Obsidian: clean Markdown, then you file it

Obsidian stores Markdown files in a folder you control. WebInk can produce that Markdown from a webpage, with headings, links, and code fences intact, and it can send the same text to ChatGPT, Claude, or another assistant. WebInk does not open your vault, create the note, apply highlights, or set Obsidian properties by itself.

That last sentence is the split with Obsidian Web Clipper. The clipper is the right tool when the destination is a note inside the vault: a folder, properties, and highlights on the page you were reading. WebInk is the right tool when you want a clean Markdown file or a prompt, and you are willing to drop the file into the vault yourself. Many people keep both. They are not two logos for one job.

A file the vault can accept

Build a template that looks like the note you would have written. Title, source URL, and the body are enough for most vaults. Add {{publishedTime}} when the page has a date. The template editor is where that wrapper is saved. Quote the title so a colon does not break the front matter.

Download the .md file, or copy it into a note you created in Obsidian. The save guide explains why the web tool and the extension name that file differently. If the note must include the figures offline, use Download .zip in the extension and move both the Markdown and the images/ folder into the vault. Rewrite nothing by hand when the export already pointed image links at that folder.

When the clipper is the better capture

• You highlight sentences and expect those highlights in the note.
• The note must appear in a specific vault folder without a manual move.
• You rely on the clipper’s property types and templates inside Obsidian.

WebInk will not grow those behaviors by being installed next to the clipper. Use WebInk on the same article when you also want the text in a chat, or when you want the extension’s table of contents and conversion options. The comparison write-up is the Obsidian Web Clipper alternative page. A public URL with no install is the URL to Markdown tool, which still does not write into the vault.

For a reading list you will ask a model about later, pair this with the AI research use case. Save the file. Send a copy. Keep the file.

A folder layout that matches the ZIP

Download .zip names the archive from the page title and puts one Markdown file at the root of the archive, plus an images folder when remote images were found. After you unzip into a vault, a single capture should look like this. The title still has spaces because the ZIP namer does not slugify.

vault/
  clippings/
    API Design Notes/
      API Design Notes.md
      images/
        architecture.png

Inside the note, a figure that downloaded successfully is a normal Markdown image:

![Architecture](images/architecture.png)

Obsidian resolves that path from the note. Open the note once before you delete the zip. If the figure is a broken embed, check that images is beside the file and not beside clippings. A second capture should get its own folder. The uniqueness suffix inside one zip (photo-1.png when two URLs shared a file name) does not know about files already in the vault.

An image that failed to download stays as the original URL. The extension toast reports the failure count and says the original URLs were kept. Those notes still need the network. Data-URL images are not copied into images/. They remain inline. Scroll the source page before converting when figures load lazily. The full fetch rules are in the save guide and on ZIP export.

Pick the template that matches the vault

The side panel applies the selected template before copy and download. Shipping templates are:

• Default. {{markdown}} only. The file is the article body. A leading H1 has already been removed by the converter, so the note may not start with the page title.
• Basic Frontmatter. YAML for title, url, and publishedTime, then the body. This is the closest built-in match to properties you can search. Quote the title yourself if headlines on that site contain colons.
• Content Summary. Plain lines for title, URL, excerpt, and body. Useful when you do not want YAML.
• Markdown Link. A single link and a blockquote excerpt. This is a bookmark, not the article. It also omits {{markdown}}, so the side panel will refuse a translation until you switch templates.

A front matter block you edit for colon-safe titles looks like this. It is the Basic Frontmatter idea with quotes added. It is not a second built-in template.

---
title: "{{title}}"
url: {{url}}
publishedTime: "{{publishedTime}}"
---

{{markdown}}

Empty fields stay empty when the page had no author, date, or description. You can also place {{byline}}, {{siteName}}, {{excerpt}}, and {{toc}}. The template editor lists those variables and offers starters, including a study-notes starter and a TOC starter. WebInk does not map them onto Obsidian’s typed properties. They are text in the file.

Bullet characters follow the saved transform options. Before any options are saved, the converter uses hyphen bullets, ATX headings, and fenced code. The options screen can switch the marker, and that choice is stored when you save the form. Obsidian accepts the common markers. You do not need to restyle a list by hand for the vault to render it.

Using both tools on one article

A practical split: clip with Obsidian Web Clipper when you are highlighting a paragraph you want stored as a highlight, and use WebInk on the same URL when you want Download .zip or a prompt for ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Grok. The two files will not be identical. Keep the clipper note as the highlighted reading, and keep the WebInk note as the clean body plus figures. Name the folders so you can tell them apart.

If you only needed a public article and you are not installing anything, the URL to Markdown download is still a vault file. It will not contain an images folder. Paste or move the .md into clippings/ and leave the image links remote. That is a fine reading note when the host is stable.

WebInk will not sync the vault, resolve backlinks, or update the note when the page changes. Reconvert and replace the file when you want a newer capture, and keep the old file if you have already written comments under it. A Notion button is not currently in the side panel. Pasting into Notion is a separate manual step, unrelated to the vault layout above.

Empty dates and daily notes

{{publishedTime}} is empty when the page did not expose a published time. Basic Frontmatter will still print the key with a blank value. That is valid enough to open, and it is a weak property to sort on. If your vault sorts clippings by date, put the capture date in the template as literal text you type once, or prefix the file name yourself after download. WebInk does not stamp the download with today’s date.

Daily notes are a poor default folder for these captures. A daily note is a journal. A clipped article is a source. Drop the unzipped pair into clippings/, then link it from today’s daily note with a normal Markdown link and one sentence about why you saved it. The daily note stays short. The source stays complete, including the images folder the ZIP built. Deleting the daily note later does not delete the source.

If you also send the note to a model, do that from the side panel before you close the tab, using a prompt that contains {{markdown}}. Write the useful reply under your own heading at the bottom of the vault file, the same way the AI research page keeps a short check section. The chat is not the vault copy.

FAQ