README file from
GithubKnowledge Overview
Knowledge Overview is an Obsidian plugin that uses OpenAI-compatible LLM providers to generate structured subject overviews, study outlines, and chapter notes for background learning, course review, and research preparation.
Features
- Generate a course outline from a subject name.
- Generate one Markdown note per outline chapter.
- Start generation from the command palette or the ribbon icon.
- Resume failed chapters from
Failed_Chapters.mdwithout regenerating the entire outline. - Use learning-oriented prompts for concept explanations, formulas, examples, applications, and common misunderstandings.
- Choose from common European and Asian output languages.
- Include English plus target-language terminology for key concepts.
- Render formulas with Obsidian-compatible KaTeX blocks.
- Configure API base URL, models, and manual concurrency.
- Show generation progress in the status bar and an updateable notice for mobile.
- Retry transient API failures and write failed chapters to
Failed_Chapters.md.
Requirements
- Obsidian 1.12.7 or later.
- An API key for Google Gemini, OpenAI, or another OpenAI-compatible provider.
The plugin is not desktop-only. It avoids Electron and Node-only APIs and is intended to run on both desktop and mobile Obsidian. Mobile network behavior still depends on the configured provider and the device network environment.
Installation
Manual Install
-
Download
main.js,manifest.json, andstyles.cssfrom the latest release. -
Create this folder in your vault:
<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/knowledge-overview/ -
Copy the three files into that folder.
-
Reload Obsidian.
-
Enable
Knowledge OverviewinSettings > Community plugins.
From Source
git clone <repository-url>
cd obsidian-knowledge-plugin
npm install
npm run build
Then copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css into:
<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/knowledge-overview/
Usage
- Open the command palette.
- Run
Generate Knowledge Overview. - Enter a subject, for example
Signal Processing. - The plugin creates a subject folder containing
Outlines.mdand one note per generated chapter.
To continue failed chapters later, run Resume Failed Chapter Generation from
the command palette or the resume ribbon icon, then enter the subject folder
name. The plugin reads Failed_Chapters.md and retries only those chapters.
Example output:
Signal Processing/
├── Outlines.md
├── 01_Fourier_Analysis.md
├── 02_Signal_Filtering.md
└── 03_Wavelet_Transform.md
Demo

Settings
API Key: API key for your provider.API Base URL: OpenAI-compatible API endpoint. Default:https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai.Outline Model: model used for outline generation. Default:gemini-2.5-flash.Chapter Model: model used for chapter notes. Default:gemini-2.5-flash.Concurrency: manual course-level concurrency, default1.Chapter Concurrency: manual chapter-generation concurrency, default1.Language: target output language.
The default settings favor stability on free or rate-limited providers. Keep concurrency small unless your provider is stable under parallel requests and has sufficient rate limits.
Medium-sized or stronger models usually generate richer chapter notes than small or lite models. Very small models may follow the structure but produce shorter explanations.
If the network is unstable, transient provider errors are retried automatically.
Any chapters that still fail are listed in Failed_Chapters.md inside the
generated subject folder.
Supported Languages
The plugin currently provides presets for English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Hindi, Arabic, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Turkish, and Russian.
API Providers
The plugin calls the /chat/completions endpoint and should work with Google
Gemini's OpenAI-compatible endpoint, OpenAI, and other OpenAI-compatible
providers. Provider quality, latency, context limits, and rate limits directly
affect generation quality and stability.
Privacy and Security
API keys are stored locally in Obsidian plugin data inside your vault. Do not publish plugin data files or screenshots containing secrets.
The plugin sends the subject name and generated chapter prompts to the API
provider you configure. It does not include analytics, telemetry, remote code
loading, shell execution, eval, or bundled API keys.
Generated Markdown files are written only to your current vault.
Development
npm install
npm run dev
Build a production bundle:
npm run build
Release artifacts are:
main.jsmanifest.jsonstyles.css
Project Structure
.
├── main.ts
├── main.js
├── manifest.json
├── versions.json
├── styles.css
├── esbuild.config.mjs
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json
License
MIT