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Getting Started

Welcome to Papacore - a framework that brings modern web development tooling to Obsidian's Datacore plugin.

What is Papacore?​

Papacore bridges the gap between modern web development and Obsidian's Datacore plugin. It transforms the experience of developing Datacore components from a frustrating process into something familiar and productive.

The Problem​

Datacore provides a powerful query engine and uses Preact for rendering. However, developing components for Datacore is challenging:

  • Custom import/export notation (dc.require) instead of standard ESM/CJS
  • No code intellisense or autocomplete
  • No hot reloading
  • No access to modern tooling (Tailwind, TypeScript, etc.)
  • Manual file management

The Solution​

Papacore lets you write components for Datacore as if you were building a regular React app:

  • ✅ TypeScript + Preact: Write type-safe components with full IDE support
  • ✅ Tailwind CSS v4: Style your components with utility classes
  • ✅ Hot Reloading: See changes instantly in Obsidian
  • ✅ Component Stories: Preview components in isolation
  • ✅ Modern Tooling: Code completion, linting, type checking
  • ✅ Automatic Transformation: Papacore handles the conversion to Datacore's format

Quick Start​

Create a new Papacore project:

npm create papacore@latest my-datacore-project
# or
pnpm create papacore@latest my-datacore-project

Navigate to your project and start development:

cd my-datacore-project
npm run dev
# or
pnpm dev

This will:

  1. Build your components
  2. Transform them to Datacore format
  3. Install them to your vault
  4. Watch for changes and hot-reload

What You Get​

A Papacore project includes:

  • Starter Components: Pre-built button, dialog, and link components
  • Utilities: Helper functions for class merging, file operations, markdown processing, and time formatting
  • Example View: A sample "Today" view to get you started
  • Full Config: TypeScript, Tailwind, Babel, and Biome configured and ready
  • Type Definitions: Full type safety for Datacore APIs

Next Steps​