Bilingual Translate for Obsidian

A simple Obsidian plugin that translates markdown files using OpenAI-compatible APIs. Creates bilingual output with original text followed by translation, line by line.

Features

• Real-time translation: Watch translations appear as each line is processed
• Bilingual output: Original line followed by translated line
• OpenAI-compatible: Works with OpenAI, Ollama, OpenRouter, Azure, and any OpenAI-compatible API
• Smart parsing: Automatically skips code blocks, frontmatter, URLs, and images
• Preserves formatting: Keeps markdown syntax intact

Installation

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the releases
2. Create folder: <YourVault>/.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-bilingual-translate/
3. Copy the files into that folder
4. Restart Obsidian
5. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/solaristdeng/obsidian-bilingual-translate.git
cd obsidian-bilingual-translate
npm install
npm run build

Configuration

Go to Settings → Bilingual Translate to configure:

Setting	Description
API URL	Your OpenAI-compatible endpoint
API Key	Your API key
Model	Model name (e.g., gpt-4o-mini, llama3.1)
Temperature	Controls randomness (0-2). Lower values (0.3) recommended for translation.
Concurrency	Number of parallel translation requests.
Source Language	Language of original text (or auto-detect)
Target Language	Language to translate to

Example API URLs

Provider	URL
OpenAI	https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions
Ollama (local)	http://localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions
OpenRouter	https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions
Azure OpenAI	https://<resource>.openai.azure.com/openai/deployments/<deployment>/chat/completions?api-version=2024-02-01

Usage

1. Open any markdown file
2. Open Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P)
3. Run "Bilingual Translate: Translate current file"
4. Watch as translations appear line by line

You can also set a hotkey for the command in Settings → Hotkeys.

Example

Before:

# Hello World

This is a test document.
It demonstrates the translation feature.

After (translated to Chinese):

# Hello World
# 你好世界

This is a test document.
这是一个测试文档。
It demonstrates the translation feature.
它演示了翻译功能。

What Gets Translated

✅ Regular text paragraphs
✅ Headings
✅ List items
✅ Blockquotes

❌ Code blocks (...)
❌ Frontmatter (--- ... ---)
❌ URLs
❌ Image references
❌ Empty lines

Credits

This plugin was inspired by and built with reference to Kiss Translator, a browser extension for translating web pages. Special thanks to the Kiss Translator project for the translation approach and design inspiration.

License

MIT