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

Share & showcase
1

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.

3

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

4

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.

5

# Interactive Flash Cards Feature

Note Companion now includes a powerful **Flash Cards** feature that transforms any content into interactive study materials directly within your Obsidian vault.

## What It Does

The Flash Cards template uses AI to automatically generate interactive flashcards from your notes, transcripts, or any text content. Each flashcard uses native Obsidian HTML features (details/summary tags), so they work seamlessly without requiring any additional plugins.

## Key Features

**Smart Content Extraction**

- Automatically identifies key concepts, definitions, facts, relationships, and important information

- Extracts testable knowledge points: definitions, concepts, formulas, processes, dates, names, theories, and principles

- Creates 10-30 flashcards depending on content length and density

- Focuses on fundamental concepts, frequently referenced information, and easy-to-forget details

**Intelligent Organization**

- Includes frontmatter with total count, topics array, and creation date

- Randomizes flashcard order to create a varied, shuffled study experience

- Mixes different topics, difficulty levels, and question types together

- Groups related concepts with 3-7 main topics identified from your content

**Interactive Study Experience**

- Click to reveal answers - each flashcard uses Obsidian’s native details/summary tags

- Questions test understanding, not just recall

- Answers are complete but concise (typically 1-4 sentences)

- Includes context and examples when helpful

- Supports markdown formatting: **bold**, *italic*, lists, and [[internal links]]

**Native Obsidian Integration**

- Works entirely within Obsidian - no external tools needed

- Flashcards are stored as regular notes in your vault

- Supports internal linking to related concepts

- Fully searchable and organized with your other notes

## How to Use

1. Select any note or content you want to turn into flashcards

2. Use the Flash Cards template in Note Companion’s formatting options

3. The AI analyzes your content and generates interactive flashcards

4. Study by clicking each question to reveal the answer

5. Use the frontmatter topics to organize and find your flashcard sets

## Perfect For

- Students preparing for exams

- Researchers reviewing complex topics

- Language learners practicing vocabulary

- Professionals studying new concepts

- Anyone who wants to turn their notes into active study materials

The Flash Cards feature seamlessly integrates with Note Companion’s existing AI capabilities, making it easy to transform transcripts, meeting notes, research papers, or any content into effective study tools.

6

I cannot get this reliably working with Local LLM. I want to use Local LLM server and connect all my computers to it. Using openweb UI. Everytime I enter my local address 192.168.1.54:3000 I get a error to enter the API key in plugin settings. But there is nowhere to enter this API key. This plugin is very broken for local LLM use.

7

You’re hitting this because the plugin needs two things when using a local LLM from all your computers:

  1. Where to enter the “API key”
    The plugin calls it License Key. It’s in Settings → Note Companion → General (first tab), at the top: “Note Companion License Key”. Put any value there (e.g. local-self-hosted-key). The error is referring to this field.

  2. What the Server URL is for
    The address you enter (e.g. 192.168.1.54:3000) must be the Note Companion backend, not Open WebUI. The plugin talks only to the Note Companion server; that server then talks to your local LLM (Open WebUI/Ollama).

To get “all computers → one local LLM” working:

  • On the machine that has your local LLM (e.g. 192.168.1.54), run the Note Companion web app from this repo (see SELF-HOSTING.md) on a port (e.g. 3010 so it doesn’t clash with Open WebUI on 3000).
  • In that backend’s .env, point it at your LLM (e.g. OPENAI_API_BASE=http://192.168.1.54:3000/v1 if Open WebUI exposes an OpenAI-compatible API).
  • In the plugin on each computer: Advanced → enable Self-hosting and set Server URL to your Note Companion backend (e.g. http://192.168.1.54:3010), and General → set Note Companion License Key to something like local-self-hosted-key (with user management disabled on the backend, any key works).

So: the “API key” is the License Key in the General tab; the Server URL must be your self-hosted Note Companion backend, not Open WebUI directly.