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Frequently Asked Questions

💡TL;DR

Start with a disposable note, an accessible provider and explicit output destinations. These answers describe the implemented task boundaries; follow the linked guides for complete setup and verification.

Questions​

How do I install Notemd in Obsidian?​

Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Notemd, then install and enable it. Manual installation uses main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the same GitHub Release. The manifest declares Obsidian 0.15.0 as its minimum; that old version and physical mobile devices are not currently verified by release evidence.

What LLM providers does Notemd support?​

The registry has 36 presets across five protocol families: OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic, Google, Azure OpenAI and Ollama. Hosted APIs, gateways and local servers need their own endpoint, credentials and model configuration. A preset or a listed model does not guarantee current upstream availability or permission to generate.

Can Notemd work with local LLMs?​

Yes. Configure a running Ollama, LM Studio or OVMS server, or a compatible self-hosted endpoint. Download or load the model first and test the intended task. A local inference endpoint does not make web research, dependency installation or separately cloud-routed tasks offline.

How does Notemd differ from ChatGPT?​

Notemd focuses on explicit Obsidian file operations: linking notes, creating concept files, appending research, translating files and generating artifacts. Choose it when those Vault workflows fit your needs. Evaluate other tools by their current persistence, export and integration features; chat-based tools can also retain history and produce files.

How does Notemd compare to Copilot or Smart Connections?​

Compare the exact tasks you need and each project's current version, configuration and documentation. Notemd provides note transformations and a bounded lexical local-retrieval path. It does not provide a general chat-with-vault interface or embedding-based semantic search. This site does not claim a current feature ranking for other projects.

Which search services work with Notemd research?​

Select Tavily with its API key or select DuckDuckGo explicitly. An empty Tavily key does not switch to DuckDuckGo automatically. Both use the network. The selected LLM summarizes available web and optional local context, then appends a research summary to the active Markdown note. Verify the source URLs and important claims.

Does Notemd support Chinese or other languages?​

The plugin UI has 21 locales and the website has 34 locale routes. Generated-content language is configured separately, with task-specific overrides where supported. Translation ability and quality depend on the selected model, not on the UI or website locale counts.

Can I use Notemd for paper or PDF reading?​

Convert the paper to readable Markdown with an appropriate external tool, then review conversion errors in equations, tables and figures. Use Notemd to link concepts, extract original passages, research questions, translate files or generate diagrams. The standard note workflow does not promise native PDF OCR or faithful extraction from arbitrary binary documents.

What diagram types can Notemd generate?​

The executable catalog contains 33 entries with compatible source and preview paths. Mermaid, JSON Canvas, Vega-Lite, editable HTML/SVG, Draw.io, Drawnix and constrained CircuitikZ serve different needs. Use the selector's supported choices and inspect output in its destination tool; a preview does not establish native editing or compilation fidelity.

Is Notemd free and open source?​

Notemd is available under the MIT License. Provider accounts, model inference, search services and optional external tools have their own costs and terms. The repository is public and contributions are welcome. License freedom does not imply that every configured external service is free.

Can Notemd work 100% offline?​

Some note tasks can use a local model after its server, model files and required dependencies are installed. Web research still needs network access, including DuckDuckGo. Inspect task-specific providers and optional export dependencies before disconnecting. There is no blanket offline guarantee for every feature.

Is my data sent to the cloud?​

Task prompts and content go to the configured LLM endpoint. Search services receive queries and result-page fetches contact websites. Local retrieval can add Vault excerpts to a cloud-bound prompt. A local preset can also be configured with a remote address. Review routing and sanitize logs before sharing; local storage alone does not establish a device-only data boundary.

What does One-Click Extract actually run?​

The default sequence adds links to the active note, generates content for eligible notes in the concept or selected folder, and repairs Mermaid blocks in the complete folder. It can process existing concept notes. It does not automatically add web research or diagram generation. Use the workflow guide for the exact name::action>action syntax.

Does cancelling a task undo its changes?​

No. Cancellation stops further work where supported and preserves completed outputs. A request or write already accepted can finish, and provider billing is controlled remotely. Wait for the task to settle, inspect reported paths and recovery conflicts, then retry only the intended work.

Can an Agent automate Notemd?​

Four bounded export commands expose redacted provider profiles, capabilities, invocation contracts and the public CLI surface through an available Obsidian host and Vault. They can write export files. Repository maintainer operations are a separate contract; the internal operation count is not a public automation API. Start with the Agent guide.

Where should developers and contributors start?​

Use the developer guide for the repository setup, build and full-test commands, module ownership and extension rules. AGENTS.md is the checked-in execution authority. Submit reproducible issues with exact versions and sanitized evidence, and validate changes before proposing integration.

Next Steps​