JotBird Changelog ¶

All notable changes to JotBird are documented here.

August 2026 ¶

• Drop: Drop a file, get a link. Drag a Word doc, PDF, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint deck, HTML file, or plain text — or even a screenshot or photo of text — onto the page and JotBird turns it into an editable page you can tweak before it goes live. One click to publish and you have a shareable link. No account needed — your page is on the web in seconds. Your file is converted on the fly and never stored, and nothing goes public until you hit publish. Signed-in users can save the result to their library and skip the anonymous rate limit; anonymous drops are limited per IP to keep things fair.

July 2026 ¶

• Obsidian plugin v0.5.1: When you hit the publish rate limit, the plugin now shows a friendly notice with roughly how long to wait instead of a raw server error.

• Manage page settings from the API: You can now read and change a published page's settings programmatically — no need to open the editor. GET /api/v1/documents/{slug}/settings returns a page's current theme, branding, visibility, and tags; PATCH the same endpoint to change them, one field or several at a time. Everything the Page Settings panel offers is covered: switch themes, hide the JotBird branding, and set visibility to Unlisted, Public, or Password-protected (the Pro features still require Pro, and the API tells you exactly which setting needs it if you're on a free plan). The document list (GET /api/v1/documents) now includes each page's settings too, so you can audit them in one call. Theme and branding changes apply to the live page right away; visibility changes can take up to about a minute to show up as the edge cache refreshes — turning password protection on is the exception, and takes effect immediately.

  • From Obsidian (plugin v0.5.0): right-click a published note — or use the command palette — and choose JotBird: Page settings to change its theme, branding, and visibility, including password protection. Theme and branding changes show up on the live page straight away, with no republish, and the password is never written into your vault. You can also set a theme per note with a jotbird_theme property, or vault-wide under Settings → JotBird → Published pages. Both ship as "Leave as-is", so nothing about your existing notes changes until you choose otherwise.

  • From the command line (CLI v0.4.0): the same settings are available in the CLI, so you can change a published page without republishing it. jotbird settings <file|slug> shows a page's current theme, branding, and visibility; add --theme, --hide-branding / --show-branding, or --visibility to change them. Target a page by tracked filename, slug, or @username/slug path, just like jotbird remove.

    jotbird settings notes.md --theme minimal --visibility public
    

    Password-protecting a page prompts for the password without echoing it, so it never lands in your shell history. For scripts and CI, pipe it in with --password - or set JOTBIRD_PAGE_PASSWORD. Upgrade with npm install -g jotbird.

  • From your AI (MCP server v0.2.1): the JotBird MCP server picks up two new tools, get_settings and update_settings, so an AI connected to your account can manage page settings conversationally — "switch my page 'launch-plan' to the essay theme and make it public" just works. The same Pro gating and visibility rules apply, and the page password is write-only: your AI can set one, but never read one back.

• Page visibility: A single Visibility setting in Page Settings now controls who can find your published pages, with three options:

  • Unlisted (the default) — anyone with the link can view the page, but it isn't indexed by search engines. Your existing pages are unaffected; they stay Unlisted unless you choose otherwise.
  • Public — indexed by search engines and listed in JotBird's sitemap, so people can find it even without the link. Available on any account, free or Pro.
  • Password-protected (Pro) — visitors must enter a password before they can view the page.

  Public pages carry a small "Report this page" link so visitors can flag abuse. Switching a page from Public back to Unlisted re-adds the noindex request and removes it from the sitemap, though search engines may take a little while to drop a page they've already indexed.

• Smoother editing: The editor stays responsive as you type and the live preview keeps up more closely — most noticeable in longer documents, where updating the preview could previously make typing feel laggy.

• Obsidian plugin v0.4.13: Fixed pasted images showing as broken on the published page. When a note referenced an image with a standard Markdown link (rather than Obsidian's ![[…]] embed) and the filename contained a space — which includes Obsidian's default "Pasted image ….png" names — the plugin couldn't locate the file, so it skipped the upload and the image published as a broken link. Those images now upload correctly. Republish any affected note from Obsidian to fix its images.

June 2026 ¶

• VS Code extension v0.1.2: Fixed the JotBird status bar item, commands, and right-click menu entries disappearing in VS Code. This affected workspaces opened in Restricted Mode (untrusted) — the extension now declares Workspace Trust support, so its publish controls stay available everywhere. JotBird only reads the file you publish and runs no workspace code, so it's safe to use in untrusted workspaces.

