Obsidian Parallel Reader

中文文档

Split-view reading for Obsidian — your original note on the left, AI-generated summary cards on the right, with scroll-sync highlighting.

Inspired by this reading workflow demo.

Features

• Adaptive segmentation — the LLM decides natural topic boundaries. Short sections merge, long ones split. No dependency on markdown headings.
• Scroll-sync — scrolling the editor auto-highlights the matching card on the right.
• Streaming — real-time SSE streaming for OpenAI Chat and Anthropic APIs, so you see progress as it generates.
• 20+ providers — Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter, Groq, DeepSeek, Moonshot, Ollama, LM Studio, and more. Plus Claude Code CLI and Codex CLI backends.
• Persistent cache — summaries are cached by content SHA-1 + settings fingerprint. Reopen a note and cards appear instantly. Edits or config changes show a stale banner.
• Rich rendering — cards render through Obsidian's MarkdownRenderer, so tables, bold, code, and wikilinks all work natively.
• Card editing — right-click any card to copy, edit, delete, or jump to source.
• Export — save cards as a Markdown note in your vault, or copy to clipboard.
• Bilingual UI — full Chinese and English support for commands, settings, and notices.

Quick Start

Install

Manual — Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release, place them in .obsidian/plugins/parallel-reader/, and enable the plugin in Obsidian settings.

Configure a Provider

Open plugin settings, pick a provider preset, enter your API key and model ID. Done.

Provider	Format	Notes
Anthropic	anthropic-messages	Default, recommended
OpenAI	openai-chat	Chat Completions
Google Gemini	google-generative-ai	generateContent
OpenRouter / Groq / DeepSeek / Moonshot / ...	openai-chat	OpenAI-compatible
Ollama / LM Studio	openai-chat	Local, no API key needed
Custom endpoint	Any	Just fill in Base URL

Model IDs support provider/model notation (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6) — the matching prefix is stripped automatically.

CLI Backends (Optional)

Switch backend to Claude Code CLI or Codex CLI to use your local CLI installation.

Since Obsidian's GUI doesn't inherit your shell PATH, enter the absolute CLI path in settings:

which claude    # Claude Code
which codex     # Codex

Usage

Action	Effect
Click a card	Jump editor to that section
Right-click a card	Context menu: copy, edit, delete, jump to source
Scroll the editor	Right-side card auto-highlights
Alt+↑ / Alt+↓	Navigate between cards
Enter in summary pane	Jump to active card's source line
Ribbon icon	Open the parallel reader pane
File context menu	Generate / regenerate / clear cache

How It Works

The LLM returns structured JSON:

{
  "cards": [
    {
      "title": "Short heading",
      "anchor": "Verbatim quote from source for positioning",
      "gist": "One-sentence lead-in",
      "bullets": ["Supporting detail 1", "Supporting detail 2"]
    }
  ]
}

Anchor is the key mechanism — a verbatim quote that the plugin locates via indexOf with multi-level fallbacks, keeping scroll-sync working without relying on headings.

Gist + bullets gives both overview and scannable detail — pure prose felt like a wall of text, pure bullets felt fragmented.

Development

npm install
npm run dev       # watch mode
npm run build     # production build
npm run typecheck # TypeScript strict mode
npm run lint      # Biome
npm test          # build + typecheck + tests

Star History

License

MIT