← Business ideasBusiness ideas in obsidian plugin and vault development
What to build starts with what people already complain about, not with a guess. These are recurring problems in obsidian plugin and vault development — the kind a small, focused tool or a micro-SaaS could address — with a note on where to start and a rough read on how commercially valuable fixing it looks.
Users are looking for ways to streamline their workflows within Obsidian, particularly regarding note organization and management. They express challenges with existing features and seek more efficient methods to handle their notes.
- Create a plugin that allows users to set default tags and statuses for new notes.
- Develop a feature that automatically organizes notes into specified folders based on user-defined criteria.
- Implement a solution to improve the performance of large tables in Live Preview.
Who has this problem: students, project managers, researchers, Obsidian users, Notion users
Pain pointTrend: NewConfidence: Medium6 mentions · 2 communities · new
“I built a free library of copy-paste Claude Code workflows for people who don't code.<p>The idea came from watching r/ClaudeAI explode with the same question: "What can I do with Claude Code besides coding?"<p>After 3 months of collecting, testing, and documenting use cases, I ha” — hackernews
“it's the same kind of "workflow optimization" that notion and obsidian users suffer from. You spend so much time making your tools more productive but don't get any actual work done.” — hackernews
Users are seeking ways to automate the creation of notes in Obsidian from various sources, such as RSS feeds, web pages, and other applications. They are currently using a mix of plugins and manual processes but find them insufficient for their needs.
- Develop a plugin that automatically creates notes from starred RSS articles.
- Create a web clipper tool that integrates with Obsidian for easy note creation from web pages.
- Build a feature that allows users to import Gmail threads into Obsidian notes with formatting.
Who has this problem: academic researchers, content creators, knowledge workers
Feature requestTrend: NewConfidence: Low4 mentions · 1 communities · new
“I built a small Agent Skill for Claude Code that turns recipe links into structured Obsidian notes automatically. What it does Share a recipe link and ask your agent to "organize recipe" — it opens the page in Chrome, extracts ingredients and steps, and writes a clean Markdown note to your vault....” — obsidian-forum
“What I'm trying to do To be as succinct as I can, my end goal is essentially just two functions: The automated addition of a given note's public Publish URL (ex: https://publish.obsidian.md/extratone/meta/Automatically+Adding+Public+Obsidian+Publish+URLs+to+Notes%3F ) as a url property in the fro...” — obsidian-forum
Aspiring developers face difficulties in finding resources and guidance for creating plugins for Obsidian. Many express confusion about the development process and seek help from the community.
- Create a comprehensive guide or tutorial series for new Obsidian plugin developers.
- Develop a community forum or platform for sharing tips and resources on plugin development.
- Host regular Q&A sessions or webinars with experienced plugin developers.
Who has this problem: aspiring Obsidian plugin developers, current Obsidian users interested in customization
Pain pointTrend: GrowingConfidence: Medium8 mentions · 2 communities · +60%
“## What
Ports the handoff/wrap-up workflow into the `genesis-tools` plugin and retires the old `gt:handoff` skill.
- **`gt:handoff-to`** — routing skill that picks the right receiving end for a handoff.
- **`gt:handoff-to-codex`** — driver skill for handing a bounded task to a Codex CLI session.
-” — github
“## Summary
Last two items on #138.
**Attach/upload to device** turns out to need no code changes: `DownloadListModal`/`UploadListModal` already list/download/upload whatever file is clicked or active, with no extension filtering anywhere in that path. `.spd` files can already be attached from or u” — github
Users are struggling with maintaining context across different AI coding tools, leading to inefficiencies and frustration. They often have to re-explain their projects and goals when switching tools, which disrupts their workflow.
- Develop a context management tool that integrates with multiple AI platforms
- Create a browser extension that saves and retrieves context for users
- Build a centralized dashboard for tracking project context across tools
Who has this problem: AI developers, Freelancers using multiple AI tools, Project managers coordinating with AI agents
Pain pointTrend: NewConfidence: Low2 mentions · 1 communities · new
“The primary problem I'm trying to solve is AI context loss in long-running projects. Most memory MCPs focus on storing and retrieving notes. Memory Journal is designed more as a persistent project intelligence layer. It helps AI maintain continuity across sessions by tracking decisions, implement...” — cursor-forum
“Hey, good question. Everyone really builds their own Frankenstein setup here. I'll share what usually works and what I see from users. Portable base setup (minimum pain when switching tools) Keep an AGENTS.md at the repo root. Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, and some others respect it. It's a good pl...” — cursor-forum
Users are experiencing significant delays when loading Obsidian with multiple community plugins installed, particularly on Windows. This has led to frustration and a search for solutions to improve loading times.
- Optimize plugin loading sequence
- Create a performance monitoring tool for plugins
- Develop a lightweight version of popular plugins
- Provide user guidelines for optimizing plugin usage
Who has this problem: Obsidian users, Windows users, Plugin developers
Pain pointTrend: NewConfidence: Low3 mentions · 1 communities · new
“Steps to reproduce On a blank vault, install community plugins Git, Kanban, Chronos and QuickAdd. Restart the computer. Start Obsidian. Notice the long loading time ( > 7s). Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? Yes. Expected result The loading time for these 4 plugins didn't use to be this h” — obsidian-forum
“I think both problems are the result of Calendar not recognizing your daily notes. I don't see any obvious reason why that would be. You could try changing the name format to the default to see if that helps, or you could try the troubleshooting steps in the Obsidian debugging guide: https://foru...” — obsidian-forum
Users report problems with plugin compatibility after updates, leading to frustration and a lack of functionality. They seek solutions to manage and maintain their plugins effectively.
- Develop a compatibility checker tool for plugins after updates.
- Create a community-driven database of plugin compatibility statuses.
- Implement a notification system for users when plugins are updated.
Who has this problem: Obsidian users with multiple plugins, plugin developers
Pain pointTrend: NewConfidence: Low3 mentions · 1 communities · new
“Dear Yurcee, Thank you very much for your thoughtful and detailed response. I'm sure your writing will also be helpful to other Obsidian users reading this thread. I, too, would like to share my experiences with Obsidian and its plugins in the future. I believe such posts are extremely valuable f...” — obsidian-forum
“What I'm trying to do I'm trying to sync my Obsidian vaults across multiple devices—Mac Mini, MacBook Air, iPad Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and Boox Palma—without losing any settings, 3rd party plugins, or hotkeys in the process. While Obsidian Sync does a great job syncing notes, it consistently fai...” — obsidian-forum
Users are looking for ways to automate their Obsidian vault setups and workflows, expressing a desire for more streamlined processes. They often struggle with the complexity of existing tools and workflows.
- Create a template library for common vault setups.
- Develop a tool to automate the setup of vaults with predefined configurations.
- Offer a service to help users customize their vaults based on their needs.
Who has this problem: Obsidian users seeking automation, new users setting up their first vault
Pain pointTrend: NewConfidence: Low3 mentions · 1 communities · new
“What I'm trying to do I'm trying to sync my Obsidian vaults across multiple devices—Mac Mini, MacBook Air, iPad Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and Boox Palma—without losing any settings, 3rd party plugins, or hotkeys in the process. While Obsidian Sync does a great job syncing notes, it consistently fai...” — obsidian-forum
“Hello, So I just switched a few days back from Notion to Obsidian. Mostly because some limitations in Notion. But to be honest Obsidian is another beast with that many plugins its kinda hard to find how to make something and understand how everything works together… BUT I do hope those plugins ca...” — obsidian-forum