ideashell for Obsidian

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Send notes from Obsidian to ideashell (闪念贝壳) — text, tags, folders and images. Sync once to create the note; sync again after editing to update the same note. Nothing is duplicated.

Features

Sync current note	Command palette, ribbon icon, or right-click a file.
Sync a folder	Right-click a folder in the file explorer → Sync folder to ideashell. Recursive.
Sync a selection of files	Cmd/Ctrl-click several files (or folders) → right-click → Sync N notes to ideashell.
Send selected text	Select text in the editor → right-click → Send selection to ideashell. Creates a standalone quick note.
Sync all	Sends every note marked with ideashell: true plus everything under the folders listed in settings.
Folder mapping	Reading/2026/note.md lands in an ideashell folder named Reading/2026. ideashell folders are flat, so the Obsidian path is used as the name. Moving or renaming the folder moves the note on the next sync.
Tags	Frontmatter tags and inline #tags become ideashell tags; an obsidian tag is added so you can filter these notes (configurable).
Images	Local images embedded as ![[photo.png]] (PNG/JPEG/GIF/WebP, ≤ 9 per note, ≤ 10 MB each) are uploaded and attached. Images added later are attached on the next sync.
Auto re-sync (off by default)	A note that was synced before is re-sent a few seconds after you stop editing it. New notes are never sent without you asking.

Sync is one-way: Obsidian → ideashell. Edits made in the ideashell app do not flow back.

Setup

1. Install the plugin — Community plugins → search ideashell, or add this repository in BRAT.
2. In ideashell (web or app) open Settings → MCP and copy your API Key (the MCP access key — the same one you use for Claude / Cursor).
3. Obsidian → Settings → ideashell: choose your region (China / Global), paste the key, click Test.

Usage

Sync one note

Open the note and run Sync current note (Cmd/Ctrl+P), click the shell icon in the ribbon, or right-click the file. The first run creates the note; later runs update it. If nothing changed you get already up to date and no request is made.

Sync a folder or several files

Right-click a folder → Sync folder to ideashell (N notes). Or select multiple files with Cmd/Ctrl-click and right-click → Sync N notes to ideashell. Progress is shown in a notice; the summary reads created / updated / unchanged / failed. Safe to repeat — unchanged notes are skipped.

Send a snippet

Select text → right-click → Send selection to ideashell. The first line becomes the title. This creates a new note every time and is not tracked in frontmatter.

Keep a set of notes in sync

• Run Mark current note for sync to add ideashell: true to a note, and/or list folder paths under Folders to sync in settings.
• Sync all marked notes and sync folders sends all of them.
• Turn on Auto-sync synced notes if you want already-synced notes to be re-sent automatically after edits (debounced; delay configurable).

What ends up in ideashell

• Title: frontmatter title if present, otherwise the file name (truncated to 30 characters — an ideashell limit).
• Body: the markdown body without frontmatter. [[Note|alias]] becomes alias, ![[photo.png]] becomes (photo.png) in the text while the image itself is attached to the note. (Wikilink conversion can be turned off in settings.)
• Tags: obsidian (configurable) + frontmatter tags + inline #tags.
• Folder: named after the Obsidian folder path, created if missing. Notes in the vault root stay unfiled.
• Images: attached at note level (a gallery), not inline.

Sync state in frontmatter

After a successful sync the plugin writes these keys into the note. They are how the plugin knows to update instead of re-create:

ideashell_id: "3ab8b88088673df9b7ea47f70d80cfca"   # ideashell note id
ideashell_hash: "90f30068"                          # text hash; unchanged notes are skipped
ideashell_synced: 2026-08-30T08:44:52.913Z
ideashell_url: https://…/boards/3ab8b8…              # link to the note in ideashell
ideashell_folder: ideashell-test                    # folder the note was last placed in
ideashell_images: [ideashell-test/img/red.png]      # images already attached (not re-sent)

• Delete ideashell_id to make the next sync create a fresh note.
• If you delete the note inside ideashell, the next sync fails with "note not found" — remove ideashell_id and sync again.
• Duplicating a synced file in Obsidian copies the ideashell_id; both copies would then update the same ideashell note. Remove the id from the copy.

Settings

Setting	Default	Meaning
Region / Custom endpoint	China	Which ideashell server hosts your account.
API Key	—	Your ideashell API Key (MCP access key).
Source tag	obsidian	Tag added to every synced note; empty to disable.
Map folders	on	Put notes into an ideashell folder named after the Obsidian folder path.
Folders to sync	—	Vault folders included by Sync all.
Auto-sync synced notes	off	Re-send already-synced notes after edits.
Auto-sync delay	10 s	Wait after the last edit before re-sending.
Convert wikilinks to text	on	[[Note|alias]] → alias.

What is sent, and where

This plugin makes network requests only to the ideashell MCP endpoint you select in settings (https://api.ideashell.cn/ideashell/mcp for China, https://api.ideashell.com/ideashell/mcp for Global, or a custom URL). It sends the title, body, tags, folder name and embedded images of the notes you choose to sync, authenticated with your API Key. Nothing else in your vault is read or transmitted. There is no telemetry.

An ideashell account is required. The API Key grants the same permissions as your other MCP clients (Claude, Cursor, …); reset it in ideashell if it leaks.

Limitations

• One-way sync. Changes in ideashell are not pulled back into Obsidian.
• Image attachments are add-only: removing ![[photo.png]] from the note does not remove the image in ideashell. Non-image attachments (PDF, audio, …) are not uploaded; the embed becomes (file.pdf) in the text.
• Renaming an Obsidian folder creates a new ideashell folder with the new name and moves the notes there; the old (now empty) ideashell folder is left for you to delete.
• Titles longer than 30 characters are truncated (ideashell limit).
• Deleting a note in Obsidian does not delete it in ideashell.
• Batch sync is sequential and paced under ideashell's rate limit (it waits and retries automatically on 429); very large first syncs take a while.

Development

npm install
npm run dev     # watch build → main.js
npm run build   # type-check + production build

Copy main.js, manifest.json, styles.css into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/ideashell/ and reload Obsidian.

License

MIT