Margin Annotations

English | 简体中文

Word-style annotations for Obsidian. Select text, write a comment in the sidebar, reply to it, resolve it or delete it. Each annotation and reply carries a timestamp.

Annotations are stored as a pair of <span> markers directly in the Markdown source, so AI agents (Claude Code and similar) can read and act on them straight from the file. No export or API is needed.

Note: adding, editing or deleting an annotation modifies the note's source text (it inserts or removes the <span> markers). The plugin's interface is currently in Chinese; this README is in English first, with a Chinese version below.

Features

• Annotate any selection, including across lines, paragraphs, list items and headings.
• Six highlight colors (yellow, green, blue, pink, purple, orange), changeable per annotation.
• Sidebar in Obsidian's right dock with one card per annotation:
  • write the comment in the sidebar right after selecting text;
  • cards sit next to the text they annotate and scroll with the note (can be switched off for a plain list);
  • scroll the sidebar to scroll the note;
  • reply, resolve / unresolve, edit, change color, delete;
  • author name and timestamp on every annotation and reply.
• A draft annotation is saved automatically when you click anywhere else, as long as it has text.
• Click empty space in the sidebar to deselect; press Delete / Backspace to delete the selected annotation.
• Reading view shows highlights and a small 💬 button; right-click works on highlights too.
• Tables: select text inside a single table cell to annotate it. Selections spanning several cells or rows are not supported.
• Code blocks: select anything inside a fenced code block to annotate the whole block; the markers are placed on their own lines just outside the fences, so the code stays untouched.
• Horizontal rules are skipped automatically.

Installation

From the Community Plugins browser (once the plugin is published)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse.
2. Search for "Margin Annotations", then select Install and Enable.

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Copy them into <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/margin-annotations/.
3. Reload Obsidian and enable Margin Annotations under Settings → Community plugins.

Usage

1. Open a note in editing mode (source or live preview) and select some text.
2. Run the command Add annotation (or right-click → Add annotation). Assign a hotkey under Settings → Hotkeys by searching for "Add annotation".
3. Write your comment in the sidebar card and press Cmd/Ctrl + Enter, or just click elsewhere. The card is saved.
4. Use the ⋯ menu on a card to reply, resolve, edit, recolor or delete. Click a card to select it; a reply box appears at the bottom.
5. Open or close the sidebar with the ribbon icon or the command Open/close annotation sidebar.

Action	How
Add	Select text, run Add annotation, type in the sidebar
Reply	Click a card, type in the reply box, press Enter
Resolve / unresolve	⋯ menu on the card, or the right-click menu
Delete	⋯ menu, Delete key on a selected card, or the command Delete selected annotation
Toggle follow mode	Settings → Margin Annotations → follow note (off = plain list)
Author name	Settings → Margin Annotations

Annotations cannot be created in reading view, because reading view cannot be reliably mapped back to the source. Switch to editing mode to add them.

File format (for AI agents)

One annotation is a start marker, the annotated text and an end marker. The comment lives on the end marker's data-note attribute:

<span class="ann-s" data-id="k3f9" data-color="yellow"></span>Annotated text, possibly spanning several paragraphs.
Last line.<span class="ann-e" data-id="k3f9" data-color="yellow" data-note="Too formal, make it conversational" data-author="sky" data-time="2026-10-09 13:36" data-resolved="1" data-replies="[{&#34;a&#34;:&#34;sky&#34;,&#34;t&#34;:&#34;2026-10-09 13:37&#34;,&#34;c&#34;:&#34;Done&#34;}]"></span>

• data-id pairs the start and end markers.
• data-color is one of yellow, green, blue, pink, purple, orange.
• data-author / data-time (optional) are the author and creation time.
• data-resolved="1" marks a resolved annotation.
• data-replies (optional) is a JSON array: a author, t time, c content.
• data-note is the comment, HTML-entity escaped (for example 
 is a newline).

The plugin also keeps a hidden HTML comment (<!-- ann-guide:start ... ann-guide:end -->) at the end of every note that has annotations. It tells an AI agent how to work with them: handle only unresolved annotations, mark each one resolved by adding data-resolved="1" once the change is done (remove it to reopen), and ask questions by appending an entry to data-replies instead of editing blindly. The comment is marked as "do not delete or edit" for agents, is invisible in reading view, is hidden in live preview (switchable in the settings), is refreshed when the plugin updates it, and is removed again when the last annotation is deleted.

Example prompt for an agent:

Read every <span class="ann-e" ... data-note="..."> annotation in xxx.md.
The text an annotation refers to lies between the ann-s and ann-e markers with the same data-id.
Skip annotations with data-resolved="1". Revise the text according to each note (and its data-replies discussion),
then remove both markers of the annotation. Do not touch text without annotations.

Known limitations

• Without this plugin, the markers are invisible empty <span> elements: your text is intact, but no highlights are shown.
• If an annotation's start or end falls inside Markdown syntax such as **bold**, rendering may be off.
• Overlapping annotations stack their colors in reading view.
• Table annotations must stay within one cell. Code block annotations always cover the entire block, never single lines. Fenced code blocks inside blockquotes are not recognized as code blocks.

License

MIT