LogoPieces for Developers

Your Guide to Getting Started with the Pieces For Developers Obsidian Plugin

Pieces For Developers captures NO identifiable user data. Our Local-only architecture means your notes never have to leave your device.

The Pieces Suite must be downloaded and installed separately from the Obsidian Plugin in order for the Plugin to work properly.

Install Instructions#

Installation Instructions for the latest Pieces for Obsidian release:

  1. Make sure you have community plugins enabled in Obsidian.
  2. Search for Pieces for Developers in the Obsidian community plugin store.
  3. Click install on the Pieces for Developers plugin listing.
  4. After the plugin is downloaded and installed, click enable to start the plugin.
  5. Now you can get started with the plugin! Just click the Pieces icon on the left, and start the magic!

Save your Snippets#

To save a Snippet:

  • Highlight the text, right-click, and select "Save to Pieces."
  • Click the Pieces button within any code block.
  • Highlight the desired code and use a dedicated keyboard shortcut.
Example of saving a snippet using the obsidian Pieces plugin

Find your Snippets#

Open the Pieces View from the Ribbon Menu.

  • Sort by recent or by language
  • Search your snippets to save time leafing through your markdown files.
Example of searching for snippets using the obsidian Pieces plugin.

Use your Snippets#

  • Copy and share your snippets from the Pieces View
  • You can expand your code snippets to view automatically generated metadata
  • View your snippets with syntax highlighting
Example of using a snippet that's been saved to Pieces.

Share your Snippets#

To share a snippet:

  • Highlight the text, right-click, and select "Share via Pieces Link."
  • Click the Pieces Share button within any code block/in the Pieces View.
  • Highlight the desired code and use a dedicated keyboard shortcut.
Example of sharing a snippet using the obsidian Pieces plugin.

Pieces hosts all of your snippets for seamless sharing.

Embedded Buttons#

Pieces adds embedded buttons into your markdown files to help you save, copy, enrich, & share your code snippets.

  • Save: This button saves any code snippet to Pieces, so that you can easily refer to it later across the Pieces ecosystem.

  • Copy: This button allows you to quickly copy your code to your clipboard.

  • Enrich: This button generates helpful metadata and contextual information for your code and automatically adds it to the markdown surrounding your code block.

  • Share: This button allows you to quickly share any code snippet with a link, for easy collaboration.

Example of using the embedded buttons added by the obsidian pieces plugin.

Pieces Copilot powered by qGPT - Personal Knowledge Assistant#

One of the most significant features of this plugin is Pieces Copilot, an artificial intelligence assistant designed to assist with your personal knowledge management. The Copilot learns from the notes in your vault and adapts to the context of what you're working on. To try out this impressive technology:

  • Ensure Pieces OS is open and updated to at least 5.1.2.
  • To view the Copilot, open the Pieces plugin and click the bot logo on the top slider to switch to Copilot.
  • The Copilot will use your entire vault as context for the chatbot. This means you can query your Obsidian vault with plain text and we will semantically match your question to any of your relevant notes.
  • Simply begin asking questions in the input text prompt and watch the magic!
  • Each time you enter a query, you will also receive suggested queries relating to your conversation. Simply click one of the suggested queries buttons in order to continue the conversation with that query.
  • Each response from the Copilot will also contain links to the relevant notes that it used to answer your question. Click on one of those links in order to open that markdown file in your editor.

Data Privacy, Security, and Offline-First Approach#

In Pieces for Developers, we not only prioritize your data privacy and security, but also align our approach with the philosophy of Obsidian: Offline-first, ensuring an optimal user experience. Here are key features that uphold these principles:

  • Privacy and Security: All user data, including code snippets, are stored directly on your device, reinforcing our commitment to data privacy.
Privacy and security details.

  • On-Device ML Processing: We carry out ~80% of machine learning processing on-device, which minimizes exposure to third-party servers.

  • Offline-First Design: Like Obsidian, our tool is engineered to work seamlessly offline, providing robust functionality even without internet connectivity.

  • Full On-Device ML: We're progressing towards fully on-device ML capabilities, with an aim to ship 100% of ML features on-device in Q3.

  • Opt-In Cloud Capability: We provide opt-in cloud features on a per-resource basis, ensuring that data transfers to the cloud only occur with your explicit consent, granting you full control over your data.

Just as Obsidian believes, we too are steadfast in our commitment to provide a tool that respects user privacy, ensures data security, and delivers a powerful offline-first experience. So, feel free to switch off your Wi-Fi and give Pieces for Developers a spin.

  • Offline First Pieces Copilot: qGPT sends data to ChatGPT for its more complex processing. Understandably, that can be a bit scary, because your vault information may be private. We plan to make qGPT fully offline by Q3*, but for now, we've found an effective compromise. Rather than sending all of your data to ChatGPT, we use a series of offline models to boil things down as much as possible. This way, we only send the bare minimum to the cloud, and the majority of ML processing is safely kept on your computer. To understand how this works internally, refer to the diagram below.
Diagram detailing how local preprocessing limits the data sent to ChatGPT

Can I adjust my privacy settings later?#

You can set your user privacy settings during onboarding when you download the app for the first time on your device.

Privacy and security details.

If you want to adjust your privacy settings later after you complete onboarding, you can find the option in your user settings:

Privacy and security details.

Real-Time Streaming for a Better Integration Experience#

To optimize your experience, we use a websocket connection to pass data between your plugins and Pieces OS. This means that any change you make across the Pieces ecosystem, including the Pieces for Obsidian plugin, is instantaneously reflected across all of your Pieces integrations. (ex. VS Code Extension.)

Having Trouble with the Pieces For Developers Obsidian Plugin?#

To double-check that Pieces OS is running, make sure that the Pieces logo is present in your toolbar (on macOS) or your task bar (on Windows). If it isn't there, please launch Pieces OS by clicking Pieces OS in your Applications folder.

If you need to download and install Pieces OS, please visit this link.

If the Obsidian plugin still isn't working for you, please make sure you have the following:

  • The latest version of Pieces for Developers Obsidian Plugin
  • Pieces OS version 5.0.0 or higher

After installing or updating your software, please restart Obsidian.

If none of the above fix your issue, please submit this form and we'll get back to you!

Can I Customize the Pieces Plugin?#

Definitely! To customize your Pieces Obsidian plugin experience, click on the settings icon in the bottom left corner of your Obsidian window.

Select "Community plugins" and then click the gear icon for the Pieces plugin.

You can adjust the following Settings for the Pieces Obsidian Plugin:

  1. Auto-open Pieces list view on snippet save
  2. Cloud capabilities
  3. Pieces server port
  4. Login/Logout of the Pieces cloud