🗂️ Obsidian Note Generator

A lightweight, offline-capable browser tool that converts CSV or TSV spreadsheet data into Obsidian-ready .md files with YAML frontmatter — one file per row, downloaded as a ZIP.

No install. No account. No internet required once saved locally. Open the HTML file and go.

Screenshots

1. CSV Input — paste or drop your file

Screenshot: CSV input area with drag-and-drop zone and paste textarea

2. Column Configuration — rename properties, set types, pick the filename column

Screenshot: Column mapping table showing property name fields, type dropdowns, and filename radio buttons

3. Live Preview — see the exact YAML frontmatter before generating

Screenshot: Preview box showing color-coded YAML frontmatter for the first row

4. Output — a ZIP of .md files ready to drop into your vault

Screenshot: File explorer showing the unzipped .md files

Features

Drag-and-drop or paste CSV/TSV directly — no file picker required
Auto-detects delimiter — comma or tab, whichever your export uses
Per-column property naming — rename any column to a valid Obsidian property key
Per-column data types — choose from text, number, date, boolean, list, or link, each formatted correctly in YAML
Smart date normalization — converts MM/DD/YYYY, D-M-YYYY, written month names, and Excel serial numbers to YYYY-MM-DD automatically
Filename column selector — pick any column as the basis for each .md file's name
Live preview — color-coded YAML frontmatter updates instantly as you configure
Duplicate filename handling — automatically suffixes conflicting names so nothing gets overwritten
Quoted-field CSV support — values containing commas are handled correctly
Fully offline — works without an internet connection once jszip.min.js is saved locally

File Structure

Keep these three files in the same folder:

obsidian-note-generator/
├── obsidian-note-generator.html   ← open this in your browser
├── styles.css                     ← stylesheet
└── jszip.min.js                   ← bundled locally for offline use

To go fully offline, also remove the Google Fonts @import line at the top of styles.css. The fallback fonts are monospace and sans-serif (Courier New / Arial on Windows, Menlo / Helvetica on Mac).

Usage

1. Open obsidian-note-generator.html in any modern browser.

2. Load your data — either drag your .csv or .tsv file onto the drop zone, or paste the raw CSV text directly.

3. Configure columns — for each column detected from your header row:

Edit the property name (auto-slugified from your header)
Set the data type using the dropdown
Click the ● radio to choose which column names each .md file

4. Check the preview — the first row renders as live YAML so you can catch any issues before generating.

5. Click Download — a obsidian-notes.zip file downloads containing one .md file per row.

6. Unzip into your vault — drop the files into the relevant folder in Obsidian.

Data Types

Type	YAML output	Notes
`text`	`property: "value"`	Default. Handles commas and special characters safely.
`number`	`property: 1234`	Unquoted. Falls back to quoted text if the value isn't numeric.
`date`	`property: 2024-03-15`	Normalizes multiple input formats to `YYYY-MM-DD`.
`boolean`	`property: true`	Recognizes `true`, `yes`, `1` as true; everything else is `false`.
`list`	`property:` `- "value"`	Multi-value list. Each CSV cell becomes a single-item list.
`link`	`property: "[[value]]"`	Wraps the value in Obsidian internal link syntax.

Date Normalization

When a column is set to date, the tool attempts to parse and reformat to YYYY-MM-DD:

Input format	Example	Output
Already correct	`2024-03-15`	`2024-03-15`
US (Excel default)	`3/15/2024`	`2024-03-15`
European	`15-3-2024` or `15.3.2024`	`2024-03-15`
Written month	`March 15, 2024`	`2024-03-15`
Short month	`Mar 15 2024`	`2024-03-15`
Excel serial	`45366`	`2024-03-15`

If the value can't be parsed, it's passed through as-is rather than corrupted.

Tips

Commas in values — export from Excel normally; Excel automatically wraps fields containing commas in quotes, which the parser handles correctly. Alternatively, export as Tab Delimited (.txt) to avoid the issue entirely.
Account numbers as numbers — set the column type to number so Obsidian treats them as numeric properties. Make sure the values contain no letters or symbols.
Internal links — use the link type to wrap values in [[...]]. If you need multiple links in one property, use list type and manually format values as [[Note Name]] in your source data.
Property names — keep them lowercase with hyphens (e.g. account-holder-name). The tool slugifies automatically, but names with spaces or special characters will need bracket syntax in Obsidian Bases formulas: note["Property Name"].

Offline Setup

Download jszip.min.js from:

https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jszip/3.10.1/jszip.min.js

Place it in the same folder as the HTML file.

In obsidian-note-generator.html, change:

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jszip/3.10.1/jszip.min.js"></script>

to:

<script src="jszip.min.js"></script>

Optionally remove the @import line at the top of styles.css to drop the Google Fonts dependency too.

Example CSV

See sample-accounts.csv for a ready-to-use test file.

Requirements

Any modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari)
No server, no backend, no install

Caveats & Disclaimers

Not all property types are supported by this tool. For more types, review see the [Property Types documention on Obisidian's published Help Vault].
I am not a programmer / software engineer/ coder, etc.

Credits

Claude by Anthropic — designed and built entirely through conversation, including the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, date parsing, and this README
Google Fonts — IBM Plex Mono and IBM Plex Sans, served free for open use
JSZip by Stuart Knightley — ZIP file generation in the browser, hosted via Cloudflare cdnjs

Built circa

2026.04.03-04