Obsidian Cognitive Assistant

A plugin for Obsidian.md designed to enhance users' writing and learning experiences. Drawing on best practices and research in the cognitive sciences, this assistant serves as an effective extended cognition system, or an "exo-cortex" for users, creating an optimized digital learning environment.

A screenshot showing the layout and result of a conversation See GitHub

Key Features

  • Interactive interface: Through conversational interaction with ChatGPT, users can seamlessly engage in writing and learning tasks.
  • Customizable templates: With savable and selectable templates, it's effortless to prompt the assistant according to the user's specific needs.
  • Secure and accessible data storage: All interactions and instructions are saved and stored in markdown files (.md) on the user's local computer, ensuring full control and easy access to data.

Description

The Obsidian Cognitive Assistant is an open-source project built on GitHub, primarily using Typescript and Svelte. The plugin operates within Obsidian.md and interacts with OpenAI's API to facilitate intelligent user interactions.


Although still in its proof-of-concept and testing phase, the Obsidian Cognitive Assistant has shown considerable promise. Early observations have highlighted significant improvements in the usability of ChatGPT, particularly with the saveable system prompts and the integration of users' existing note-taking systems.

Next Steps

As the solo developer and researcher for this project, I have been diligently fine-tuning the Obsidian Cognitive Assistant's capabilities. With its open-source nature, I eagerly look forward to recruiting more testers and developers to contribute to its continuous growth and refinement. The goal remains to provide a tool that empowers users to learn more efficiently and intuitively, ultimately extending their cognitive capabilities in a digital world.