PicFast Image Uploader

Obsidian plugin that uploads pasted or dropped images to your PicFast instance — no PicGo middleman, no extra config.

Why

Every other image uploader for Obsidian routes through PicGo / PicList / PicGo-Core. That means three layers of config (Obsidian → PicGo → your image host) and one extra process to keep alive. PicFast already speaks a clean REST API, so this plugin talks to it directly with requestUrl and zero dependencies.

Features

• 📋 Upload from clipboard — Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+V or click the ribbon icon
• 🖱️ Drop or paste — configurable behaviour per paste / drop event (Off / Ask / On)
• 🏷️ Filename template — rename screenshots to <note>-<timestamp> on upload: {{fileName}}, {{imageNameKey}} (frontmatter), {{DATE:YYYYMMDD-HHmmss}}, {{originalName}}; duplicates get -2, -3… suffixes. Empty = keep the original name. Scope is configurable (pasted only / pasted + dragged).
• 🛡️ Local mirror (optional) — keep a copy of every uploaded image in <note>.assets/ next to the note; if an upload fails with the mirror on, the image is saved locally instead so the paste never lands empty
• 🪄 Auto-discovery — reads ~/.config/picfast/config.json (Linux/macOS/Windows) and PICFAST_URL / PICFAST_TOKEN env vars; values you set in Obsidian settings always win
• 🌐 No CORS pain — uses Obsidian's requestUrl, which goes through Node's net stack
• 🌏 i18n — English + Simplified Chinese

PDF and other non-image drops are intentionally ignored — PicFast is an image host, not a file host, so those fall through to Obsidian's default behaviour (save to vault attachment folder).

Install

Distribution is via BRAT — the plugin is not currently listed in the Obsidian Community Plugins marketplace.

1. Install BRAT from Community plugins.
2. BRAT settings → "Add Beta plugin" → paste atbeta/picfast-obsidian-plugin (use atbeta/picfast-obsidian-plugin#v0.3.0 to pin a specific release).
3. Enable PicFast Image Uploader in Community plugins.

For manual installation, download main.js, manifest.json, styles.css from the latest release, drop them into .obsidian/plugins/picfast-image-uploader/ inside your vault, then enable the plugin under Community plugins.

Configuration

Settings → PicFast:

Setting	Description
Base URL	Your PicFast instance root, e.g. https://picfast.example.com. Auto-filled if PICFAST_URL env var is set, or if ~/.config/picfast/config.json exists.
API token	Optional. Bearer token for authenticated uploads; auto-filled from PICFAST_TOKEN env or CLI config.
Upload behavior	Off (Obsidian default for images), Ask each time (recommended — shows a small menu per paste/drop), Always upload.
Filename template	Empty (keep original names) or a token pattern, e.g. {{fileName}}-{{DATE:YYYYMMDD-HHmmss}}. Applies to pasted images by default; dragged files can be included via Rename scope.
Rename scope	Pasted images only (default) or Pasted and dragged images.
Local mirror	Off by default. When on, each uploaded image is copied to <note name>.assets/ next to the note; failed uploads fall back to a local save so the image is never lost.
Insert format	Markdown (), Bare URL, HTML (<img>), BBCode ([img]url[/img]).

Pairing with the picfast CLI

If you have the picfast npm CLI installed globally, run npx picfast config set url https://your-instance and npx picfast config set token … once. The plugin reads the same config file and you never have to type the URL twice.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/atbeta/picfast-obsidian-plugin
cd picfast-obsidian-plugin
npm install
npm run dev      # watch mode
npm run build    # production build → main.js

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

Related

• atbeta/picfast — server, web UI, MCP, VSCode extension, CLI
• Obsidian plugin submission requirements