• Export all your files: Download your whole library at once. In Account Settings, click Export your files to get every document you've created as Markdown (.md) files in a single .zip archive — handy for backups or moving your work elsewhere. Available on any account, free or Pro. Your Markdown text is included; images stay hosted on JotBird and remain linked by URL inside the files.

• Faster publishing: Publishing and updating pages is now significantly quicker — we've cut publish times by roughly 40–60%, with the biggest gains for people publishing from outside North America. The speedup applies everywhere you publish from: the web editor, the command-line tool, and integrations like Obsidian. Nothing to do on your end — it's just faster.

• Faster page management: The speedup isn't limited to publishing — managing your published pages is quicker too. Changing page settings, setting or removing a page password, and listing or syncing your documents from the command line and Obsidian all respond noticeably faster now — roughly 60–70% quicker for people working outside North America (where the old delay was worst), and already-fast for everyone else. Nothing to do on your end.

• Password protection (Pro): Require a password to view a published page. Useful for sharing with a limited audience. Turn it on in Page Settings for any published document and set a password. Visitors see an unlock prompt instead of your content. Once they enter the correct password, they won't be asked again on that device for 7 days. Raw .md access is protected too. You can reset or remove the password anytime, and changes take effect immediately. Anyone who unlocked the page with the old password has to enter the new one. JotBird stores only a secure hash of your password, never the password itself, so keep your own record of it.

• Templates: A new gallery of ten free, ready-to-use Markdown templates: READMEs, resumes, meeting notes, changelogs, blog posts, technical proposals, weekly reviews, book reviews, recipes, and Mermaid flowcharts. Click "Use this template" to open one in the editor (no signup required), then customize and publish to a shareable URL. Each template has a preview page showing how it looks once published.

• Obsidian plugin v0.4.9: Fixed a bug where a note first published without an account couldn't be updated or removed after you connected an API key — it failed with a "Document not owned" error and kept retrying on every publish. This happened when the key was added by pasting it into Settings (the "Connect account" button already handled it). The plugin now claims such notes to your account automatically on the next publish, so updates and deletes work again — and notes already stuck in this state recover the next time you publish them.

• Obsidian plugin v0.4.8: New "Page title" setting. Choose what appears as the title on the published page — the note's filename or its first heading — instead of the filename being forced into the body as a heading. Defaults to Automatic, which keeps the original behavior.

• Obsidian plugin v0.4.7: Fixed the "Manage subscription" button, and fixed unpublishing pages with custom (namespaced) URLs from Obsidian.

• Obsidian plugin v0.4.6: Notes keep updating from Obsidian even after you change their slug or move them to a namespaced URL (@username/slug) in the web app. Previously, renaming a published page in the web app orphaned it — the next publish from Obsidian created a brand-new page with a random slug instead of updating the original. The plugin now tracks each note by a stable document ID, so your edits always land on the right page no matter how its URL changes. This also fixes a case where updating an existing permanent (Pro) page after a subscription lapsed could reset it to a 90-day expiration.

May 2026 ¶

• Obsidian plugin v0.4.5: Fixed a bug where rapidly triggering publish on a new note — a double-click or a repeated hotkey — could create two separate published pages instead of one. Publishing the same note is now ignored while a publish for it is already in flight.

• Obsidian plugin now available in the community directory: The JotBird plugin for Obsidian is now listed in the official Obsidian community plugin directory. Search for "JotBird" in Community Plugins to install.

• Bug fixes for Pro users with namespaced pages (all present since namespaced URLs launched in April. Mea culpa.):

  • Republishing a namespaced page from the editor would fail with a permissions error.
  • Even when that was resolved, the published page would not reflect the updated content.
  • Published namespaced pages were cached for 5 minutes, so updates would not appear immediately.
  • Unpublishing a namespaced page would fail with a permissions error.
  • Page settings (theme, hide branding) couldn't be changed for namespaced pages.
  • Social preview images didn't load when sharing namespaced URLs.

