Kobo Highlights Picker & Inboxer

An Obsidian plugin to import Kobo highlights selectively, organize them into intermediate inbox notes, and gradually turn them into insight notes at your own pace.

This plugin is built for people who want to think with their highlights, not simply dump them into Obsidian.

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💡 Workflow At a Glance

This plugin turns the typical bulk-import process into a deliberate, multi-stage workflow. Instead of creating hundreds of notes at once, you get a reviewable inbox that respects your attention, time, and cognitive load.

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⚙️ How It Works: A Step-by-Step Guide

1. Sync Highlights from Kobo

• The plugin reads your KoboReader.sqlite file.
• It identifies all books with highlights and lets you choose which ones to import.
• Previously imported books are clearly marked, so you only sync what's new.

2. Review in Intermediate Notes

• For each book, a single Intermediate Note is created in an "inbox" folder (e.g., Kobo-Inboxes/).
• New highlights are safely appended to the end of the note—no duplicates.
• Each highlight is a structured block, ready for your thoughts:

  > Highlight text...
  - [ ] memo:: 
  

3. Add Memos (Your Thoughts)

• An empty memo:: is an unprocessed thought. It's a placeholder for you to reflect on the highlight.
• When you have an idea, fill in the memo:

  > Highlight text...
  - [ ] memo:: This is my thought! It connects to another idea.
  

• If you're not ready, just leave it empty.

4. Create Insight Notes

• Run the "Create Insight Note" command.
• The plugin scans your intermediate notes for non-empty memos.
• Each filled memo is converted into a new Insight Note in your "insights" folder (e.g., Kobo-Insights/).

5. Automatic Linking

• After an insight note is created, the original intermediate note is updated automatically.
• The memo:: line is replaced with a link to your new, permanent note:

  > Highlight text...
  insight:: [[This is my thought!]]
  

• This creates a powerful link between the original source and your own knowledge.

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✨ Features

• Selective Import: You choose which books to sync.
• Incremental & Safe: Only new highlights are added. Your existing notes are safe.
• Inbox-style Workflow: Intermediate notes act as a dedicated space for thinking.
• Memo-driven Note Creation: You decide when a thought is ready to become a permanent note. No note spam.
• Automatic Progress Tracking: The plugin keeps track of total highlights and created insights, caching stats in the frontmatter for performance.
• Configurable: Set your own folder paths for inboxes and insights.
• Philosophy-first Design: Your knowledge is created only when you decide it's ready.

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📁 Example Folder Structure

Kobo-Inboxes/
  ├─ Thinking, Fast and Slow.md
  └─ The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.md

Kobo-Insights/
  ├─ System 1 vs System 2.md
  └─ Paradigm Shifts.md

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🙏 Acknowledgements

This project was originally inspired by obsidian-kobo-highlights-import by OGKevin.

The original project provided a solid foundation for importing Kobo highlights. This plugin started as a cloned codebase and has since been heavily redesigned and extended with a different workflow, data model, and philosophy focused on incremental thinking and deliberate note creation.

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📜 License

MIT License