Obsidian Deploy Integration

Overview

Complete guide for publishing Obsidian plugins to the official community plugin directory.

Prerequisites

• Completed and tested plugin
• GitHub account
• GitHub repository for your plugin
• gh CLI installed (optional but recommended)

Community Plugin Directory Structure

Your Repository Requirements

your-plugin-repo/
├── main.js              # Built plugin (required)
├── manifest.json        # Plugin metadata (required)
├── styles.css           # Optional styles
├── README.md            # Documentation
├── LICENSE              # License file
└── .github/
    └── workflows/       # CI/CD workflows

obsidian-releases Repository

obsidian-releases/
├── community-plugins.json    # Plugin registry
└── community-css-themes.json # Theme registry

Instructions

Step 1: Prepare Your Repository

# Ensure all required files are in repo root
ls -la main.js manifest.json

# Validate manifest.json
cat manifest.json
# Should have: id, name, version, minAppVersion, description, author

# Create GitHub release
gh release create 1.0.0 \
  main.js \
  manifest.json \
  styles.css \
  --title "v1.0.0" \
  --notes "Initial release"

Step 2: Fork obsidian-releases

# Fork the releases repository
gh repo fork obsidianmd/obsidian-releases --clone

# Navigate to fork
cd obsidian-releases

# Create branch for your submission
git checkout -b add-my-plugin

Step 3: Add Plugin Entry

# Edit community-plugins.json
# Add your plugin in alphabetical order by id

# Example entry to add:
{
  "id": "my-plugin-id",
  "name": "My Plugin Name",
  "author": "Your Name",
  "description": "Brief description of what your plugin does",
  "repo": "your-username/your-repo-name"
}

Step 4: Validate Entry

# Validate JSON syntax
cat community-plugins.json | jq empty

# Check your entry
cat community-plugins.json | jq '.[] | select(.id == "my-plugin-id")'

# Verify alphabetical ordering
cat community-plugins.json | jq '.[].id' | sort -c

Step 5: Submit Pull Request

# Commit changes
git add community-plugins.json
git commit -m "Add my-plugin-id to community plugins"

# Push to your fork
git push origin add-my-plugin

# Create PR
gh pr create \
  --repo obsidianmd/obsidian-releases \
  --title "Add my-plugin-id" \
  --body "## Plugin Submission

**Plugin ID:** my-plugin-id
**Plugin Name:** My Plugin Name
**Repository:** https://github.com/your-username/your-repo-name

### Description
Brief description of what the plugin does and why it's useful.

### Checklist
- [x] Plugin works on desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux)
- [x] Plugin works on mobile (iOS, Android) or is marked desktop-only
- [x] README.md explains installation and usage
- [x] No console errors during normal operation
- [x] Follows Obsidian plugin guidelines

### Screenshots
[Include screenshots if visual]
"

Step 6: Post-Submission Process

## After Submitting

### Review Process
1. **Automated checks** run within minutes
2. **Manual review** by Obsidian team (1-7 days typically)
3. **Feedback** may be provided via PR comments
4. **Approval** leads to automatic publication

### Common Review Feedback
- Missing README documentation
- Console.log statements in production code
- Hardcoded API keys or sensitive data
- Missing error handling
- Incompatibility with mobile

### Responding to Feedback
1. Make requested changes in your plugin repo
2. Create new release with fixes
3. Comment on PR when ready for re-review

Step 7: Post-Publication Maintenance

# After approval, your plugin is live!

# For updates, just create new GitHub releases
gh release create 1.0.1 \
  main.js manifest.json styles.css \
  --title "v1.0.1" \
  --notes "Bug fixes and improvements"

# Obsidian automatically picks up new releases
# Users will see update notifications

# For major updates, update community-plugins.json if needed
# (usually only for name/description changes)

Output

• Plugin repository properly structured
• GitHub release created
• Pull request submitted to obsidian-releases
• Plugin published to community directory

Error Handling

Examples

Updating Plugin Description

# If you need to update name/description after publication
# Edit community-plugins.json in your fork

# Create PR with changes
gh pr create \
  --repo obsidianmd/obsidian-releases \
  --title "Update my-plugin-id description" \
  --body "Updating plugin description to better reflect new features."

Complete Submission Script

#!/bin/bash
# submit-plugin.sh

PLUGIN_ID="my-plugin"
PLUGIN_NAME="My Plugin"
AUTHOR="Your Name"
DESCRIPTION="Plugin description"
REPO="username/repo-name"

# Fork and clone obsidian-releases
gh repo fork obsidianmd/obsidian-releases --clone
cd obsidian-releases

# Create branch
git checkout -b add-$PLUGIN_ID

# Add entry (using jq to maintain proper format)
jq --arg id "$PLUGIN_ID" \
   --arg name "$PLUGIN_NAME" \
   --arg author "$AUTHOR" \
   --arg desc "$DESCRIPTION" \
   --arg repo "$REPO" \
   '. += [{"id": $id, "name": $name, "author": $author, "description": $desc, "repo": $repo}] | sort_by(.id)' \
   community-plugins.json > tmp.json && mv tmp.json community-plugins.json

# Commit and push
git add community-plugins.json
git commit -m "Add $PLUGIN_ID"
git push origin add-$PLUGIN_ID

# Create PR
gh pr create --repo obsidianmd/obsidian-releases \
  --title "Add $PLUGIN_ID" \
  --body "Plugin submission for $PLUGIN_NAME"

echo "PR submitted! Check: https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/pulls"

BRAT Beta Distribution

## Pre-Release Distribution via BRAT

For beta testing before community submission:

1. User installs BRAT plugin
2. BRAT Settings > Add Beta Plugin
3. Enter: `your-username/your-repo-name`
4. BRAT installs directly from your repo

No community-plugins.json entry needed for BRAT!

Resources

• Plugin Submission Guidelines
• obsidian-releases Repository
• Plugin Guidelines
• BRAT Plugin

Next Steps

For event handling patterns, see obsidian-webhooks-events.