Sourcebook for Obsidian

A local-first source and note system for creative work—built for designers, deck makers, video creators, and every creator working with AI.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/bf838780-e9f7-406f-9722-e3411ea23e78

Sourcebook turns scattered project material into visual, reusable Books. Collect almost any kind of source in one masonry-style library: existing Vault files, images, video, audio, PDFs, web pages, links, posts, short text, and supported AI conversations. Keep where it came from, add the creative note that explains why it matters, and bring exactly the right context to your next task.

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Built for creative projects

• See a project, not a folder tree. A visual masonry view brings references, working files, links, posts, and conversations together. Create as many Books as you need—for a product, a presentation, a film, a client, or an idea.
• Keep the source attached. Cards retain source URLs and available metadata. Jump back to the original page when you need to check, cite, or reuse it.
• Write the reason, not just the filename. Add a Book-specific note to each material: the creative intent, decision, caveat, or instruction that future you (and an AI) needs to understand.
• Work with nearly every common format. Keep files alongside images, video, audio, PDFs, links, posts, web captures, and AI-chat material instead of maintaining separate collections for each.

A library that belongs in your Vault

Sourcebook is not a separate workspace or a file silo. Add the files that already live in your Vault, then manage them beside new links and captured web material. When you add a material to any note, Sourcebook writes a normal Obsidian link or embed. Your original resource keeps its native backlinks, and your project note stays ordinary, editable Markdown.

Existing Vault files keep one authoritative copy; removing an item from a Book never deletes its source file.

Give AI the context it actually needs

Select multiple materials and turn them into a ready-to-use AI context. The selection can be copied to the clipboard with the relevant files, links, and your material notes, so the reasoning behind the selection travels with it.

This makes it much faster to start work in any product that accepts files and prompts—such as Codex, Claude Code, Figma, or Lovable—without repeatedly collecting references, choosing attachments, and rewriting the same brief. Sourcebook never sends material automatically: you choose exactly what to pack and where to use it.

Optional: collect from the browser with Sourcebook Picker

Sourcebook Picker is a Chrome and Edge extension for quickly growing a Book from the web. Pair it with the Sourcebook plugin in your current Vault using a local pairing code, then capture material while you browse resource-heavy pages or AI chats.

Picker supports images, video, audio, web pages, links, selected text, posts, and supported AI conversations. Current chat support includes ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, and Grok; current post support includes X and Xiaohongshu. Captures retain their original source and available media information.

How it works

1. Create a Book for a project, question, client, or creative direction.
2. Add existing Vault files, short text, links, or browser captures. Add a note explaining how each material should inform the work.
3. Add selected material to a project note whenever you need it. Files remain native links or embeds; text and notes remain editable prose.
4. Select only the material needed for the next AI task, then copy or hand off the prepared context.

What we are exploring next

We are exploring direct local-agent workflows for tools such as Codex, Claude Code, and Grokbot. The goal is to let an agent help organize materials and to save approved outputs, project progress, and collaboration results back into Sourcebook. This is a direction, not a currently released capability: users will remain in control of what an agent can read or save.

Installation

Community Plugins

Once Sourcebook is listed in the Obsidian Community directory:

1. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse.
2. Search for Sourcebook.
3. Install, enable it, then open Sourcebook from the ribbon or Command Palette.

Manual installation

For a pre-release or a local build, download the matching GitHub Release assets main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css, then place them in:

<your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/sourcebook/

Enable Sourcebook under Settings → Community plugins. Back up an important Vault before trying any pre-release build.

Requirements

• Obsidian 1.8.0 or later.
• Desktop Obsidian. Mobile is not supported yet.
• A Chromium browser is needed only for the optional Sourcebook Picker.

Privacy

Sourcebook operates in the open Vault only. It does not scan unrelated note bodies, upload Vault content, or contact an external service. The optional Picker receiver accepts requests only on the local machine after explicit pairing.

Permissions and local operations

• Sourcebook lists Vault files only when you open the Add Vault file picker; it excludes Sourcebook-managed and already-managed files from that choice.
• Clipboard access is used only after you press a copy action. Sourcebook never reads your clipboard.
• Copy files for AI is an explicit desktop-only action. On macOS and Windows it uses the operating system's file-list clipboard so selected local files can be pasted into an agent. It invokes only a fixed system clipboard helper with validated paths—never a shell command constructed from web or note content. Short text selected for that action is written as a temporary .txt file under the operating system's temporary directory.
• Deleting a managed Book or imported asset uses Obsidian's configured trash behavior. Removing a material from a Book only unlinks it and preserves its original Vault file.

Contributing

Bug reports, creative workflows, documentation fixes, accessibility improvements, and focused pull requests are welcome. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md and the architecture guide.

License

MIT. See LICENSE and third-party notices.