Discussion Brief Cards puts GitHub answers beside your notes

Name: Discussion Brief Cards
Author: theluckystrike

Read GitHub discussions beside project notes.

MIT · no telemetry · core features free

A sample GitHub discussion card appears above project notes in Reading view. — Open larger

version: 1.1.0
released: 2026-10-21
downloads: 22
review: Passed
health: Excellent
license: MIT
listed for: Desktop, Mobile
obsidian: 1.13.4 or later

The screenshots and desktop tests use local discussion responses. Live authenticated reads, private repositories, mobile devices and live Sponsors sign-in were not tested.

Directory facts fetched 2026-10-23 07:28 UTC from community.obsidian.md/users/theluckystrike.

About Discussion Brief Cards

You follow GitHub discussions and keep your project decisions in Obsidian.

Put a GitHub discussion URL in a discussion code block and open Reading view. Discussion Brief Cards shows its text, answer state and source link beside your notes. Loading fresh data needs a separate discussion read token.

Your own decisions stay outside the block. The screenshots use local sample responses rather than live GitHub discussions.

Sample notes with a discussion card, accepted answer, cache fallback and compact list

Free features

One discussion beside your notes

See the title, author, category, comment count and update date. The body stops at 1,500 characters, with a source link for the full text. HTML and image markup stay plain text.

Answer state and answer text

The card shows Answered or Not answered and the accepted answer text. Answers stop at 800 characters. Refresh requests a new response.

The sample card shows an accepted answer above the team notes. — Open larger

Cached text with a fetch time

A cached card shows its fetch time. Cards render from the cache within its configured age and can fall back to saved text after a failed fetch. Turning caching off leaves previous saved entries.

The sample card shows Cached and a timestamp after an offline error. — Open larger

Clear input and request errors

Issue URLs, pull request URLs and other hosts stop before a request. Missing tokens, HTTP failures and missing discussion data show messages in the card.

An invalid discussion URL produces a message beside the note text. — Open larger

The free version shows one discussion per block; compact lists need Pro.

Pro features

Pro costs $5 a month or $15 one time through GitHub Sponsors. One sponsorship turns on Pro in every plugin that has it.

Compact discussion list Pro

A discussion-list block shows several source links, answer states and comment counts. Filter by answer state or refresh the list. Errors remain visible when you filter.

The sample list shows discussion links with answer states and comment counts. — Open larger

See how Pro works

Set up Discussion Brief Cards

needs

Obsidian 1.13.4 or later
A GitHub account and a discussion read token with access to the source.

steps

Open the plugin settings and select or add a secret for Discussion read token.
Use a GitHub token with permission to read your source discussion.
Write a discussion code block with one GitHub discussion URL inside.
Open Reading view and select Refresh when you need a new response.

If the app can't find a new plugin yet, try again later. Obsidian says a plugin that passes the review shows in the app within 24 hours.

How to show a GitHub discussion beside your Obsidian notes

Known limits of Discussion Brief Cards

Fresh discussion reads require a separate GitHub read token, including for public discussions.
Cards cut bodies after 1,500 characters and accepted answers after 800 characters.
Cards support GitHub discussion URLs rather than issue, pull request or Enterprise URLs.
The cache age is checked when a card renders; closed notes do not poll for updates.
Turning off caching stops cache reads and new writes but leaves saved discussion text in the plugin data file.
Vault sync and backup tools can copy cached discussion text from the plugin data file.
Owner and repository names with different letter case use separate cache entries and requests.
Compact lists start their discussion requests together, so long lists can encounter GitHub rate limits.
Text truncation can split a character represented by two JavaScript string units.
Live authenticated reads, private repositories, organization access policies, Live Preview and mobile devices were not tested.

Questions about Discussion Brief Cards

Do free cards need a GitHub account?

Fresh card reads need a GitHub account and a discussion read token. Single cards do not need a Sponsors sponsorship.

Does Sponsors sign-out remove my read token?

Sponsors sign-out clears the Sponsors token. Your separate discussion read token stays in Obsidian secret storage.

Does the cache reload on a timer?

No, the cache age is checked when a card renders. The plugin does not poll a closed note.

Can I use issue or pull request URLs?

The reader accepts GitHub discussion URLs only. Other URL types show an error before any discussion request.

Can my vault backup include discussion text?

Cached discussion text stays in the plugin data file. Sync and backup tools can copy that file, including its saved discussion content.

Network use

When a card needs a fetch or you select Refresh, api.github.com receives the repository owner, repository name, discussion number and read token. These fields come from your note URL; other note text and file paths stay local. Sponsors sign-in separately sends client id, scope and device codes to github.com, then its token and sponsorship query to api.github.com.

Read the full network disclosure