I spent months chasing buried gems across Medium, Shortform, and random web highlights, only to lose them again in the shuffle. I clipped that brilliant insight last Tuesday, and now I can’t find it. The more I highlighted, the more scattered my notes became. Each new article added another layer of clutter, making it harder to reconnect ideas that clearly belonged together.
Everything changed when I set up a system that gathers every snippet I highlight in Readwise and sends it directly into Obsidian. My vault turned into a living map of ideas instead of a graveyard of forgotten quotes. Readwise brings all the highlights into one inbox, while Obsidian links them together in ways I would never have noticed. What used to feel like a pile of random notes now works as an interconnected knowledge base that grows with every new highlight that I make.
How Obsidian helps me make sense of my Readwise highlights
From scattered clips to organized notes
Here’s how this setup makes it easier for me to view and make sense of all my highlights. Every time I highlight something in Readwise, whether it’s from an article, a book, or a podcast transcript, that snippet automatically flows into Obsidian. Each highlight is assigned front matter that includes tags like #readwise and #readwise_inbox to mark it as unprocessed and awaiting my review.
As my collection of highlights grows, Readwise groups them by type in Obsidian. Articles land in one folder, books in another, and podcasts in their own space. To see everything I haven’t processed yet, I open my Readwise Inbox note. It shows a clean list of every unprocessed highlight in one place.
Once I open one of those highlights, I can use Obsidian’s local graph view to see how they connect. For example, I’ve been reading articles about DIY portable power stations. With the graph view, I can see those articles as connected nodes and understand how they relate to each other.
I can also click one of the nodes to sort through specific topics. For example, when I click on pps-component, it shows me all the parts I’ve highlighted from my local online shop. The other two nodes, such as pps-assembly and pps-resources, contain article highlights about part selection and the assembly process, which help me build my own portable power station. Aside from highlights, I also like to use Obsidian Web Clipper to save the entire article offline in a separate reading library.
After finishing a project and no longer needing certain highlights flagged for review, I can now remove the #readwise_inbox tag. This clears them from my unprocessed list but keeps them in my vault for future reference. This way, my highlights stay organized, and I always know what still needs my attention.
No more digging through browser bookmarks or switching between apps to find that highlight I saved three weeks ago. With everything stored in Obsidian, I can rely on its powerful search and local graph view to make sense of my notes and resurface connections when I need them.
How I set this all up
Archiving my Readwise highlights in Obsidian
I start by installing the official Readwise plugin inside Obsidian. In Community Plugins, I search for Readwise Official and connect it to my Readwise account. I then configure the plugin for automatic sync and pull new highlights every hour.
Next, I enable the Readwise Companion app on my Android phone and install the Readwise Chrome extension so that every highlight from Medium, Shortform, or the web syncs automatically.
Then, in my Readwise dashboard online, I added Obsidian as an export destination and keep the category folders as default.
With this configuration, Readwise automatically creates a readwise folder in my vault, complete with subfolders for books, articles, and podcasts. Whenever highlights arrive, they land right in Obsidian, ready for me to process.
Configuring Obsidian front matter for easy processing
To make it easier to find unprocessed highlights in Obsidian, I tag each note with #readwise_inbox. For this setup, I use automatic tagging by embedding a hard-coded front matter with my default tags in each note. This is one smart way you can link your notes in Obsidian without doing extra work.
So, I go back to the Readwise export configuration panel and enable Use Custom Formatting. I then scroll down to the Front Matter section and paste this YAML block:
---
tags:
- readwise
- readwise-inbox
created: "{{ created }}"
modified: "{{ updated }}"
source: "{{ title }}"
author: "{{ author }}"
url: "{{ url }}"
highlight-count: {{ highlights.length }}
---
This allows all saved highlights to have uniform front matter info and automatically adds tags such as #readwise and #readwise_inbox, which will be used for easy linking later.
Connecting highlights in Obsidian
While searching for #readwise_inbox in Obsidian works fine, I want to have a special place for all unprocessed highlights. To accomplish this, I went to Obsidian and installed the Dataview plugin by Michael Brenan. This plugin lets Obsidian run DataviewJS blocks, which are small, sandboxed JavaScript snippets that can query and display data from your notes. Next, I created a new note in my readwise folder, named it “Readwise Inbox,” and pasted this simple DataviewJS code block:
```dataview
TABLE
FROM #readwise_inbox
```
After I exit edit mode, all unprocessed highlights appear in this note. This acts as a dynamic to-do list that shows exactly what still needs attention. As new highlights sync, I go through them one by one. If a highlight deserves its own permanent note, I create one and add links to related topics. If it belongs under an existing note, I embed it with a link.
Then I open the local graph view for that note. Obsidian reveals both direct connections and second-degree neighbors, helping me discover insights I never expected. Having lots of low-quality notes and failing to be mindful of your vault are among the biggest mistakes people new to Obsidian make. So, once I finish viewing a saved highlight and decide it doesn’t belong in my inbox, I just remove the #readwise-inbox tag to keep the list streamlined.
Your highlights deserve better than app limbo
You don’t have to let your best insights fade away scattered across different apps and forgotten browser tabs. Pairing Readwise as a unified inbox with Obsidian’s linking power gives you a simple system for collecting, processing, and rediscovering highlights. This workflow turns random clips into an interconnected knowledge base that grows richer over time. Whether you’re building a project, researching a topic, or just trying to remember that brilliant quote you saved last month, everything lives in one searchable space. Try this setup and see your highlights finally make sense!