Install and quick start

Requirements

  • Obsidian 1.12.2 or newer.
  • Desktop only (Windows, macOS, Linux). The plugin declares isDesktopOnly: true; it does not run on mobile.
  • At least one AI backend you can reach: a hosted API key, a local Ollama server, or an agent CLI installed on the same machine.
  • The editor-ai-daemons:* command-line integration needs the same 1.12.2 — it is the release that added the API.

Install

Community plugins

Once the plugin is available in the community catalog:

  1. Go to Settings → Community plugins.
  2. Disable Restricted mode if it is enabled.
  3. Select Browse, search for AI Editor, install it, then enable it.

Manual installation

  1. Download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release.
  2. Copy them into <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/editor-ai-daemons/.
  3. Reload Obsidian and enable AI Editor in Settings → Community plugins.

BRAT (bleeding edge)

BRAT installs plugins straight from a GitHub repository and keeps them updated. Expect breakage.

  1. Install Obsidian42 - BRAT from Settings → Community plugins → Browse and enable it.
  2. Run BRAT: Add a beta plugin for testing from the command palette.
  3. Paste https://github.com/dsebastien/obsidian-ai-editor.
  4. Enable AI Editor in Settings → Community plugins.

The setup wizard

The wizard opens by itself the first time the plugin loads. It has six steps and you can leave at any of them.

  1. Welcome — what the plugin does, and where API keys are stored.
  2. Backend — pick a provider, paste a key, name a model, and select Test connection.
  3. Editors — which of the seeded personas are on.
  4. Voice profile — optional vault notes describing how you write.
  5. When editors run — summoned only (default) or daemon mode, with the cost implication stated.
  6. Summary — what was configured, and whether it can actually run a review.

Nothing is written until the last step. The wizard edits a draft and applies it as one update, so cancelling at any point leaves your settings exactly as they were. The single exception is the flag that records that the wizard has had its chance, so a dismissed wizard is not re-offered on every launch.

Re-run it whenever you like: Settings → AI Editor → Behavior → Setup → Run setup wizard, or the Run setup wizard command. A re-run seeds its draft from your current settings, so a second pass edits rather than resets. The wizard adds a backend; it never edits an existing one.

Test connection

The backend step can check a backend before you rely on it. It sends one small request through the exact same path a real review takes, so a pass means reviews will work — not just that the endpoint answers. Three answers are possible:

  • Connection works — you are done.
  • Reached, but not usable — the key and the endpoint are fine, but the model did not answer in the structure the plugin needs. Try a stronger model.
  • Failed — credentials, network, timeout, or configuration. The message says which.

The check uses a 60-second timeout of its own rather than your configured request timeout. A local model that is still loading can time out here and work fine for real reviews; the message tells you when that is what happened.

Doing it by hand

  1. Settings → AI Editor → Backends → Add backend. Pick a provider, fill in what it needs, save. See Set up a backend.
  2. Set it as the Global default backend, or assign it to individual editors.
  3. Make sure at least one editor is enabled under Editors — six are seeded on first load.
  4. Open a note and run Review current note from the command palette, or select Review on the persona rail in the top-right corner of the editor.

What gets seeded on first load

Six editors, one panel, and default action bindings — all fully editable, all deletable.

Editor What it looks for
Concision Editor Padding, hedging, sentences that can lose half their words
Devil’s Advocate Weak arguments, unsupported leaps, the obvious counterexample
Fact Checker Claims that need a source, a number, or a qualification
Flow & Structure Editor Order, transitions, paragraphs that fight the reader
Humanizer Machine-generated fingerprints: uniform rhythm, inflated phrasing
Beginner Reader Undefined jargon, skipped reasoning steps, unstated prerequisites

The Pre-publish review panel bundles Devil’s Advocate, Flow & Structure Editor, Beginner Reader and Humanizer behind one charter: is this ready to publish under the author’s name?

Default action bindings: rephrase, summarize and simplify → Concision Editor; humanize → Humanizer; critique and identify assumptions → Devil’s Advocate; find evidence → Fact Checker. Continue writing and Say more are deliberately left unbound — no seeded persona is an authorial voice, so any default would be a bad one.

Seeding happens once and never overwrites anything you already configured.

Next