Using Obsidian and Cursor for writing

I've been using Cursor daily since 2023, and I love how it has been getting better since.

Cursor is pretty much a code editor with AI access deeply embedded into it. You can ask your favorite models (ChatGPT, Claude, R1) questions and let it interact directly with your codebase, giving it context in your prompts.

One of the best features is how it created suggestions on what it is going to change:

In red is what will be removed and green what is added.

I also like writing and scribbling down notes and ideas, both personal and business-related, throughout the day.

Over the years, I've used various tools for this, but I recently came across Obsidian.

It syncs with my iCloud Drive, has a Mac and iPhone app, and most importantly, is based on good old markdown files.

For those who don't know markdown, the left shows the written text, and the right shows how it's stored as a simple text file on your computer.

Here is where it gets interesting

Because Obsidian has a simple foundation of files and folders, it can be opened just like any repo with Cursor.

This means you can use Cursor like you would use it as a development tool.

1. You can give it context by adding multiple notes you have taken on a topic

2. You can let it summarise notes

3. It can spellcheck your stuff much better than Grammarly does.

Here, I use the context of an article to draft a tweet.

I initially looked for an AI-assisted writing tool similar to Cursors. However, using Cursors seems to be much better.

Further thoughts

I've been thinking about where this is all going.

I see note-taking, discussing things with AI, and analyzing what you have been writing as an ever-improving source of advice.

I value advice from people with as much of my context as possible. Good friends or my wife, for example. I can ask for advice and use them as a sounding board for life decisions.

I wrote about the idea in Sounding Board. If I can automate the process of providing context, AI models such as Grok could help out here and be much more efficient.

Privacy is a concern, but companies such as Venice.ai are working on decent AI models.

So when all the data remains on your machine and is only fed into an AI when needed, that's a cool Sounding Board.

• What if Obsidian had a plugin that would allow interaction similar to Cursor?

• What if it would add summaries of your discussions with it for later use?

• What if it had access to your calendar and knew what's going on in your life?

• What if it accessed your social media posts, DMs, etc.?

• What if you could then simply ask it questions and provide context from your Obsidian notes?

I've been playing with Copilot for Obsidian, which seems to be a Cursor clone. Unsure if this will tick all the boxes, but it looks like a good step in the right direction.