Live Cursor is an ultra-lightweight, zero-conflict real-time collaborative editing and configuration sync engine for Obsidian vaults. It brings real-time, conflict-free collaborative editing, live collaborator cursor tracking, and total vault synchronization to self-hosted markdown databases.
- Real-Time Cursor Tracking: View the live cursors and text selections of other vault editors inside your notes with custom user profiles.
- Background Daemon Server: Built-in platform-independent background engine that launches with a single click inside Obsidian—no terminals or external Docker installs required.
- Config Sync Engine: One-click bidirectional synchronization of settings, themes, and community plugins (your
.obsidianconfiguration folder). - Admin Diagnostics: Secure telemetry dashboard reporting uptime, connected rooms, memory utilization, and local SQLite/event-log database sizes.
- Secure by Design: Cryptographic verification gates all sync and administrative routes.
You can fully configure your server and collaborator sessions directly inside the Obsidian settings panel under the Live Cursor tab:
- Start Local Background Server: Click Launch Local Server to start the built-in background sync daemon.
- Initialize Admin Account: Provide a password to initialize your root administration credential registry.
- Register Collaborator: Enter your editor username and password. The wizard will automatically create the user account on your server and save it.
- Complete and Sync: Start editing! Collaborative cursors will appear in real time on any shared vault note.
Unlocking the Developer Mode switch in settings exposes additional, precise control parameters:
- Direct Server URL: View or modify the connection socket URL directly in plain text.
- Direct Username: Inspect and edit the active username.
- Direct Password: Inspect and edit the current session password credential.
- Workspace Identifier: Set a custom workspace namespace to isolate specific Vault configurations (defaults to
default-workspace). - Debug Logging: Prints detailed synchronization events and websocket status reports to the Obsidian console.
- Auto-Sync On Load: When enabled, runs config sync automatically 3 seconds after Obsidian starts.
To make this plugin downloadable directly from the official Community Plugins catalog inside Obsidian, follow these steps:
Compile the plugin code locally:
npm run buildThis updates main.js and compiles the background daemon launcher.
Create a new Release in your GitHub repository (Live-Cursor/Live-Cursor):
- Name the release exactly matching your version in
manifest.json(e.g.1.0.0). - Attach the following three compiled files as assets to the GitHub Release:
main.jsmanifest.jsonstyles.css
- Fork the official obsidianmd/obsidian-releases repository on GitHub.
- Edit
community-plugins.jsoninside your fork and append your plugin configuration object at the end:{ "id": "live-cursor", "name": "Live Cursor", "author": "Live-Cursor Organization", "description": "Real-time collaborative editing and cursor tracking for Obsidian notes.", "repo": "Live-Cursor/Live-Cursor" } - Commit the change and submit a Pull Request to the
obsidian-releasesrepository. The Obsidian development team will automatically review, verify compliance, and add it to the live catalog!
This project is licensed under the MIT License.