OnlyWorlds Builder — Obsidian Plugin

Obsidian plugin for building and syncing with OnlyWorlds.

What is OnlyWorlds

OnlyWorlds is an open data standard for worldbuilding. A world is made of elements across 22 categories, each with defined fields and link relationships. Worlds can live entirely in a local vault, and can be uploaded to onlyworlds.com, where a free account hosts your worlds and exposes them via REST API so that other tools can read and write it. The standard is open source and the tools and platform are free.

What this plugin does

Manages OnlyWorlds elements as Obsidian notes: one note per element, organized into folders per category, inside an OnlyWorlds/ folder in a vault. Notes are plain markdown, editable like any other.

Optional: connect the plugin to an onlyworlds.com account, and edits can be pushed to the cloud on demand or automatically. That makes the same world available to other OnlyWorlds tools and accessible via the API.

Getting started

Local-only setup:

1. Install the plugin from Community Plugins.
2. Run Create World from the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+P). The plugin creates the OnlyWorlds/ folder structure in your vault.
3. Use Create Element to add elements. Edit them like any Obsidian note.

If you already have a world on onlyworlds.com, run Download World instead of step 2: enter the world's API key (a classic 10-digit key or an ow_ key from your account page) and your PIN, and the plugin sets up the folder structure and pulls your existing elements into the vault. You can also just set your key in Settings → OnlyWorlds to sync on demand.

To also sync with onlyworlds.com:

4. Create a free account at onlyworlds.com.
5. In Obsidian, open Settings → OnlyWorlds. Paste your world's API key — shown on your world's page under Account — and your 4-digit PIN. Classic 10-digit keys and newer ow_-prefixed keys both work.
6. Push to web with auto-sync or the Save Element command (see below).

How sync works

Three ways to push edits to onlyworlds.com:

Upload World. Push every element in the active world in one go. A full overwrite of the cloud world from your local copy.

Save Element. Run the command on the active note to push that single element. Bind a hotkey if you'll use it often (Settings → Hotkeys, search "Save Element", set something like Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+S).

Auto-sync. Toggle on in plugin settings. After 3 seconds of inactivity following an edit, the plugin pushes the changed element via the OnlyWorlds API.

The ribbon icon and desktop status bar reflect the current state: idle, dirty (unsaved local changes), syncing, synced, or error.

You can set your PIN once in settings so the plugin never asks again.

Authentication

The plugin talks to the OnlyWorlds REST API at https://www.onlyworlds.com/api/worldapi/. Each API call sends your API-Key and API-Pin as headers, scoped to one world. Your API key identifies which world you're touching, and your PIN authorizes writes. Both stay local. They live in your vault's plugin settings (data.json).

Folder structure

The plugin creates and manages:

OnlyWorlds/
├── Worlds/<World name>/
│   ├── World.md
│   └── Elements/<Category>/<element>.md
└── PluginFiles/   (templates, managed automatically)

Commands

Command	What it does
Create World	Create a new world (account-linked) and the local folder structure.
Download World	Pull an existing world from onlyworlds.com into your vault (works with 10-digit and ow_ keys).
Create Element	Pick a category and name. Generates a new note with a fresh UUID.
Save Element	Push the active element note to the API. Bind a hotkey via Settings → Hotkeys.
Upload World	Bulk push every element in the active world.
Validate World	Check element notes for malformed fields.
Rename World	Rename a world folder, and sync the new name to onlyworlds.com if the world has a write key.
Link Elements	With your cursor in a link field, pick a target element to insert.
Copy World to Clipboard	Serialize the active world as JSON and copy to clipboard.
Paste World from Clipboard	Build a world from JSON in clipboard.

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
API key	empty	Your OnlyWorlds API key. Stored locally.
API PIN	empty	Your 4-digit PIN. Stored locally. Empty means you'll be prompted once per session.
Default world	empty	The active world. Falls back to the alphabetically first under OnlyWorlds/Worlds/.
Default email	empty	Pre-fills email when creating worlds.
Default new element category	Character	Pre-selected in Create Element.
Individual element creation commands	off	Adds Create new <Category> commands for each of the 22 categories. Reload Obsidian after toggling.
Auto-sync to OnlyWorlds	off	Push edits automatically after idle period.
Auto-sync debounce	3000ms	How long to wait after last edit.
Show status bar indicator	on	Desktop status bar icon.

Get in touch

• github
• discord
• council
• email