Maguilanote

A Milanote-style visual workspace for Obsidian: notes, images, links, files, columns, to-do lists, color swatches, comments, audio recordings, nested boards and arrows on an infinite canvas, entirely inside your vault.

Local-first by design. Each board is a single .board JSON file in your vault. There's no account, no server, and no real-time collaboration; sync your vault however you already do (Obsidian Sync, Git, Syncthing, a shared folder...). Cloud collaboration is out of scope for this project, not a missing feature.

Demo

Features

Boards

• Infinite canvas, nested boards with breadcrumb, board-to-board shortcuts
• Broken-link detection, card previews, item locking, move/duplicate across boards
• Built-in and custom templates

Card types

• Text note, image, link (auto title, YouTube embed), file (any type, audio/video player)
• Vault file drag & drop, to-do list, column, color swatch, comment, document note
• Record: drag onto the board, double-click to open the recording popup (pick a microphone, record, play back); the card's contextual toolbar → "Transcribe text" sends it to the OpenAI Whisper API (requires an API key in Settings) and drops the result into a connected note card

Drawing

• Draw: freehand on the board (pen/select/eraser, color, stroke size, pen-pressure), strokes grouped into editable drawings on save
• Sketch: a card you draw inside via a popup canvas; shows a preview on the board

Connections

• Line tool: drag it onto the board, then drag either endpoint onto a card to anchor it (or leave it free)
• Card-hover blue dot: drag to another card to draw an arrow (drop on empty canvas for a free end)
• Two routing modes, switchable per line from its right-click menu: Free (straight, drag its middle dot to curve it) and Smart (auto-routed around cards)
• Arrows, solid/dashed, arrowhead toggle, reversible, labels, color
• Rubber-band select works on lines too (any part touching the selection box is selected); Delete removes selected lines

Text editing

• Full Markdown: headings, bold/italic/strikethrough, lists, quotes, code, links, [[wikilinks]]
• Card background colors, plus an independent accent color (left-side stripe)

Contextual toolbar

• Selecting a card opens its options in the same lateral slot used by the Draw toolbar: card color, accent color, show/hide title, and type-specific actions (replace reference, transcribe recording)
• Right-click keeps only structural actions: lock/unlock, duplicate, bring to front/back, delete

Canvas

• Select/drag, multi-select, group move, resize
• Alt+drag duplicate, snap-to-grid, undo/redo, cut/copy/paste
• Zoom controls (wheel on desktop; pinch and two-finger pan on touch devices)

Settings

• Gear icon next to the breadcrumb trail opens the Settings panel
• Customization: separate body/heading fonts (pick a preset or any Google Font by name), dark/light theme, and per-theme colors (board background, default card background, each card color preset)
• Shortcuts: rebind any keyboard shortcut (click to record, reset to default), plus a collapsible mouse/gesture reference

Search & export

• In-board search, export to Markdown or JSON Canvas, import JSON Canvas and OS/vault files

Collaboration

• Local comment cards, unlimited local storage (it's your disk)

Manual installation

1. Copy main.js, manifest.json and styles.css to YOUR_VAULT/.obsidian/plugins/maguilanote/.
2. In Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins, enable Maguilanote.

Usage

• The ribbon icon or the "Maguilanote: New board" command creates a .board file.
• Double-click the board's name in the breadcrumb trail to rename it — Markdown links and nested-board references across your vault update automatically.
• Double-click the canvas to create a note. On phones and iPad, tap a card (or line) to select it and double-tap to open/edit it (double-tap empty canvas for a new note); a finger drag on a selected card moves it, any other finger drag pans; the resize and arrow handles show on the selected card. Apple Pencil manipulates cards directly; pinch or two fingers zoom/pan, and long-press a card for its context menu. The left toolbar adds every other card type — drag a tool onto the canvas to create it where you drop it or tap/click it to create it at the center of the view (handy on phones). Draw is the exception: click it (or press D) to enter draw mode. On devices without a pen (phones) a finger draws; once Apple Pencil has been used, touch never draws (palm rejection).
• Click a card to select it; drag to move. Inputs inside a card only activate once it is selected. Double-click to edit/open.
• Drag files from the OS or from Obsidian's file explorer straight onto the board (.board files become nested boards).
• Alt+drag duplicates. The bottom bar has zoom controls, 1:1, fit, and a snap-to-grid toggle (Ctrl while dragging inverts snap).
• Click the gear icon next to the breadcrumb trail to open Settings (fonts, theme, colors, shortcuts).

Building from source

With npm available:

npm install
npm run build

Without npm (Node 22+ only):

node build-local.mjs

Both produce main.js at the project root. See docs/DEVELOPMENT.md for details, and CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.

Documentation

This README covers the essentials. For everything else, see docs/:

• ARCHITECTURE.md — how the plugin is built: source layout, data model, rendering and build pipeline.
• DEVELOPMENT.md — full dev setup, build commands, verification checklist.
• IPAD-TEST-MATRIX.md — real-device touch and Apple Pencil verification matrix.
• DEPENDENCIES.md — dependency pinning policy and current versions.
• FAQ.md — "how do I change X" answers (colors, defaults, card types, shortcuts, and more).
• CHANGELOG.md — living log of significant project changes.

Docs are a living part of this project: significant changes must update the relevant doc and get a changelog entry in the same change, not as a follow-up. See the documentation policy in .claude/CLAUDE.md.