Obsidian CI Integration

Overview

GitHub Actions workflows for Obsidian plugin development: build validation on every push, automated releases when you tag, version-bump scripting, manifest.json validation, and BRAT beta channel support.

Prerequisites

• GitHub repository with an Obsidian plugin
• Working local build (npm run build produces main.js)
• manifest.json and versions.json in repo root
• GitHub Actions enabled on the repository

Instructions

Step 1: Create Build Workflow

# .github/workflows/build.yml
name: Build Plugin
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 18

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Build plugin
        run: npm run build

      - name: Verify build output
        run: |
          if [ ! -f main.js ]; then
            echo "ERROR: main.js not found after build"
            exit 1
          fi
          echo "main.js size: $(wc -c < main.js) bytes"

      - name: Validate manifest.json
        run: |
          node -e "
            const m = require('./manifest.json');
            const required = ['id', 'name', 'version', 'minAppVersion', 'description', 'author'];
            const missing = required.filter(f => !m[f]);
            if (missing.length) {
              console.error('Missing manifest fields:', missing.join(', '));
              process.exit(1);
            }
            console.log('manifest.json valid:', m.id, 'v' + m.version);
          "

Step 2: Create Release Workflow

# .github/workflows/release.yml
name: Release Plugin
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '*'

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 18

      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm run build

      - name: Create GitHub Release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
        with:
          files: |
            main.js
            manifest.json
            styles.css
          draft: false
          generate_release_notes: true

Step 3: Create Version Bump Script

// version-bump.mjs
import { readFileSync, writeFileSync } from 'fs';

const targetVersion = process.env.npm_package_version;

// Update manifest.json
const manifest = JSON.parse(readFileSync('manifest.json', 'utf8'));
const { minAppVersion } = manifest;
manifest.version = targetVersion;
writeFileSync('manifest.json', JSON.stringify(manifest, null, '\t'));

// Update versions.json — maps plugin version to minimum Obsidian version
const versions = JSON.parse(readFileSync('versions.json', 'utf8'));
versions[targetVersion] = minAppVersion;
writeFileSync('versions.json', JSON.stringify(versions, null, '\t'));

console.log(`Bumped to ${targetVersion} (minAppVersion: ${minAppVersion})`);

Step 4: Wire Version Bump into package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "node esbuild.config.mjs",
    "dev": "node esbuild.config.mjs --watch",
    "version": "node version-bump.mjs && git add manifest.json versions.json"
  }
}

Now npm version patch (or minor/major) runs the bump script automatically.

Step 5: Add Manifest Validation Workflow

# .github/workflows/validate.yml
name: Validate Plugin
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  validate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Check manifest/versions consistency
        run: |
          node -e "
            const manifest = require('./manifest.json');
            const versions = require('./versions.json');
            const pkg = require('./package.json');
            let fail = false;

            if (manifest.version !== pkg.version) {
              console.error('Version mismatch: manifest=' + manifest.version + ' package=' + pkg.version);
              fail = true;
            }

            if (!versions[manifest.version]) {
              console.error('versions.json missing entry for ' + manifest.version);
              fail = true;
            }

            if (fail) process.exit(1);
            console.log('All versions consistent: ' + manifest.version);
          "

Step 6: BRAT Beta Support

Add a beta-manifest.json for BRAT beta testers:

{
  "id": "your-plugin-id",
  "name": "Your Plugin (Beta)",
  "version": "1.2.0-beta.1",
  "minAppVersion": "1.5.0",
  "description": "Beta channel — install via BRAT",
  "author": "Your Name"
}

Beta users install via BRAT by entering your GitHub repo URL. BRAT fetches the latest release (including pre-releases) automatically — no submission to the community repo needed.

Output

• .github/workflows/build.yml — validates build on every push/PR
• .github/workflows/release.yml — creates GitHub release with main.js, manifest.json, styles.css on tag push
• .github/workflows/validate.yml — checks version consistency across manifest, package.json, and versions.json
• version-bump.mjs — keeps manifest.json and versions.json in sync with package.json version
• Optional beta-manifest.json for BRAT beta channel

Error Handling

Examples

Tag and Release a New Version

set -euo pipefail
# Bump, commit, tag, push — release workflow fires automatically
npm version patch
git push origin main --tags

Manual Build Verification

set -euo pipefail
npm ci
npm run build
test -f main.js && echo "Build OK: $(wc -c < main.js) bytes" || echo "FAIL: main.js missing"
node -e "const m=require('./manifest.json'); console.log(m.id, 'v'+m.version)"

Release with Changelog

# In release.yml, replace generate_release_notes with a body:
- name: Create GitHub Release
  uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
  with:
    files: |
      main.js
      manifest.json
      styles.css
    body: |
      ## Changes
      - Feature: Added X
      - Fix: Resolved Y

Resources

• Obsidian Plugin Releasing Guide
• GitHub Actions Documentation
• BRAT Plugin
• softprops/action-gh-release

Next Steps

For publishing to the community plugin directory, see obsidian-deploy-integration.

For pre-release quality checks, see obsidian-prod-checklist.