Skip to main content
The Bo-Yu Prism: Reflections on Life, Learning, and Tech
Gray, rocky wall

Astro Composer

View
• In Progress
Obsidian Astro Plugin

Project Overview

Astro Composer is an Obsidian plugin that turns your Obsidian notes into posts and pages for your Astro blog with automated content management features. Part of the Vault CMS project, it provides seamless integration between Obsidian note-taking and Astro publishing workflows.

Key Features

Content Creation & Management

  • New Post Dialog: When enabled, prompts for a title when creating new Markdown files via Obsidian’s “New note” action, auto-generating kebab-case filenames (e.g., “My Blog Post” → my-blog-post.md) and optionally inserting properties with title, date, etc.
  • Property Standardization: Updates a note’s properties to match a customizable template using the “Standardize Properties” command. Preserves existing property values, adds missing properties from the template in the specified order, and appends unrecognized properties at the end.
  • Rename Post Command: Easily rename your notes by updating the title property with the desired post name, and get a kebab-case file or folder update afterward.

Draft Management

  • Underscore Prefix: Optionally adds an underscore prefix (e.g., _my-post.md) to hide drafts from Astro, configurable via settings.
  • Internal Link Conversion: Converts Obsidian wikilinks and markdown internal links ([[My Post]] or [My Post](my-post)) to Astro-friendly Markdown links ([My Post](/blog/my-post/)), supporting both file-based and folder-based post structures.

Multi-Content Type Support

  • Pages, Docs, Projects: With “Enable pages” enabled and by creating custom content types, you can do the same automation behavior for any other content type, like pages, documentation, projects, etc.

Configurable Workflow

  • Customizable Settings: Configure posts folder, link base path, creation mode (file-based or folder-based with index.md), date format, and excluded directories
  • Selective Automation: Enable or disable automation for new notes and properties insertion independently
  • Robust Automation: Only triggers the title dialog for user-initiated new notes (e.g., via “New note” command), avoiding unwanted prompts during vault loading or file imports (e.g., via git pull)

Technical Implementation

Built with TypeScript and following Obsidian’s plugin development best practices, the plugin integrates seamlessly with Obsidian’s file system and provides a smooth user experience for content creators. It supports both file-based (my-post.md) and folder-based (my-post/index.md) post structures, making it flexible for different Astro setups.

Installation

Astro Composer is not yet available in the Community plugins section. Install using BRAT or manually:

  1. Download the Beta Reviewers Auto-update Tester (BRAT) plugin from the Obsidian community plugins directory and enable it
  2. In the BRAT plugin settings, select Add beta plugin
  3. Paste: https://github.com/davidvkimball/obsidian-astro-composer and select Add plugin

Manual Installation

  1. Download the latest release from the Releases page
  2. Navigate to your Obsidian vault’s .obsidian/plugins/ directory
  3. Create a new folder called astro-composer and ensure manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css are in there
  4. In Obsidian, go to Settings > Community plugins and enable “Astro Composer”

Usage

  1. Customize Settings: In Settings > Astro Composer, configure automation, properties template, posts folder, creation mode, and more
  2. Standardize Properties: Use the Astro Composer: Standardize Properties command to update a note’s properties to the relevant content type
  3. Convert Internal Links: Use the Astro Composer: Convert internal links for Astro command to transform Obsidian wikilinks and internal Markdown links into Astro-compatible Markdown links
  4. Rename Content: Using the Astro Composer: Rename Current Note command, set the title of your content and have the file or parent folder get automatically renamed with the kebab-case version

Use Cases

  • Content Creators: Streamline the process of creating and managing blog posts, pages, and documentation
  • Astro Developers: Bridge the gap between Obsidian note-taking and Astro publishing
  • Technical Writers: Maintain consistent formatting and file organization across multiple content types
  • Bloggers: Focus on content creation rather than file management and slug generation
  • Vault CMS Users: Core automation component for the complete Obsidian-to-Astro workflow

Project Status

This project is actively maintained and in-progress. The latest version includes robust automation features, comprehensive configuration options for various Astro workflows, and support for multiple content types beyond just posts.