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Support for importing Recall.ai Markdown exports #383

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@BavariaR

Description

@BavariaR

Feature Summary
Add support to the Obsidian Importer plugin to ingest and properly convert Markdown exports from Recall.ai.


Use Case
Recall.ai is a powerful tool for collecting and summarizing content from external sources like YouTube videos, web pages, PDFs, and more.
It allows users to export their knowledge base as Markdown files (with YAML metadata, tags, links, etc.).

Many users (myself included) maintain a local-first Obsidian vault for personal thinking and long-term knowledge development, and use Recall primarily as a web-first information ingestion tool.

Being able to import Recall exports would enable a powerful hybrid workflow:

  • Capture external knowledge with Recall
  • Deepen/refactor/analyze it inside Obsidian
  • Use both graphs and bidirectional links to connect internal and external insights

Current Limitations of Recall Markdown Exports

  • Tags are stored as YAML arrays (tags: [a, b]) instead of #hashtags
  • Internal links are written as @card:<uuid> instead of [[wikilinks]]
  • Folder structure uses UUIDs instead of readable names
  • Embedded media or LaTeX formulas might need conversion or cleaning

Proposed Solution
Add a new import option in the Obsidian Importer plugin:

  • Recognize and parse Recall Markdown export structure (ZIP archive or folder)
  • Convert:
    • YAML frontmatter to match Obsidian format
    • tags: [x, y]#x #y in body
    • @card: references → [[...]] links
    • Clean up filenames and folders (optional config)
  • Possibly preserve source metadata (e.g., YouTube links, web URLs)

Bonus: Offer import filters by tag or date, to allow incremental syncs.


Why it matters
This would unlock powerful workflows for Obsidian users who use Recall for external research and want to unify all knowledge into one consistent vault.


Best regards,
Fernand

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