paper-note

Paper Note

Overview

Reads each paper PDF, extracts structured content, and writes a formatted note to the Obsidian vault via mcp-obsidian. Each paper gets its own note file.

Required MCP

ajtruex/mcp-obsidian-streamable-http — already installed.

Input

Accepts paper-fetch + paper-zotero output, or ask user for:

• PDF file path(s)
• Obsidian vault folder path (default: Papers/)
• Whether to include YAML frontmatter (runs paper-dataview automatically if yes)

Steps

1. Read PDF content (use the local path from paper-fetch output, or ask user)
2. Extract the following sections (use paper's own section headers as guide):
   • Problem the paper addresses
   • Key method or approach
   • Main results / findings
   • Limitations acknowledged by authors
3. Write note to Obsidian vault using the template below
4. If Zotero key is available, include it as a deep link in the note

Note Template

File path: Papers/{{slug-from-title}}.md

---
(YAML frontmatter added by paper-dataview if requested)
---
# {{title}}

> {{one-sentence summary of the paper's contribution}}

**Year:** {{year}} | **Authors:** {{authors}} | **Source:** [{{doi}}](https://doi.org/{{doi}}) | **Zotero:** [Open](zotero://select/items/{{zotero_key}})

## Problem
{{what gap or problem does this paper address}}

## Method
{{key approach, model, dataset, or technique used}}

## Results
{{main quantitative or qualitative findings}}

## Limitations
{{limitations the authors acknowledge}}

## Personal Notes
(empty — for your annotations)

Output

List of created Obsidian note paths:

Papers/attention-is-all-you-need.md
Papers/bert-pre-training.md

Common Issues

• Long PDFs: Focus extraction on Abstract, Introduction, Conclusion, and any explicit "Limitations" section. Do not attempt to summarize every section of a 40-page paper.
• Non-English papers: Extract in original language, add English title at top.
• No PDF available: If only metadata is available (no PDF), write the note using title/abstract/authors from Zotero metadata, and mark the "Method" and "Results" sections as "(PDF not available — manual review needed)".
• Obsidian MCP unavailable: Output the note content directly in chat so the user can paste it manually.