Scriben for Obsidian

Your meetings land in your vault as markdown. The notes you choose to share go back, so Scriben can answer using your own context.

Scriben records meetings with a pen or a phone and writes the transcript, summary and action items. This plugin puts that in the vault you already keep, and — only for folders you name — lets Scriben read what you have written.

What it does

Meetings into your vault. Each recording becomes one markdown note with frontmatter, a summary and unchecked action items, filed in a folder you pick. Sync runs when Obsidian opens, on a schedule you choose, or whenever you press the microphone in the ribbon.

Your notes back to Scriben. Off by default. When you turn it on you name the folders, and only those folders are ever read. Everything else in the vault stays where it is.

Your writing is never overwritten

The plugin owns the region between two markers and nothing else:

---
scriben_ref: "n_4cafbe9bea0e"
---
#meeting #northwind          ← yours, kept

<!-- scriben:begin -->
# Pricing review with Northwind
## Summary
They want 40 seats.
<!-- scriben:end -->

## My take                   ← yours, kept
Push for annual billing.

Re-syncing refreshes only what is between the markers. Anything you add above or below it is carried through untouched, and a file you wrote yourself at that path is appended to rather than replaced.

Filenames are derived from the note's permanent reference, not its title, so a re-summarised meeting updates in place instead of filing a second copy — and your [[wikilinks]] keep resolving.

What is read, and what is not

• Scriben looks for its own notes inside the folder you chose, and nowhere else. It never lists the rest of your vault. If you move a synced note somewhere else, the next sync writes a fresh copy back in that folder.
• Nothing is shared until you turn on Share chosen folders and name at least one folder. The default is empty, and empty means nothing is sent.
• Only .md files inside those folders are read. Subfolders count; a folder whose name merely starts with a shared one does not.
• The content Scriben receives is what you wrote — the plugin strips its own managed region and the frontmatter before sending, so it never sends your meeting notes back to the service they came from.
• Unchanged files are not re-sent.

Install

From Obsidian — Settings → Community plugins → Browse → "Scriben".

Manually — download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/scriben/, then enable it in Community plugins.

Connect

1. Settings → Scriben → Connect
2. A code appears. Approve the vault in the browser and enter that code.
3. That is it — the first sync starts on its own.

The code binds the approval to the vault that asked for it, so a link someone sends you cannot connect a vault you do not control.

Disconnect removes the token and forgets what was shared. Your notes stay in the vault; nothing is deleted.

Settings

Folder	where meeting notes are filed (default Scriben)
Sync when Obsidian opens	on
Keep syncing in the background	off; when on, every 15 minutes to 6 hours
Share chosen folders	off
Folders	one per line; empty shares nothing

The Connection line tells you what is happening without a "test" button — who you are connected as, how many meeting notes are in the vault, and when the last sync ran.

Requirements

A Scriben account, and Obsidian 1.4.0 or newer. Desktop and mobile both work.

Development

npm install
npm run dev     # watch build
npm test        # the rules that protect your vault
npm run build   # main.js

The logic that decides what is written and what may be sent lives in src/markdown.mjs and src/plan.mjs, apart from the Obsidian API, so it can be tested without an app running. If you change either, the tests in test/ are the ones to read first.

Privacy

No telemetry. No analytics. The plugin talks to app.scriben.ai and nothing else, and only when you have connected it.

License

MIT