isHistory CMS

isHistory CMS

Your Astro website's control panel — inside Obsidian.

Write your blog posts and research notes in Obsidian. This plugin checks they're perfect, then helps you publish them to your Astro website.

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What Does This Plugin Do?

Think of it like a spell-checker for your blog posts, but instead of checking spelling, it checks that every post has all the information your Astro website needs to display it properly.

Here's what you get:

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Installation (Using BRAT)

BRAT is a tool that lets you install Obsidian plugins that aren't in the official store yet. Here's how to set it up:

Step 1: Install BRAT

1. Open Obsidian
2. Go to Settings (the gear icon in the bottom left)
3. Click Community plugins
4. Click Browse
5. Search for "BRAT"
6. Click Install, then click Enable

Step 2: Add This Plugin Using BRAT

1. Still in Settings → Community plugins
2. Find BRAT in your installed plugins list and click the gear icon next to it
3. Click Add Beta plugin
4. Paste this exact URL:

   https://github.com/dr-ishaan/astro-cms-obsidian-plugin
   

5. Click Add Plugin
6. Go back to Community plugins and enable "isHistory CMS"

Step 3: Open the Dashboard

1. Look at the left sidebar in Obsidian — you'll see a new dashboard icon
2. Click it to open your Astro CMS dashboard
3. Or press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P on Mac) and search for "Open isHistory dashboard"

That's it! You're up and running.

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How to Set Up Your Vault

Your Obsidian vault needs to look like your Astro project's content folder for the plugin to find your posts.

The plugin looks for content inside src/content by default. Your vault should have this structure:

your-vault/
  src/
    content/
      blog/           ← Your blog posts (archive collection)
        A1-the-ancient-dream-of-artificial-life.md
        P1-ada-lovelace.md
        E1-the-dartmouth-conference-1956.md
        ...
      vault/          ← Your research notes (vault collection)
        vision-and-architecture.md
        content-schema.md
        ...

The easiest way: Open your entire Astro project folder as your Obsidian vault. That way, the src/content path matches automatically.

If Your Content Is Somewhere Else

1. Go to Settings → isHistory CMS
2. Change the Archive path or Vault path to wherever your content lives
3. For example, if you just have blog posts in a posts/ folder, type posts

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How to Write a Blog Post

Every blog post needs a special block at the very top called frontmatter. It tells your Astro website everything it needs to know about the post.

Blog Post Template (Archive Collection)

Copy this template and fill in your own information:

---
title: "Your Post Title Here"
date: 2026-05-28
description: "A short one-line description of your post (15 to 160 characters)."
draft: false
tags: ["tag1", "tag2", "tag3"]
image: "/images/your-hero-image.jpg"
series: "minds-and-machines"
seriesOrder: "A1"
track: "A"
status: "published"
part: "Part I · The Dream"
figures: "Person One, Person Two, Person Three"
connects: "P2, A5, E1"
era: "Ancient – 1850"
---

Your amazing blog post content goes here...

Vault Note Template

---
title: "Your Note Title"
created: 2026-05-28
updated: 2026-05-28
author: Ishaan
description: "What this note is about."
publish: true
tags: [meta, research, notes]
order: 1
relatedChapters: "A5, P2, E1"
---

Your research note content goes here...

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What Each Field Means

Required Fields (Your Post WILL NOT Build Without These)

Series Fields (Only Needed if Your Post Belongs to a Series)

Connection Fields (Help Link Posts Together)

Optional Fields

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Common Mistakes the Plugin Catches

The plugin checks your posts and shows you exactly what's wrong. Here are the most common problems:

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Dashboard Features

Stats Bar

At the top of the dashboard, you'll see:

• Archive — Number of blog/archive posts
• Vault — Number of research notes
• A Articles / P Profiles / E Events — Posts per track
• Drafts — Posts with draft: true
• Errors — Posts missing required fields
• Ready — Posts that pass all checks

Search and Filter

• Search box — Type to find posts by title, tag, era, or file path
• Filter buttons — Click to show only: All, Archive, Articles, Profiles, Events, Vault, Drafts, Errors

Card Actions

Each post card has buttons:

• Open — Opens the post in the editor
• Validate — Shows a quick summary of what's right or wrong
• Pre-flight — Marks a draft as ready for deployment (sets draft: false, status: "published", and today's date if none set)

Bulk Pre-flight

Click the Bulk pre-flight all drafts command to mark all drafts as ready for deployment. It will ask you to confirm first.

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Quick Validate Sidebar

This is a lightweight panel that shows you validation results for whatever post you're currently editing.

How to open it:

1. Press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P on Mac)
2. Search for "Open quick validate"
3. The sidebar shows real-time validation as you type

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Commands

You can access these from the command palette (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P):

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Deploying to Your Site

Pre-flighting a post marks it as ready for deployment, but doesn't push it live. To deploy changes to your Astro site:

1. Install Obsidian Git
2. Configure it to auto-commit and push on interval (e.g., every 5 minutes)
3. Your Astro site's CI/CD (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, etc.) detects the push and rebuilds automatically

That's the full pipeline: Write → Pre-flight → Git sync → Auto-deploy

You can also use any other Git sync method you prefer — the plugin only manages frontmatter, so any tool that commits and pushes your vault to your Astro repo will work.

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Settings

Go to Settings → isHistory CMS to configure:

Deploying to your site

• Open Obsidian Git — Opens Obsidian Git settings if installed, or opens the install page. This plugin manages frontmatter and validation only; you need Git sync to deploy.

Content paths

• Archive path — Path to blog/archive content. Default: src/content/blog
• Vault path — Path to vault/research content. Default: src/content/vault

Performance

• Cards per page — How many post cards to show before the "Load more" button. Default: 40. Lower values are faster.

Appearance

• Show ribbon icon — Show the dashboard icon in the left ribbon. Default: On

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FAQ

The dashboard shows "No content found"

Make sure your Archive path or Vault path in settings matches where your content actually is. If your posts are in src/content/blog/, the archive path should be src/content/blog.

BRAT says "frozen" next to my plugin version

That's normal! In BRAT, "(frozen)" just means the plugin is pinned to a specific version. It does NOT mean the plugin is broken. Your plugin is working fine.

How do I update the plugin?

1. Go to Settings → Community plugins
2. Click the gear icon next to BRAT
3. Click Check for updates
4. If there's a new version, it will update automatically

The plugin is slow with many posts

Go to Settings → isHistory CMS and lower the Cards per page number. Try 20 instead of 40.

I clicked Pre-flight but my site didn't update

Pre-flight only changes frontmatter in your vault. You still need to sync your vault to Git (using Obsidian Git or another tool) for your Astro site to rebuild and deploy. See the Deploying to Your Site section above.

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Built For

This plugin is designed for the isHistory Astro project — a deep-dive into the history of Artificial Intelligence. It uses:

• Astro with Content Collections
• Two content collections: archive (blog posts) and vault (research notes)
• Series system: Articles (A), Profiles (P), Events (E) — each organized into tracks

But it works with any Astro project that uses content collections!

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License

MIT