Flowtaker Inbox

Send messages from Telegram to your Obsidian vault.

The bot runs directly inside Obsidian. Text yourself a note, tag a task, or send a voice message — it lands in your vault within seconds.

How it works

You → Telegram bot → Obsidian plugin (polling) → vault/inbox/note.md

The plugin polls Telegram every 30 seconds. Files are created locally in your vault folder, so iCloud, Obsidian Sync, or any other sync solution picks them up automatically.

Features

• Text notes — any message is saved as a .md file with YAML frontmatter
• Tags — #tag in your message becomes tags: [tag] in frontmatter and is stripped from the body
• Forwarded messages — source is recorded in forwarded_from frontmatter field
• Tasks (#todo) — bot asks where to route them: sprint or backlog, then appends as - [ ] task
• Voice transcription — voice messages are transcribed via Groq Whisper and saved as notes
• /status — bot replies with the last saved filename

Note format

Filename: DDMMYYYY_HHMMSS.md

---
created: 2026-07-04T15:30:00
source: telegram
type: text
tags: [idea, work]
---

Your message text here

Setup

1. Create a Telegram bot

Each user needs their own bot — the plugin polls Telegram directly from your computer, so a shared bot can't tell which vault a message belongs to.

1. Open @BotFather
2. Send /newbot → set a name and username
3. Copy the Bot Token (1234567890:AAF...)

2. Get your Telegram User ID

Message @userinfobot — it replies with your numeric ID.

3. Install the plugin

From Obsidian (after community approval): Settings → Community plugins → Search "Flowtaker Inbox" → Install

Manual install:

VAULT="$HOME/path/to/your/vault"
mkdir -p "$VAULT/.obsidian/plugins/flowtaker-inbox"
cp main.js manifest.json "$VAULT/.obsidian/plugins/flowtaker-inbox/"

Then: Settings → Community plugins → enable "Flowtaker Inbox"

4. Configure

Open Settings → Flowtaker Inbox:

• Paste your Bot Token
• Enter your Allowed User ID
• Adjust paths if needed (defaults work for most setups)

Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Bot Token	Token from @BotFather	—
Allowed User ID	Only this user's messages are processed	—
Inbox Path	Folder for incoming notes	inbox
Sprint Path	File for tasks routed to sprint	daily.todos.4.md
Backlog Path	File for tasks routed to backlog	backlog.md
Polling Interval	How often to check for messages (seconds, min 5)	30
Groq API Key	For voice transcription. Get one at console.groq.com	—

Tasks workflow

Send a message with #todo:

Buy oat milk #todo
Write blog post #todo

The bot replies with inline buttons: 📋 To sprint / 📦 To backlog.
Tap one — tasks are appended as - [ ] ... to the configured file.

Use #todos to add a context line (plain text, not a checkbox):

Project planning session #todos
Define MVP scope #todo
Write tech spec #todo

Voice transcription

Requires a Groq API key (free tier available).

Send a voice message → plugin downloads and transcribes it via whisper-large-v3-turbo → saves to inbox with type: voice in frontmatter.

Troubleshooting

Messages not appearing

• Check Bot Token and User ID in plugin settings
• Make sure you're writing to your own bot
• Open Obsidian console (Ctrl+Shift+I → Console) for errors

Plugin stops after Obsidian restart

• Normal behavior — lastUpdateId is saved in data.json, no messages will be duplicated on restart

Voice not transcribing

• Add Groq API key in settings
• Voice messages must be under Telegram's file size limit (~20 MB)

License

MIT