OSM Fetcher

Capture location data from geo: links in your notes, fetch nearby OpenStreetMap (OSM) features via Overpass, and insert details into the note using simple placeholders.

Overview

• Capture coordinates from a geo: link in the current note.
• Query Overpass around that location to find nearby OSM features.
• Pick a feature from a list.
• Update the note:
  • Frontmatter is updated with coordinates and the geo: link.
  • OSM placeholders in the note are filled from the selected feature (raw JSON only where you use {=osm:osm_raw=}).

Workflow

1. Add a geo: link to your note body or frontmatter, for example:
   • geo:51.5074,-0.1278
   • geo:51.5074,-0.1278?z=18
2. Run the command “Capture location from geo link” while the note is active.
3. The plugin:
   • Parses the first geo: link.
   • Updates frontmatter:
     • coordinates: <lat>, <lon>
     • <geoLinkProperty>: geo:... (defaults to geo)
   • Queries your configured Overpass endpoint within the selected radius.
   • Opens a picker with nearby OSM features.
4. After you select a feature, the plugin replaces any {=osm:...=} placeholders in the note using that feature.

OSM placeholders

Placeholders let you insert fields from the selected OSM feature directly into your note content. If you've used my other plugin OMDb Fetcher then this will be familiar to you!

Basic syntax

• Use {=osm:key=} anywhere in the note (body or frontmatter).
• key is matched against the feature’s tags object.
• If the tag exists, the placeholder is replaced with the tag value.
• If there is no data for that key, the placeholder is left unchanged so it can be filled on a later run when data becomes available.

Examples (for a café feature with name and amenity tags):

Name: {=osm:name=}
Type: {=osm:amenity=}

Synthetic placeholders

These do not map directly to a single tag.

• {=osm:osm_raw=}

  • Replaced with pretty-printed JSON for the entire Overpass element, wrapped in a Markdown code block (```json … ```).

• {=osm:osm_tags=}

  • If the feature has tags, replaced with a Markdown table listing all tag key–value pairs:

    {=osm:osm_tags=}
    

    might become:

    | Key | Value |
    | --- | ----- |
    | name | My Café |
    | amenity | cafe |
    

  • If the feature has no tags, {=osm:osm_tags=} is left unchanged.

• {=osm:address=}

  • Replaced with a single-line address built from the feature’s addr:* tags. If addr:full is present, that value is used (trimmed, newlines turned into spaces). Otherwise, address parts are assembled in the order set in Settings → Address part order, separated by comma and space. If there are no address tags, the placeholder is left unchanged.

• {=osm:map_icon=}

  • Replaced with a Lucide icon name (kebab-case, e.g. coffee, hotel) for the feature type, for use in the map view’s icon property. Uses amenity, shop, tourism, then building (when no other applies), historic, highway, man_made. Fallback: map-pin.

Placeholder behaviour

• Placeholders are processed across the entire note content, including frontmatter.
• Keys are case-sensitive and must match the OSM tag keys exactly (e.g. addr:housenumber).
• Unknown keys, or keys without data on the selected feature, are not an error; the placeholder stays in the note for future runs.
• Multiple occurrences of the same placeholder are all replaced when data is available.

Settings

Under Settings → Community plugins → OSM Fetcher you can configure:

• Search radius (m): Distance in meters for the Overpass around query.
• Overpass API endpoint: URL of the Overpass interpreter. Leave the default unless you use your own instance.
• Geo link frontmatter key: Frontmatter property name that stores the geo: link (default: geo).
• Search everything:
  • Off: only returns elements with common tags like name, amenity, shop, tourism.
  • On: returns all OSM elements within the radius.
• Address part order: Comma-separated list of addr part names (e.g. housenumber, street, city, postcode, country). Used when building {=osm:address=} from addr:* tags when addr:full is not set.

Privacy and network

• Requests are only sent to the configured Overpass endpoint when you run the command.
• The plugin does not send telemetry or analytics.

Development

Basic commands for local development:

• npm install — install dependencies.
• npm run dev — build in watch mode.
• npm run build — type-check and build a production bundle.

To use a local build, copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css (if present) into your vault’s .obsidian/plugins/osm-fetcher/ folder and reload Obsidian.