Use Distari in Obsidian

Distari sync imports selected Distari projects into an Obsidian vault. Each paper becomes a Markdown file with its details and available summary; your own notes become separate files with links between them. The connection runs one way, from Distari to Obsidian.

You need a Distari account, access to at least one project and Obsidian 1.13.0 or later on desktop or Android. The plugin is free, and importing existing papers, summaries and notes uses no plan usage. Android installation, import, links, unchanged imports after restart and the update from 0.2.1 to 0.2.2 were verified on Obsidian 1.15.0 in an Android 16 emulator. iOS has not been verified.

Install in a vault

Create a vault in Obsidian, or choose an existing vault and back it up first. Community plugins run inside that vault, so install the plugin in each vault where you want to use it.

1. Open the Distari sync releases. The current public release is 0.2.2. Download its individual main.js and manifest.json attachments from the same release. Compare their SHA-256 checksums with its release notes. GitHub’s source ZIP and tar archives are not the install files.
2. Close Obsidian. Inside the vault, create .obsidian/plugins/distari-sync/ and copy main.js and manifest.json into it. No stylesheet is required. Show hidden files in your file manager if .obsidian is hidden; if you configured a different Obsidian configuration folder, use that folder instead.
3. Reopen the vault. If Obsidian asks whether you trust the author of this vault, choose Trust author and enable plugins, since you added the plugin yourself; Browse vault in Restricted Mode also works. Open Settings > Community plugins, choose Exit Restricted mode if it is shown, and enable Distari sync in the installed plugins list.

Distari sync is also listed under Settings > Community plugins > Browse. Search for Distari sync, then choose Install and Enable. Browse installs the current release, and Obsidian’s Check for updates moves a directory install to later releases.

Connect your Distari account

1. In the Distari web app, open the avatar menu, then Settings > Access tokens > New token. Give it a name such as Obsidian vault, keep only Read (read) selected, choose an expiry, and select Create token. Copy the token when it appears; Distari will not show it again. See Access tokens for the permissions.
2. In Obsidian, open Settings > Distari sync. Beside Personal access token, choose Link… and add the token through Obsidian Keychain. You can also add it first in Settings > Keychain, then select its secret name in the plugin. Keep the token private: plugin settings store the secret’s name, while Keychain stores its value.
3. Leave Distari API at https://api.distari.com for your Distari account. Change it only for another trusted HTTPS API origin, or an HTTP localhost API when testing a local development server. That server receives your token; a token must belong to the server you choose.
4. Under Projects, select Refresh list if needed, then turn on the projects you want to import. Only projects your token owner can currently access appear.
5. Set Vault folder to a folder inside the vault, such as Distari or Research/Distari. The default is Distari. Choose an Automatic import interval, or Off for manual imports. The default refresh is every 30 minutes while Obsidian is open.
6. In the Import now row, choose Import from Distari. You can also run Distari sync: Import from Distari from Obsidian’s command palette, or use the ribbon or a file’s context menu. Wait for the notice reporting new files, updates and conflicts.

Find your papers and notes

Expand your chosen vault folder in Obsidian’s file explorer. Each selected project has a stable subfolder containing its name and Distari ID:

Distari/
  Efficient neural networks [project ID]/
    Papers/
    Notes/
    Assets/

Papers contains one Markdown file per paper, with title, authors, year, venue, DOI, tags and a link back to Distari in its properties. The body contains available summary sections and links to your related notes. This imports the paper’s details and summary, not its PDF. A missing summary stays missing until one exists in Distari.

Notes contains notes authored by you, including your own project-shared notes. Other members’ notes are excluded, even when you can read them in Distari. Links to imported papers and notes become Obsidian wiki links. An unresolved distari:// reference stays as it is when its target has not been imported.

Assets appears when your imported notes contain images. Keep it with the project folders so relative image links continue to work. Importing does not upload your Obsidian files or edits to Distari.

Refresh without losing local edits

Run Import from Distari again to fetch changes. An unchanged import leaves the files alone. Source title changes update the existing file rather than changing its path; names include stable Distari IDs.

If a file still matches its last imported contents, a later Distari change updates it in place. If you edited that file in Obsidian, the plugin keeps your version and writes the changed Distari version beside it as a dated Distari conflict copy. Repeating the same remote version does not create another conflict copy. Compare the files and merge any text you want to keep yourself. Moving or deleting a managed file also counts as a local change; a later source change produces a conflict copy.

Deleting a paper or note in Distari does not delete its imported vault files. Edits in Obsidian never sync back. The import is a local Markdown copy, not a replacement for Distari’s project membership, PDF reader or collaboration.

If an import fails, read its notice. Check the API origin, token expiry or revocation, and your current project access. Relink a replacement token or refresh the project list as needed, then retry. Files already completed retain their checkpoints, so you do not need to delete the vault folder or reinstall the plugin.

Update or roll back the plugin

1. Back up your vault, including its hidden configuration folder, then close Obsidian. Keep the old main.js and manifest.json, plus .obsidian/plugins/distari-sync/data.json if it exists.
2. Download matching main.js and manifest.json attachments from the new release and check their checksums. Replace only those two assets in the existing distari-sync directory.
3. Keep data.json, the Keychain entry and your imported Markdown and images. data.json contains settings, the linked secret’s name and sync checkpoints. Removing it loses the history used to recognise local edits.
4. Reopen Obsidian and check the token selection, selected projects, vault folder and automatic import interval. Run an unchanged import and confirm the existing files remain in place without new conflicts.

For a plugin installed through Browse, Obsidian’s Check for updates and Update controls manage available directory updates. Distari sync has no separate updater. Back up first, and check the same settings and files afterward.

If an asset update fails, close Obsidian and restore the saved old assets. Restore the matching backed-up data.json too if the new version changed checkpoint data. Preserve your vault files and local edits; do not uninstall or delete checkpoints as a troubleshooting step. Check the release’s supported-version and required-upgrade notes before rolling back.

Export notes without a connection

In the Distari web app, open your project. In File, find the Export notes section and choose Notes as Obsidian vault (.zip). Extract the entire ZIP together, including any assets, then open the extracted folder as a vault in Obsidian or copy its contents into a vault.

This is a one-time export of the notes you can read, with Markdown files and rewritten links. It does not install the plugin, create sync checkpoints or keep importing future changes. It does not export the project’s paper summaries as plugin paper files. See Keep research notes for the other export formats.

To disconnect the plugin later, turn off automatic import and disable it, revoke its token in Distari’s Settings > Access tokens, and remove the Keychain secret when it is no longer needed. Imported Markdown remains in your vault. For a problem report, include Obsidian and plugin versions and a redacted error at the plugin issue tracker; leave tokens and private notes out.