:watch

# Remove dist/
npm run clean

# Lint / format / test
npm run lint
npm run format
npm test

Releases

1. Bump the version — choose patch, minor, or major:

   npm run release:prepare patch
   

   Updates package.json and manifest.json, then commits both as "chore: bump version to X.Y.Z".

2. Make your code changes and commit them:

   git add -A && git commit -m "feat: ..."
   

3. Publish — pushes the branch, creates a bare version tag (e.g. 0.2.0), and pushes the tag:

   npm run release
   

   The tag push triggers the GitHub Actions workflow, which builds, tests, and publishes the release.

License

MIT