A Component Inserter

Why

Obsidian’s editor is markdown-first by design — which is great until you want to drop in a structured block (a callout, an embed, an HTML snippet, a code fence with the right language) and find yourself typing the syntax from memory. Authors who know the patterns are fine; authors who don’t either skip the structured block or reach for a snippet plugin that has its own learning curve.

A component inserter fixes the friction. One command, a typeahead-like picker of available blocks, and the right scaffold lands at the cursor with sensible defaults.

This is also the right surface for LFM (Lossless Flavored Markdown) to feel native inside Obsidian. LFM’s whole premise is that “any syntax can be added as a trigger to render a component” — so the inserter is the editor-side complement to the rendering pipeline. You author with the inserter; you read with LFM.

Two near-term targets

The shortest path to value is the two block types that come up most:

1. HTML block

Some content needs raw HTML — embeds, custom layouts, signed-off marketing surfaces. Markdown allows it inline, but the editor doesn’t help you scaffold:

<div class="callout-wrapper">
  <!-- your content -->
</div>

The inserter offers a small set of curated HTML scaffolds (figure, aside, section with class, anchor with rel) and drops them at cursor with a placeholder ready to replace.

2. Code fence

The right fence is \“` with a hint at the language. The inserter offers the language picker:

```typescript

```

Plus shortcut variants for the languages we actually use (TS, Astro, JSON, YAML, Bash, Markdown).

Both of these shave 5–15 seconds per insertion, which adds up across a long-form draft.

Future targets

Once the two-block version ships, the same surface extends naturally:

• Callouts — Obsidian’s > [!note] family, with options for type (note, warning, tip, etc.) and an editable title.
• Embeds — ![[...]] with autocomplete against the vault’s index.
• LFM components — once an LFM component registry exists, every registered shortcode/wrapper becomes a candidate scaffold.
• Frontmatter snippets — common frontmatter blocks (changelog entry, spec stub, blueprint stub) that match our context-v/ conventions.

How it should feel

• One command (Cmd-Shift-/ is the working binding), discoverable from the command palette.
• A modal/picker (using the wide-modal pattern from filestarter) with two columns: type on the left, preview on the right.
• Cursor lands inside the placeholder when the scaffold is inserted — no manual navigation.
• Settings tab lets the user disable categories they don’t use, reorder the picker.
• Snappy. No async work between keystroke and modal open.

Tech notes

• Lives in its own plugin (component-inserter) eventually — bundle is small, surface is contained.
• Draws scaffolds from a versioned registry — initially in-tree as a TS module; eventually pulled from a content collection so additions don’t require a release.
• Reuses Filestarter’s modal pattern; reuses Image-Gin’s command-palette wiring conventions.
• For HTML scaffolds, validate that what we insert won’t be sanitized away by Obsidian’s rendering — some attributes are stripped at render time.

Open questions

• Scope: a new plugin, or a feature inside Filestarter? Filestarter’s evolving identity (per the May 2026 retrospective) is “patterns for starting files” — and inserting a structured block is adjacent to that. Could be one plugin.
• Snippet engine integration. Templater and QuickAdd already handle some of this. Worth deciding early whether we coexist with those or replace them in our flow.
• LFM round-trip. When LFM ships and the inserter starts emitting LFM-shaped blocks, the registry has to stay in sync between the two packages. Possibly the same data file consumed by both.

Cross-references

• astro-knots skill — LFM is the rendering counterpart to whatever the inserter authors.
• filestarter — modal pattern reference, possible host plugin.
• cite-wide/context-v/specs/Modal-for-Pasting-LLM-Native-Content.md — sibling pattern: modal that accepts paste content and converts to a structured block. Some shared shape.