you already write everything in Obsidian. your scripts are already there. point open prompter at the vault and read them, no export.
most teleprompter apps make you paste. you copy the text out of your editor, open a separate app, paste it into a box, and now there are two copies of the same script that drift apart the second you edit one. open prompter skips all of that. it reads the markdown file you already wrote, straight from the folder it already lives in.
if that folder is your Obsidian vault, you're done. the notes you write are the scripts you read.
your vault is already the library#
open prompter reads any folder iOS Files can reach. you pick it once through the document picker, and every markdown file in it becomes a script.
for Obsidian that means a few paths, depending on how your vault syncs to your phone:
- Obsidian Sync. your vault is on the device. point open prompter at it.
- iCloud Drive. if your vault lives in iCloud, it's already a folder iOS can reach.
- any synced vault folder. Dropbox or another provider works the same way, as long as the folder shows up in the Files app.
you don't have to point at the whole vault either. if you keep a scripts subfolder, pick that. open prompter watches whatever folder you hand it and shows the markdown files inside.
pick it once. that's the setup.
what it does with Obsidian syntax#
here's the part that matters if you write real Obsidian notes. your notes aren't clean scripts. they have frontmatter, links, callouts, the works. open prompter reads through all of it.
real markdown renders. headings show up as headings. bold is bold, italic is italic, bullets and numbered lists keep their shape. the structure you wrote is the structure you read.
the scaffolding gets stripped at display time, so you read clean:
- frontmatter. the YAML block at the top of the note disappears on screen.
- callouts. Obsidian callouts, including an
[!ai-generated]block, get stripped so the label and brackets don't show up mid-sentence. - footnotes. the markers and the notes at the bottom drop out.
- tables. stripped, so a reference table in your note doesn't land in the middle of your read.
- wikilinks and visual-direction brackets.
[[a link]]and cues like[B-roll: wide shot]get cleaned out so you're not reading punctuation out loud.
there's an aggressive and a gentle stripping toggle, so you can tune how much it cleans.
and the important part: it never modifies your note. open prompter reads the file and strips that stuff on screen only. the .md on disk stays exactly as you wrote it, frontmatter and links and all. nothing edits your vault behind your back.
the loop#
this is where writing in Obsidian pays off.
you edit the note on your Mac, in Obsidian, the way you always do. you save. your vault syncs. the phone catches up, and the script you're about to read is the one you just changed.
open prompter watches the folder for changes and shows a last-edited indicator, so you can tell the note updated. sync latency is whatever your service delivers, usually ten to sixty seconds on iCloud. open prompter is honest about that. it doesn't fake instant. but by the time you've picked up the phone and mounted it, the edit is there.
no export. no re-paste. you change the note, it shows up.
a few ways to set it up#
you already have a system for your vault. here are a couple of ways to fit prompting into it without inventing a new one.
a scripts folder. keep one folder in the vault for things you're going to read on camera. point open prompter at that one folder. your daily notes and zettels stay out of the prompter's library, and the only files that show up are the ones you shoot.
a note per video. one note, one video. write the script, drop your [B-roll: ...] cues inline where you want them, keep the shot list in a callout or a table at the top. open prompter strips the cues, the callout, and the table on screen, so you read the spoken lines clean while your planning stays in the note for editing later.
headings as section anchors. structure the script with ## headings the way you'd structure any Obsidian note. they render in the prompter, so they double as visual markers while you read. and a Bluetooth remote can jump to the next or previous section, so the headings you already write become navigation.
drafting with an LLM, finishing in the vault#
a lot of people draft scripts with ChatGPT or Claude, in markdown, and that lands in Obsidian naturally. paste the output into a note, clean it up the way you clean up any draft, and it's a script.
open prompter doesn't generate scripts in-app. that's on purpose. your vault is where the writing happens, with whatever LLM and plugins you already use. open prompter just reads the result. if you tag an AI-drafted note with an [!ai-generated] callout to keep track, it strips on screen and you read the words, not the label.
why this beats paste#
paste-only apps treat your script as text to copy. open prompter treats it as a file you own. that's the whole difference.
your script is a .md in your vault. you edit it in Obsidian. you read it in open prompter. it never leaves your device, the app makes no network calls of its own, and the file on disk is the one source of truth the whole way through. no second copy to keep in sync, no proprietary format, no import step that goes stale the moment you fix a typo.
next step#
open the document picker in open prompter and point it at your vault, or at a scripts folder inside it. open a note you've already written and read it. then change a word in Obsidian on your Mac, save, and watch the prompter catch up a minute later.
the notes you write are the scripts you read. that's the whole workflow.