The Gemini Scribe plugin in Obsidian

Obsidian

Note taking is a passion for me. Has been for most of my life. Back when I started with personal computers in the early 1980s, there wasn't much in the way of note taking apps. My first one was Evernote in the early 2000s. By 2004 or 2005, I had switched to OneNote and used it for almost 20 years. I then started looking at other alternatives, including Joplin, Notion and many others, before settling on Obsidian.

I love Obsidian, but its best and worst feature are plugins. There are thousands of them, from simple spell checkers to ones that change the fundamental look and functionality of the application. I'm going to highlight one today: 

Gemini Scribe

The developer, Allen Hutchison, describes the plugin this way:

"Gemini Scribe is an Obsidian plugin that integrates Google's Gemini AI models, providing powerful AI-driven assistance for note-taking, writing, and knowledge management directly within Obsidian. It leverages your notes as context for AI interactions, making it a highly personalized and integrated experience."

Setup

It's pretty easy to setup. Install it, go to Google AI Studio, setup an account if you don't already have one, click on Get API Key, create a key and tie it to your billing account. Take the key and paste it into the plugin's page in Obsidian.

You can set various options in Gemini Scribe, such as the models to use (I recommend selecting Gemini Flash to keep costs down), and a few other things. Once it's configured, you can bring up the side panel and ask it to perform tasks for you, such as:

Create Notes

Ask Gemini Scribe to research a topic for you and create a summary, table, or entire article, use the info to create a new note. You can tell it what folder to put it in, and you can ask it to add tags or properties to the note.

Edit Existing Notes

Ask it to update a single note, a folder of notes, or all your notes. Have it update properties, for example, so they are consistent, or to spell check and fix any misspellings.

Create Images

Gemini Scribe can use the Nano Banano models to create and add images to your notes.

Perform Research Without Editing Your Notes

You don't have to have Gemini Scribe add or edit notes. It can display its results in its own pane, and you can refer to it or copy and paste it into your notes or wherever you need the info.

And So Much More

I've barely touched on all Gemini Scribe can do, but I've been using it for several weeks and have found it invaluable. If you are an Obsidian user, or are thinking of moving to it, I recommend this plugin.