Magpie

MAGPIE — Hoard the web in your Obsidian vault. The world's most enthusiastic URL collector for Obsidian. Click. Snatch. Done. THE STORY This is my first Chrome extension. It exists for one reason: I was drowning. Drowning in tabs. Knee-deep in a research project, every browser window screaming "save me for later." Every "send to Obsidian" tool I tried wanted to scrape the entire page, fetch metadata, attach screenshots, suggest tags, summarize the article. Two minutes per save. Three popups deep. I just wanted the URL and the title in my Obsidian vault. Append. Move on. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. Magpies are notorious for hoarding shiny things, beads, bottle caps, the occasional wedding ring and tucking them away in their nests for later. If you collect URLs the way a magpie collects spoons, this is for you. WHAT IT DOES Click the Magpie icon (or hit Alt+Shift+S). A small popup appears with the page's title and URL. Type a note if you want or just press Enter. The link lands in your Obsidian vault as a tidy markdown bullet: - [Page Title](https://example.com) > your optional note That's it. No tags. No screenshots. No scraping. No noise. FEATURES 🪶 ONE CLICK, ONE BULLET, ONE NOTE — URL and title appended to a single note in your Obsidian vault. Configure once, save forever. ⚡ RAPID ADD MODE — Flip the toggle, ditch the popup. Click the icon = instant silent save with a ✓ badge. The classic magpie smash-and-grab. ⌨ KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS • Alt+Shift+S — Save to Obsidian (matches Rapid Add setting) • Alt+Shift+Q — Force quick save • Alt+Shift+N — Force show popup (assignable) All customizable in Chrome's shortcut settings. 🔌 NO OBSIDIAN PLUGINS REQUIRED — Works on any vanilla Obsidian install. Uses Obsidian's built-in obsidian:// URL scheme. Zero setup on the Obsidian side. 📁 AUTO-CREATES OBSIDIAN NOTES AND FOLDERS — Point Magpie at "Inbox/Web Clips.md" — Obsidian creates the file (and any missing folders) on first save. No "create note first" step. 🔍 VAULT FOLDER PICKER — Click "Browse" to point Magpie at your Obsidian vault. The vault name is detected automatically. 🔒 PRIVACY-RESPECTING — Reads the active tab only when you click. No background snooping, no content scraping, no network calls. Your Obsidian vault stays on your machine. 🌙 DARK THEME WITH PURPLE/INDIGO GRADIENT — Because looks matter. SETUP (30 SECONDS) 1. Install Magpie 2. Pin it to your toolbar (puzzle-piece icon → pin) 3. Settings opens automatically. Enter: • Your Obsidian vault name (or click Browse to pick the folder) • The path to your collection note (e.g. Inbox/Web Clips.md) 4. Done. Click. Save. Repeat. If you've never made the note in Obsidian, no problem ... Magpie creates it on the first save. WHY "MAGPIE"? Magpies hoard shiny things. They tuck away anything that catches their eye — coins, foil, jewelry — and stash it in their nest for later. They've been doing it for centuries, and ornithologists are still arguing about why. If you also find yourself opening tabs faster than you can read them, collecting links the way a magpie collects spoons, this Obsidian web clipper is for you. Less arguing about why. More hoarding. A FIRST-TIMER NOTE This is the first Chrome extension I've ever built. It scratches my own itch, a real need from a real Obsidian project I was working on. If it scratches yours too, even better. If something doesn't work, or you have ideas, get in touch. Feedback from people who actually use it is the only way it gets better. ☕ SUPPORT Magpie is free, made by one human, and a labor of love. If it saves you time and you'd like to throw a coffee in the nest: https://buymeacoffee.com/luvz2fly No pressure. Just hoard. PERMISSIONS Two, both narrow: • "activeTab" — Reads the current tab's title and URL when you click the icon. Only on click. Never in the background. • "storage" — Remembers your Obsidian vault name, note path, and Rapid Add preference, so your settings sync across devices. No host permissions. No content scripts. No analytics. No network calls beyond the local obsidian:// handoff to your own Obsidian app. If you use Obsidian and Chrome and find yourself collecting URLs faster than you can read them — Magpie is your bird.