How I Capture & PROCESS using Readwise & Obsidian

Readwise and Readwise Reader are positioned as a two-part system for capturing highlights from anywhere on the web and turning them into searchable, revisitable notes inside Obsidian—then processing them so they don’t become a dead archive. The core workflow hinges on Readwise acting as the bridge that imports and exports saved highlights, while Readwise Reader functions as an “inbox” for reading everything from RSS feeds and newsletters to Twitter threads and YouTube videos. Highlights saved in Reader can be exported to Obsidian automatically, along with any notes added per highlight, using a configurable folder structure and formatting rules.

The setup starts by installing the “Readwise official plugin” in an Obsidian vault and connecting it to a Readwise account. A key configuration change is setting the resync frequency to hourly, ensuring new highlights appear quickly. On the Readwise side, Obsidian is added as an export location under “connect and sync highlights,” where Readwise creates a dedicated “read wise” folder in the vault with subfolders such as “books” and “tweets,” based on how content is classified. Import formatting can be customized via YAML front matter and highlight rendering. In this workflow, each new highlight is tagged with “read wise inbox” (plus a “read-wise” tag), and the notes include created/last modified fields to match the vault’s conventions. The result is a more organized highlight layout than the default export.

Readwise Reader is then used as the landing ground for nearly all online consumption. It supports newsletters, RSS feeds, Twitter, and even YouTube content, with optional browser extensions and a mobile app. A practical use case is privacy and convenience: subscribers can use a Readwise email address instead of their real email, so newsletter content lands in Reader and can be highlighted for immediate export to Obsidian. Twitter saving is handled either by “save to read wise” actions or by sending tweets to Readwise via private message. For long threads, the workflow can be tuned so that single tweets are saved to Obsidian while threads are handled differently—disabled for Readwise export and enabled within Reader—so low-value threads can be archived without cluttering the vault.

Processing is treated as the missing step that turns imported highlights into usable knowledge. The “read wise inbox” tag becomes the control mechanism: a dedicated Obsidian page is created using a Data View query (review table filtered by the “read wise inbox” tag) to list unprocessed highlights. From there, the workflow uses Obsidian’s local graph view to surface connections—neighboring and outgoing links—so older highlights can be rediscovered through related notes rather than manual searching. The local graph is presented as a way to stumble upon relevant saved material by navigating through linked concepts.

Finally, Readwise Reader’s pricing and availability are addressed via Readwise’s FAQ: Reader is in beta, with plans to reprice Readwise and Reader for new subscribers after beta ends, while existing subscribers who sign up before the beta ends are protected from price increases. The overall message is that Readwise alone felt like a “nice to have,” but pairing it with Reader and a deliberate processing system makes it a core part of a knowledge workflow.