Obsidian Vault Rebuild Series - Bringing in Content from Readwise

A custom Obsidian setup can turn Readwise highlights into structured, queryable “page templates” that automatically carry metadata, create navigation links, and stay resilient across repeated syncs. The core move is installing Readwise’s official Obsidian plugin and then rewriting its export settings so every imported item lands in a predictable folder structure with consistent filenames, rich page headers, and stable links back to Readwise IDs.

After installing the official Readwise community plugin (and enabling it), the workflow centers on connecting Obsidian to Readwise via the plugin’s “connect” flow, which opens Readwise export preferences in a browser. From there, the configuration switches on “use custom file name,” using a tag-based filename pattern that keeps titles while stripping out hashtags and appending author plus the word “highlight.” The page title formatting is also adjusted so the first line of each note uses the full Readwise item title (with options to swap to a simpler “title” variable if preferred).

The biggest customization happens in “page metadata,” where the exported note becomes more than a plain highlight dump. The setup keeps the Readwise book image at the top, then adds a collapsible callout labeled “Readwise information.” Inside that callout, variables populate author, full title, and a Readwise category (book, podcast, tweet, article, etc.). It also injects the “last highlighted date,” a direct link back to the Readwise archive page using the book review URL pattern plus the book ID, and provenance fields like source and source ID. Additional fields are mapped to the user’s existing Obsidian workflow—tags, “review for repurpose,” and “document references”—with conditional logic so optional metadata only appears when present.

To make the notes navigable inside Obsidian, the template adds a DataView query that lists linked notes pointing to the current Readwise page. The highlights section is also tuned: each highlight gets an absolute reference back to its unique Readwise highlight ID, enabling precise “jump back” links to the exact highlight block in Readwise. A key practical benefit follows: those block reference IDs are treated as stable, so repeated delete-and-resync cycles won’t break existing cards and links as long as the IDs remain.

Before the first sync, the configuration adds YAML front matter (including an alias) and deliberately leaves the “sync notification” empty to avoid generating a large batch of “today’s” sync links prematurely. The initial sync then creates a Readwise folder under the chosen location (in this case, a subfolder under “salon”), splitting imports into Articles, Books, Podcasts, and Tweets. Afterward, the sync notification is enabled so new items appear on the appropriate daily note.

Finally, the process is stress-tested by saving and tagging new items (including a NASA James Webb Telescope page), running sync again, and checking the resulting “Readwise syncs” notes. A small DataView formatting issue (a comma/spacing mismatch) temporarily prevents links from rendering until the query formatting is corrected, after which linked-note relationships populate properly—demonstrating both the power and the sensitivity of the query template.