Note Companion: AI Transcription, YouTube Capture, and Smart Workflows for Obsidian

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Note Companion is an AI-powered assistant for Obsidian that helps you capture, transcribe, summarize, and work with information faster, right inside your vault.

Whether you’re doing research, learning from videos, taking audio notes, or automating repetitive tasks, Note Companion brings powerful AI workflows directly into Obsidian.

:package: GitHub: https://github.com/Nexus-JPF/note-companion

:puzzle_piece: Plugin Page: https://obsidian.md/plugins?id=fileorganizer2000

:sparkles: What Note Companion Can Do

:clapper_board: Transcribe YouTube videos

Pull transcripts (with multi-language support), even for videos without standard caption tracks.

Supports fallback methods for videos with region restrictions or bot detection.

:studio_microphone: Transcribe audio & video files

  • Fast uploads for small files

  • Automatic large-file handling via pre-signed URLs

  • Supports recordings, voice memos, lectures, and more

  • Ideal for researchers, students, and capture-heavy workflows

:speech_balloon: Chat with your notes

Ask questions, summarize content, or generate new material using your vault context.

:gear: Supports multiple AI providers

Choose whichever works best for you:

  • OpenAI

  • Anthropic Claude

  • Google Gemini

  • Groq

  • Local LLMs with Ollama

  • Custom base URLs for self-hosted LLMs

:house: Self-hosting support

Run your own backend easily. The new SELF-HOSTING.md includes:

  • Docker setup

  • systemd service examples

  • PM2 configuration

  • Environment variable templates

  • Troubleshooting and security notes

Great for privacy-focused users and local-model enthusiasts.

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Note Companion - Recent Updates

What’s New

Web Search for AI Responses

Enable web search capabilities to enhance AI responses with up-to-date information

Powered by OpenAI’s web search feature with automatic citations

Optional “Deep Search Context” mode for more comprehensive results

Perfect for research, fact-checking, and staying current with latest information

Expanded AI Tool Set (30+ Tools)

The AI chat now includes a comprehensive set of tools for vault management:

File Operations:

Create, delete, merge, and organize files

Bulk find/replace across multiple files

Export to PDF, HTML, or plain text

Metadata & Organization:

Extract comprehensive file metadata (frontmatter, tags, links, headings)

Update YAML frontmatter properties

Add tags to files (frontmatter or inline)

Analyze vault structure and get improvement suggestions

Content Management:

Get backlinks and outgoing links

Extract document headings structure

Create reusable note templates

Generate personalized vault organization settings

Search & Discovery:

Semantic search through your vault

Search by file name patterns

Get recently modified files

Open files directly from chat

Atomic Notes Generation

Generate atomic notes from your content

Break down complex documents into focused, single-concept notes

Each atomic note links back to its source

Enable in Settings → Experiments → “Atomic Notes”

Advanced Context Management

Unified context system with support for:

Files (@file)

Folders (@folder)

Tags (@tag)

Search results

Text selections

Lightweight mode for metadata-only context

Context limit indicators

Enhanced Search Capabilities

Deep search context option for more comprehensive web results

Semantic search with improved accuracy

Better integration between vault search and web search

Existing Features (Still Going Strong)

Transcribe YouTube videos - Multi-language support, fallback methods

Transcribe audio & video files - Fast uploads, automatic large-file handling

Chat with your notes - Context-aware AI assistant

Multiple AI providers - OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Groq, DeepSeek

Self-hosting support - Full Docker, systemd, PM2 configurations

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Meeting Recorder & Note Enhancement

Note Companion now includes a powerful Meeting Recorder feature that makes it easy to capture, transcribe, and enhance your meeting notes directly within Obsidian.

Record Meetings Directly in Obsidian

The built-in meeting recorder lets you capture audio directly from your browser’s microphone. Simply click “Start Recording” and the plugin will:

Record high-quality audio in M4A or WebM format (optimized for compression)

Automatically save recordings to your configured folder with date-based filenames

Show real-time recording duration

Handle duplicate filenames automatically

Recordings are saved directly to your vault, so they’re always accessible and backed up with your notes.

Discover Existing Recordings

The plugin automatically scans your vault for existing audio files and adds them to your meetings list. You can also manually trigger a scan to discover recordings you’ve added from other sources. The system tracks:

Recording date and time

File size and duration

Transcription status

Which notes have been enhanced with each recording

AI-Powered Note Enhancement

The real magic happens when you enhance a note with a recording. The “Enhance Note” feature will:

1. Automatically transcribe the recording if it hasn’t been transcribed yet (using OpenAI Whisper)

2. Generate structured content including:

Full transcript

Discussion points

Action items

3. Add embedded audio players so you can listen to the recording directly in your note

4. Merge multiple recordings - enhance the same note with multiple recordings, and all recordings will be listed together

The enhancement process is smart about preserving your existing note content and only adds new structured sections. If you enhance a note that already has enhanced sections from the same recording, you’ll be prompted before replacing them.

Smart Metadata Management

All recordings are tracked with comprehensive metadata stored in your vault. The system remembers:

Which recordings have been transcribed

Where transcript files are located

Which notes have been enhanced with each recording

Whether recordings were discovered or created through the recorder

This metadata ensures the plugin can efficiently reuse transcripts and track the relationship between recordings and notes.

Workflow Example

1. Start a meeting - Click “Start Recording” in the Meetings tab

2. Conduct your meeting - The recording happens in the background

3. Stop recording - Click “Stop Recording” when done

4. Open or create a note - Open the note you want to enhance

5. Enhance the note - Click “Enhance Note” next to your recording

6. Review the results - Your note now contains a full transcript, discussion points, action items, and an embedded audio player

Perfect For

Team meetings and standups

Client calls and interviews

Lectures and presentations

Personal voice memos

Any situation where you want to capture audio and turn it into structured notes

The Meeting Recorder feature integrates seamlessly with Note Companion’s existing transcription and AI capabilities, making it a complete solution for turning spoken content into organized, searchable notes.