Kobo Smart Importer

A community plugin for Obsidian that imports highlights and annotations from your Kobo eReader's SQLite database.

Features

• Direct Database Import: Reads directly from the KoboReader.sqlite file on your device or from a local copy.
• Accurate Book Position: Calculates the global position of highlights within the book (percentage), taking chapters into account.
• Flexible Templating: Use custom templates with variables like {{text}}, {{annotation}}, {{chapter}}, {{location}}, and more.
• Conditional Logic: Supports basic conditional rendering (e.g., {% if annotation %}...{% endif %}).
• Incremental Import: Appends new highlights to existing notes without overwriting.
• Duplicate Detection: Prevents importing the same highlight twice.

Usage

1. Connect your Kobo eReader to your computer via USB.
2. In plugin settings, set the database path to either:
   • Direct from device: E:\.kobo\KoboReader.sqlite (Windows) or /Volumes/KOBOeReader/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite (Mac)
   • Local copy: Copy the file from your Kobo and set the path to that location
3. Run the command "Import Kobo highlights" from the command palette.
4. The plugin will scan for highlights and import them into your configured folder.

Templating

You can customize how highlights are formatted using the settings.

Available Variables

• {{text}}: The highlighted text
• {{annotation}}: Your note/annotation
• {{chapter}}: Chapter title (if available)
• {{location}}: Position in book as percentage (0-100)
• {{date_created}}: Date the highlight was created
• {{title}}: Book title
• {{author}}: Author name

Example Template

> {{text}}

{% if annotation %}**Note:** {{annotation}}{% endif %}

*— {{date_created|date('DD MMM YYYY')}}{% if location %} · {{location}}%{% endif %}*

Installation

1. Download the latest release.
2. Extract the files into your vault's .obsidian/plugins/kobo-smart-importer folder.
3. Enable the plugin in Obsidian settings.

Development

1. Clone this repository.
2. Run npm install to install dependencies.
3. Run npm run dev to start the development build in watch mode.

Acknowledgements

This project was partially inspired by October, a Kobo highlights extraction tool for Readwise by Marcus Crane.