Elf Obsidian plugin

Elf is an Obsidian plugin that brings AI writing assistance into your vault. It supports six providers and three distinct modes of action.

Features

• Collaborate — the AI continues your current paragraph from the cursor position.
• Rewrite — the AI rewrites selected text in place, using surrounding context so the result fits seamlessly into the document.
• Variations — the AI generates multiple alternative rewrites of the selection; a modal lets you preview, accept, copy all, or regenerate.
• Prompt library — create and edit prompts for each mode, stored in a prompts.md file in your vault.
• File link resolution — embed [[wikilinks]] in any prompt template; the linked file's contents are appended to the user message automatically.
• Dataview integration — dataview and dataviewjs code blocks inside linked files are rendered to markdown tables before being sent to the model.
• Command palette commands with default hotkeys.
• Right-click context menu when text is selected.

Supported Providers

Provider	Notes
OpenAI	Requires an API key.
Anthropic	Requires an API key.
Google	Requires an API key (Gemini).
Mistral	Requires an API key.
Ollama	Local server — no API key needed. Configure the base URL.
OpenRouter	Single key that routes to many models.

Configuration

Open Settings → Elf.

1. Select a Provider and enter your API key (or Ollama base URL).
2. Models load automatically — pick from the dropdown or click Refresh.
3. Set Variations count (1–10, default 3) — how many alternatives are generated each time.
4. Under Default Prompts, choose which prompt is used for each mode's default command.
5. Under Prompt Library, set the path to your prompts.md file and edit prompts inline.

Commands

Command	Hotkey	Description
Collaborate: continue writing	Ctrl/⌘⇧C	Inserts AI continuation after the cursor
Rewrite: rewrite selection	Ctrl/⌘⇧R	Replaces selection with AI rewrite
Variations: generate variations	Ctrl/⌘⇧V	Opens variations modal
Collaborate: pick a prompt…	—	Fuzzy-pick a Collaborate prompt
Rewrite: pick a prompt…	—	Fuzzy-pick a Rewrite prompt
Variations: pick a prompt…	—	Fuzzy-pick a Variations prompt
Select provider and model…	—	Switch provider and model

Variations modal

• ↑ / ↓ or mouse — navigate options.
• Enter — accept highlighted variation.
• Shift+Enter — regenerate a new batch.
• Ctrl/⌘+A — copy all variations to the clipboard (numbered list).
• Esc — cancel.

Right-click menu

Right-click selected text to access Rewrite with AI, Rewrite with AI…, and Generate variations….

Prompt Templates

Prompts use {{placeholder}} variables:

Placeholder	Available in	Description
{{before}}	All modes	Collaborate: paragraph up to the cursor. Rewrite/Variations: up to 500 characters before the selection.
{{after}}	Rewrite, Variations	Up to 500 characters after the selection
{{selected}}	Rewrite, Variations	The currently selected text
{{n}}	Variations	Number of variations to generate

File links

Any [[wikilink]] in a prompt template is resolved before the prompt is sent:

1. The link is replaced inline with [FILE: path/to/file.md].
2. The file's contents are appended at the end of the user message under [CONTENTS OF FILE: path/to/file.md].
3. dataview / dataviewjs blocks inside the linked file are rendered via the Dataview plugin API (if installed).
4. Wikilinks inside linked files are resolved recursively; circular references are safely deduplicated.

Default system prompts

Each mode has a default system prompt stored as YAML front-matter in prompts.md:

---
default_system_prompt_collaborate: "..."
default_system_prompt_rewrite: "..."
default_system_prompt_variations: "..."
---

Individual prompts can override this by including a ### System prompt section. If the section is absent, the mode default is used.

Developing

Setup

git clone <repo>
cd elf-obsidian-plugin
npm install
npm run build

Copy the built files into your vault:

<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/elf-obsidian-plugin/
├── main.js
├── manifest.json
└── styles.css

Enable the plugin under Settings → Community plugins → Installed plugins.

Run npm run dev for watch mode — esbuild rebuilds main.js on every change.

Project Structure

src/
├── main.ts                    # Plugin entry point
├── types.ts                   # Shared types and default values
├── engine.ts                  # Collaborate, Rewrite & Variations logic
├── file-resolver.ts           # [[wikilink]] and Dataview block resolution
├── prompt-file.ts             # Prompt library serialisation / parsing
├── settings-tab.ts            # Settings UI
├── variations-modal.ts        # Variations navigation modal
├── providers/
│   ├── base.ts                # LLMProvider interface + HTTP helpers
│   ├── factory.ts             # createProvider() + default models
│   ├── openai.ts
│   ├── anthropic.ts
│   ├── google.ts
│   ├── mistral.ts
│   ├── ollama.ts
│   └── openrouter.ts
└── tests/
    ├── __mocks__/
    │   └── obsidian.ts
    ├── setup.ts
    ├── engine.test.ts
    ├── file-resolver.test.ts
    ├── prompt-file.test.ts
    └── providers.test.ts

Adding a New Provider

1. Create src/providers/<name>.ts implementing LLMProvider:

   export class MyProvider implements LLMProvider {
     async complete(request: LLMRequest): Promise<LLMResponse> { … }
     async listModels(): Promise<string[]> { … }
   }
   

2. Add the value to ProviderType in types.ts.

3. Register it in createProvider() and PROVIDER_DEFAULT_MODELS in factory.ts.

4. Add a label to the PROVIDERS array in settings-tab.ts.

Testing

npm test

Unit tests run without API keys. Integration tests are skipped automatically when the relevant key is absent. Copy .env.example to .env and fill in keys to run them:

cp .env.example .env
npm test

License

MIT

Disclaimer

This was written, in great part, with recourse to generative AI. In particular, I made use of a mixture of models within Windsurf to make a large part of this happen.