Underleaf

English · 简体中文

Read your notes in two languages. Underleaf places translations beneath the original paragraphs in Obsidian Reading view, without changing your files.

Features

• Translate or hide a paragraph with a hotkey, or translate visible paragraphs as you scroll.
• Use OpenAI-compatible services, Anthropic, or Google Gemini, including compatible local models.
• Preserve inline code and math, with an optional translation cache.
• Choose custom languages and prompts, discover models, and switch between English and Chinese interfaces.

Installation

Desktop only. Requires Obsidian 1.8.7 or later.

Install Underleaf from Settings → Community plugins → Browse, or open its community listing and choose Add to Obsidian.

For manual installation, download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release, place them in your vault's .obsidian/plugins/underleaf/ folder, then reload Obsidian and enable the plugin.

Usage

1. In plugin settings, choose a protocol, enter your API token and model, and select a translation language. Leave URL blank for the official service. For a custom service, enter only its origin, such as http://localhost:11434, without /v1.
2. Assign a shortcut to Underleaf: Translate / hide the paragraph under the pointer in Obsidian's Hotkeys settings. Open a note in Reading view, hover over a paragraph, and press your shortcut to translate or hide it.
3. Click the translation icon at the top of the note to translate visible paragraphs as you scroll. Turning it off cancels pending work and keeps completed translations.

Settings save automatically. Custom prompts require {{ __TEXT__ }} and can use {{ __LANG__ }} for the target language; leave the prompt blank to use the default.

Privacy and cost

• Translation sends requested paragraphs, your prompt, and the target language only to the configured service. Model discovery and connection testing also contact that service. No vault-wide uploads, analytics, or access outside the vault.
• Hosted services usually require your own account and API credits; their fees and data policies apply. Compatible local services need no hosted account.
• API tokens are stored unencrypted in the plugin's data.json and may be included in vault sync. Optional cache.json stores translations and content hashes; disabling the cache clears it.
• Obsidian cannot abort requests already sent, so cancellation or timeout may still incur charges.

Development

Node.js 24.12+. Run npm ci, then npm run check for oxfmt, oxlint, tests, type checking, and the build. Use npm run format to format changes.

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