reMarkable Sync for Obsidian

Sync your reMarkable Paper Pro documents to your Obsidian vault as high-fidelity PDFs.

If you find this plugin useful, please consider supporting its development or buying me a coffee:

Have an idea for a new feature? Vote on upcoming features or suggest your own!

Features

• Direct Cloud Sync - connects to reMarkable Cloud API
• High-fidelity PDF rendering - all 9 pen types with calibrated colors, widths, and opacity
• Full color support - 14 colors including shader and highlighter
• Text rendering - paragraph styles (headings, bold, bullets, checkboxes, numbered lists)
• Layered drawing support - preserves layer ordering
• Extended pages - vertically scrolled pages rendered correctly
• Incremental sync - only downloads changed documents
• Auto-sync - configurable sync interval
• Annotated PDFs - merges your annotations with the original PDF background

Supported pen types

Ballpoint, Fineliner, Marker, Pencil, Mechanical Pencil, Calligraphy Pen, Paintbrush, Highlighter, Shader

Installation

1. Download remarkable-sync.zip from the latest release
2. Extract it — you'll get a remarkable-sync/ folder
3. Copy that folder into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/
4. Open Obsidian Settings > Community Plugins > Enable "reMarkable Sync"
5. Go to the plugin settings and authenticate with your reMarkable account

Note: This is a desktop-only plugin (requires Obsidian desktop app).

Privacy & data

• This plugin connects to the reMarkable Cloud API (*.remarkable.com) to download your documents. No data is sent to any other service.
• Authentication tokens are stored locally on your machine at ~/.remarkable-sync/token.json, outside the Obsidian vault.
• No telemetry or analytics are collected.

Authentication

1. Go to https://my.remarkable.com/device/desktop/connect to get a one-time code
2. Enter the code in the plugin settings (Obsidian Settings > reMarkable Sync)
3. Auth tokens are stored locally at ~/.remarkable-sync/token.json

Usage

• Click the tablet icon in the Obsidian ribbon to sync
• Or use the command palette: reMarkable Sync: Sync now
• Documents are saved as PDFs in your configured vault subfolder
• Enable auto-sync in settings for hands-free operation

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
Sync folder	reMarkable/	Subfolder in your vault for synced documents
Auto-sync	Off	Sync automatically on a timer
Sync interval	5 min	How often to auto-sync

Development

Project structure

src/                          # TypeScript source code
  cloud-client.ts             # reMarkable Cloud API (sync15/v3 protocol)
  rm-parser.ts                # v6 binary .rm format parser
  pdf-renderer.ts             # PDF generation via pdf-lib
  document-converter.ts       # ZIP → PDF pipeline (jszip + pdf-lib)
  sync-manager.ts             # Sync orchestration with incremental state tracking
  main.ts                     # Obsidian plugin entry point
  settings.ts                 # Settings tab UI
  constants.ts                # Shared constants

reference_sheets/             # Ground truth: PDFs exported from reMarkable + raw .rm files
compare-reference-sheets.ts   # Metadata comparison tool
compare-pixels.mjs            # Pixel-to-pixel rasterized comparison (MuPDF WASM)
compare-pdfs.ts               # PDF comparison utility
re-render.ts                  # Re-renders .rm files to PDFs for comparison
verify-coords.mjs             # Coordinate mapping verification

run-sync.ts                   # Standalone CLI sync (no Obsidian dependency)
release/remarkable-sync/      # Pre-built plugin files (main.js, manifest.json, styles.css)

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm

Setup

git clone https://github.com/TimDommett/Remarkable-Sync---Obsidian-Plugin.git
cd Remarkable-Sync---Obsidian-Plugin
npm install

Build

npm run build    # Production build with type checking
npm run dev      # Watch mode (rebuilds on changes)

The build output is main.js in the project root.

Testing outside Obsidian

You can test the sync engine without Obsidian using the standalone CLI:

npx tsx run-sync.ts    # Sync all documents to ./reMarkable

Get a one-time auth code from: https://my.remarkable.com/device/desktop/connect

Testing in Obsidian

1. Run npm run build
2. Copy or symlink main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/remarkable-sync/
3. Reload Obsidian (Ctrl+R) and enable the plugin

Reference sheets

The reference_sheets/ directory contains PDFs exported directly from reMarkable alongside their raw .rm source files. These are the ground truth for validating rendering accuracy.

Each subdirectory covers a specific pen tool or feature with every color and thickness:

• Pen tools: Ballpoint, Calligraphy Pen, Fineliner, Highlighter, Marker, Mechanical Pencil, Paintbrush, Pencil, Shader
• Features: Text, Checklist, Layers, Pages
• Templates: Blank, Grid medium, Lined

Use the comparison tools to validate rendering:

npx tsx compare-reference-sheets.ts   # Compare metadata (colors, widths, dimensions)
node compare-pixels.mjs               # Pixel comparison against reference PDFs
npx tsx re-render.ts                   # Re-render .rm files and compare output

Architecture notes

• FileOps interface abstracts file I/O so the same core code works in both Node.js (CLI) and Obsidian (plugin)
• reMarkable v6 .rm format is parsed from binary with zero dependencies — see rm-parser.ts
• Coordinate mapping converts .rm canvas coordinates (1404x1872, centered X) to PDF points (514pt wide)
• CRDT text is decoded with topological sorting for correct character ordering
• Runtime dependencies: pdf-lib (PDF creation) and jszip (ZIP reading), bundled into the plugin

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to help improve this plugin:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Run npm run build to verify your changes compile
4. Test in Obsidian (see "Testing in Obsidian" above)
5. Commit your changes (git commit -m "Add my feature")
6. Push to your branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
7. Open a Pull Request

Bug reports

Please open an issue with:

• A description of the problem
• Steps to reproduce
• Your Obsidian version and OS
• Any relevant error messages from the developer console (Ctrl+Shift+I)

Acknowledgments

The .rm file parsing implementation in this plugin is based on / inspired by rmscene by Rick Lupton, originally written in Python. Licensed under the MIT License.

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Tim Dommett

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software, but derivative works must also be open source under the same license.

Third-party licenses

This project bundles the following MIT-licensed libraries:

• pdf-lib by Andrew Dillon (and its dependencies)
• jszip by Stuart Knightley et al. (and its dependencies: pako, lie, readable-stream)

The .rm file parser is derived from:

• rmscene by Rick Lupton — MIT License

See THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES for full license texts.