• MCP server v0.1.6: Namespace support. Pro users with a username can now publish at permanent namespaced URLs (share.jotbird.com/@username/slug) directly from any MCP-compatible AI. Pass namespaced: true with a slug when publishing or deleting. The list_documents tool now returns the correct @username/slug URL for namespaced pages.

• CLI v0.3: Namespace support. Use --namespace <slug> to publish at share.jotbird.com/@username/slug. Works with files and stdin. The .jotbird mapping tracks the full path so subsequent publishes update the same URL automatically.

• Agent skill: Namespace support. The JotBird agent skill now instructs AI agents to use --namespace for Pro namespaced publishing.

April 2026 ¶

• API namespace support: The REST API now supports namespaced URLs. List responses include the correct /@username/slug URL and a new username field for each document. Pro users can publish, update, and delete documents at namespaced URLs via the new namespaced: true flag.
• Usernames and custom URLs: Pro users can now set a username and publish pages at memorable, permanent URLs like share.jotbird.com/@username/page-slug. Set your username in Account Settings. Move any existing page to your namespace via Page Settings — old URLs redirect automatically. Renaming your username updates all your page URLs and redirects the old ones.
• Account Settings: A new unified Account Settings menu consolidates username and API key management in one place.
• Tags: Organize documents with tags. Click the tag icon on any page to add or remove tags. Filter by tag using the tag buttons at the top of the sidebar.
• RTL support: Documents written in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and other right-to-left languages are automatically detected and rendered with proper RTL text direction in the preview pane and on published pages.
• Table of contents: Fixed a bug where documents with non-sequential heading levels (e.g. jumping from h1 to h5) produced broken TOC markup with visible bullets.
• Line breaks: Single newlines in markdown are now treated as spaces, following the CommonMark standard. To insert a hard line break, add two trailing spaces or a \ at the end of the line. Previously, every newline produced a visible line break.
• Help docs: Clarified how content expiration works — your content in the editor is never deleted, only the published link expires.
• Changelog: You're looking at it.

March 2026 ¶

• Table of contents: Add [TOC] or [[_TOC_]] anywhere in a document to generate a nested, linked table of contents from h2–h6 headings. Styled per theme with a "Contents" label.
• Agent skill: LLM agent skill for publishing to JotBird via the CLI.
• Themes: Four publishable themes — Default, Minimal, Essay (Tufte-inspired with sidenote footnotes), and Terminal (monospace, matrix-green). Configurable per document in page settings.
• Code syntax highlighting in published pages.
• Custom slugs: Choose your own URL when publishing (Pro). Real-time slug availability check.
• Custom branding: Remove JotBird watermark from published pages (Pro).
• Page settings modal: Configure title, slug, theme, and branding per document.
• CLI v0.2: Image upload support in the CLI.

February 2026 ¶

• VS Code extension: Publish and manage JotBird documents directly from VS Code.
• Obsidian plugin: Full JotBird integration for Obsidian — publish, sync, and manage documents.
• Callouts: Obsidian-style callouts (> [!note], > [!warning], etc.) rendered in published pages.
• Mermaid diagrams: Fenced mermaid code blocks rendered as diagrams in published pages.
• MCP server: Model Context Protocol server for publishing to JotBird from AI assistants.
• API and CLI: REST API for programmatic publishing. CLI tool (npx jotbird) for publishing from the terminal.
• Pro accounts: Paid tier with 90-day document retention, custom slugs, custom branding, and API access.
• Markdown file access: Access any published document as raw .md by appending .md to the URL.

January 2026 ¶

• Share cards: Rich link previews when sharing links on social media and messaging apps.
• KaTeX: LaTeX math rendering in documents.
• QR codes: Generate QR codes for published pages.
• User accounts: Magic link authentication. Document sync across devices, 90-day retention for signed-in users.
• Anchor links on headings.
• Task list, strikethrough, highlight, and footnote support.
• Mobile layout improvements.

December 2025 ¶

• Launch (December 10).
• Markdown editor: CodeMirror-based editor with formatting toolbar, keyboard shortcuts, live preview, and scroll sync.
• One-click publishing: Publish documents to share.jotbird.com with automatic slug generation.
• Image uploads: Drag-and-drop image upload with 10 MB limit.
• Document management: Sidebar file list, create/delete/rename documents.
• Dark mode with system preference detection.
• HTML and archive export.
• Help page, privacy policy, and terms of service.