Collector - Obsidian Quick Capture for macOS

Collector is a macOS menu bar app for fast text and image capture into Obsidian. It lets you save notes, screenshots, and pasted content into your vault without opening the full Obsidian app first.

Features

• Edge activation: move the cursor to a screen edge to open the capture window instantly
• Global shortcut: configurable system-wide hotkey, default Cmd+Shift+N
• Quick capture: append to the Daily Note, any other note or save a new note directly into your vault
• Section targeting — captures land under a specific heading in your Daily Note, top or bottom of the section
• Image capture — drop or paste screenshots into the capture window with automatic compression
• Reader Panel — tab-based reading view with your Daily Note, pinned notes, and on-demand tabs
• Wikilink navigation — follow [[links]] inside the Reader, open in new tab with Cmd+Click
• Inline search — find and step through matches in the current note with Cmd+F
• Command palette — open any vault note with Cmd+P or Cmd+K
• Content filters — hide frontmatter, Dataview blocks, inline fields, callouts, HTML, and comments
• Menu bar app: runs quietly in the background and stays one shortcut away

Capture Window	Reader Window

Settings

• Separate window sizing for the capture window and Reader window
• Custom colors for accents, internal links, and external links
• Adjustable glass effect, transparency, blur, and brightness
• Edge activation controls including cooldown, modifier keys, and excluded apps
• Configurable note paths, templates, image folder, and compression limit

Requirements

• macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) or newer
• Apple Silicon Mac
• Obsidian installed

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full version history.

Installation

Download

Direct Download
View All Releases

1. Open the GitHub Releases page
2. Download the latest .dmg or archive for Apple Silicon
3. Open the installer and move Collector into Applications

Note Window

Reader Window

macOS Security on First Launch

Because the app is currently not code-signed or notarized, macOS may block it the first time. That is expected for an open-source desktop app.

To open the app:

1. Recommended: right-click the app and choose Open
2. Alternative: go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway
3. Terminal fallback:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Collector.app

You only need to do this once.

Permissions

Collector needs Accessibility access for global shortcuts.

1. Open System Settings
2. Go to Privacy & Security > Accessibility
3. Unlock the settings
4. Enable Collector
5. Restart the app

Configuration

Open the menu bar icon and choose Settings....

Path Variables

These placeholders can be used in paths and file names:

• YYYY - year
• MM - month
• DD - day
• HH - hour
• mm - minute
• ss - second

Capture Screenshots

Take a screenshot with Cmd+Shift+4 and drag the floating thumbnail to the configured screen edge. Collector opens, compresses the image, and inserts it into your vault.

Default Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+Enter	Save to Daily Note
Shift+Cmd+Enter	Save as a new note
Esc	Close without saving
Cmd+F	Search inside the Reader
Cmd+P / Cmd+K	Open the Reader command palette

Troubleshooting

Vault not found

• Make sure the vault name exactly matches the one in Obsidian
• Make sure the vault contains an .obsidian folder
• Make sure Collector has read and write access

Global shortcut does not work

• Check Accessibility permission
• Restart Collector
• Try a different shortcut if the current one is already in use

Images are not saved

• Check the image folder path in settings
• Make sure the vault is writable
• The target folder is created automatically if it does not exist

Daily Note is not created

• Make sure the configured path format is valid
• Check vault permissions in System Settings > Privacy & Security

Development

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• Rust 1.70+
• Xcode Command Line Tools

Setup

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/Collector.git
cd Collector
npm install

Development Mode

npm run tauri dev

Production Build

npm run tauri build

The macOS app bundle is created in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Project Structure

collector/
|-- src/              # Svelte frontend
|-- src-tauri/        # Rust backend and Tauri setup
|-- public/           # Static assets
|-- package.json
`-- vite.config.js

Legal

Collector is licensed under the MIT License.

Obsidian is a trademark of Dynalist Inc. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Dynalist Inc.