Glossa Flashcards

Turn any text into living vocabulary — an Obsidian plugin that uses AI to generate rich flashcards from selected text, plus a browser extension to capture words from any webpage.

Features

AI Flashcard Generation

Select any word or phrase in Obsidian and let Gemini generate a structured flashcard: dictionary form, word class, translation, and example sentences. Each flashcard is saved as its own note and linked inline to your source text.

You can also create a flashcard manually (without AI) to fill in the fields yourself.

Browser Extension

Select text on any webpage, right-click, and choose "Create glossa flashcard from selection". The text is handed off to Obsidian via a custom URL scheme and the flashcard is generated automatically — no copy-pasting.

Sidebar View

Open the flashcards sidebar to see all flashcards linked to your currently active note at a glance.

Practice Mode

Practice your flashcards with a simple card-flip interface. Filter by any property (e.g. word class, group) or practice all flashcards linked to a specific note. The order is randomised each session.

Fully Customisable

Every part of the pipeline is configurable: the AI prompt, output fields, note body template, frontmatter properties, card front/back templates, and practice filters. The defaults are set up for vocabulary learning (Finnish, but any language works).

Privacy & Network Access

This plugin makes network requests to the following external service:

• Google Gemini API (generativelanguage.googleapis.com) — used to generate flashcard content from your selected text. Requests are sent only when you explicitly trigger flashcard generation. Your Google AI Studio API key is stored locally and never shared.

No other data is collected or transmitted.

Installation

Obsidian Plugin — via BRAT (recommended)

BRAT lets you install plugins that are not yet in the community directory.

1. Install BRAT from the Obsidian Community Plugins.
2. Open Settings → BRAT → Add Beta Plugin.
3. Enter the repository URL: https://github.com/chiunhau/obsidian-glossa-flashcards
4. Click Add Plugin, then enable Glossa Flashcards in Settings → Community Plugins.

Obsidian Plugin — Manual

1. Go to the latest release and download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css.
2. In your vault, create the folder .obsidian/plugins/glossa-flashcards/.
3. Move the three downloaded files into that folder.
4. In Obsidian, go to Settings → Community Plugins, enable community plugins if prompted, and toggle on Glossa Flashcards.

API Key Setup

Glossa uses the Google Gemini API, which has a free tier.

1. Go to aistudio.google.com/apikey and generate an API key.
2. In Obsidian, open Settings → Glossa Flashcards.
3. Paste your key into the API key field.

The default model is gemini-2.5-flash-lite. You can change it to any Gemini model ID (e.g. gemini-2.5-flash) in the same settings page.

---

Browser Extension

You can install the official extension from the Chrome Web Store.

Once installed, select any text on a webpage, right-click, and choose "Create glossa flashcard from selection". Obsidian must be open for the handoff to work.

Manual Installation (Developer)

1. Clone or download this repository.
2. In Chrome (or any Chromium browser), go to chrome://extensions/.
3. Enable Developer mode (top-right toggle).
4. Click Load unpacked and select the apps/extension/ folder.

---

Usage

Action	How
Create flashcard from selected text (AI)	Select text → right-click → Create flashcard for "…", or use the command palette
Create flashcard manually	Select text → right-click → Create flashcard for "…" manually
Create flashcard from typed input	Click the ribbon icon or run Create flashcard from input
Open sidebar	Click the sidebar ribbon icon or run Open flashcards sidebar
Practice all flashcards	Click the practice ribbon icon or run Practice flashcards
Practice flashcards from current note	Right-click in editor → Practice all flashcards in current note

After AI generation, the selected text in your note is automatically replaced with a wiki-link to the new flashcard (e.g. [[juosta|run]]).

---

Configuration

All settings are under Settings → Glossa Flashcards.

Setting	Description
API key	Your Google AI Studio key
Model	Gemini model ID
Flashcards folder	Where notes are saved (default: Flashcards/)
Language	Language you're learning — injected into the AI prompt
Prompt	Full AI prompt; supports {{language}} and {{source_text}}
Output fields	fieldKey: description pairs defining what the AI returns
Title	Which output field becomes the note filename
Body	Note body template using {{fieldKey}} placeholders
Properties	Frontmatter config using {{fieldKey}} or {{source_text}}
Card front / back	Practice card templates using {{title}} or any property key
Filter fields	Comma-separated property keys available as filters in practice setup

License

MIT