Making Obsidian Daily Notes Even Easier with Raycast

Introduction

I'm Wagomu, and I've recently started using Raycast.
As my Mac is primarily used for development, I usually only have the terminal, a browser, and Obsidian open. For a long time, the built-in Spotlight was enough for my workflow. The only reason I was drawn to Raycast was the ability to run custom scripts.
I aggregate all my texts—diaries, work notes, and study notes—into Obsidian. In particular, to write my diary every day, I love using a community plugin called Obsidian Memos, which allows me to "tweet" to my daily notes with timestamps. I write my diary by looking back at those posts to recall my memories. However, I felt it was a bit of a hassle to open Obsidian every single time just to post whatever thought I had while working. I realized that using Raycast's Script Commands would allow me to post seamlessly. Thinking this might bring me closer to being a "Twitter addict," I tried it out and it worked perfectly. It significantly lowered the barrier to posting notes, so I'd like to share this knowledge.

Prerequisites

• Raycast
• Obsidian
  • Advanced URI (Community Plugin)
  • Obsidian Memos (Community Plugin)

Raycast

Raycast is a blazingly fast, totally extendable launcher. It lets you complete tasks, calculate, share common links, and much more.

DeepL Translation:

Raycast is a blazingly fast, fully extendable launcher. It allows you to complete tasks, perform calculations, share common links, and much more.

Roughly speaking, it's a launcher more convenient than Spotlight.
You can download the installer or install it via Homebrew.

brew install --cask raycast

Obsidian

A handy note-taking app that runs locally.
I've been using it for about six months because I like its simple functionality, the fact that it works locally (meaning it can be used offline), and its excellent mobile performance.
Since it's cross-platform and works on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux, it's very attractive to me as I use an Android phone and switch between Windows, Mac, and occasionally Linux PCs.

Community Plugins

Enable "Restricted mode" in Settings > Community plugins, then search for the following plugins by clicking Browse on the right side of Community Plugins to install and enable them.

Advanced URI

A plugin that allows you to control Obsidian from the outside using URIs.

Obsidian Memos

A plugin based on the open-source Memos and flomo.
It has an interface similar to Twitter (now X), and the content you post is written to your daily notes in a list or task format. It significantly lowers the barrier to taking notes, so it is a highly recommended community plugin for those who have just started using Obsidian.
Entries are appended to your daily note in the following format:
- HH:MM Content of the post
- [ ] HH:MM Content of the post

How to do it

By using Raycast's Script Commands feature, we will add a command to append to your daily notes in a list format.

Script Command

You can write and execute scripts using Bash, Apple Script, Ruby, Python, or Node.js.
For more details, please see the Script Commands documentation.
Also, refer to Usage and Settings of Launcher Tool Raycast | DevelopersIO for how to create Script Commands.
I chose Bash, though I didn't have any particular reason for it.

Script

#!/bin/bash

# Required parameters:
# @raycast.schemaVersion 1
# @raycast.title Append Memos
# @raycast.mode compact

# Optional parameters:
# @raycast.icon 🗒️
# @raycast.argument1 { "type": "text", "placeholder": "Take memos" }

current_time=$(date +"%H:%M")
memo=$(echo "$1" | sed 's/ /%20/g' )
open --background "obsidian://advanced-uri?vault=MyLife&daily=true&mode=append&data=-%20$current_time%20$memo" # Replace "MyLife" with your own vault name.

Brief Explanation

Skipping the comment section, here is a brief explanation of what it does.
It executes the open command in URI format using the format - HH:MM Content of the post.
Since any spaces in the content would cause anything after the space to not be appended to Obsidian, they are converted to %20 before execution.

Execution

Open Raycast, type Append Memos, and press Tab to move focus to the adjacent text box. Then, just type like you're posting to X and press Enter. You should see the entered content appended to your daily note.

If you want to save even more time, you can set a Hotkey. I have it set to Command + M (using the first letter of "Memo") to launch it instantly.

Conclusion

Have a wonderful Obsidian life!

I'm currently exploring whether something similar can be achieved on Windows.