Local AI on Fedora — Obsidian Online (Google AI Studio)

This is the online half of the pair. The offline post runs a model on the machine. This one sends the same clipped note to Google and gets a short vault note back. The vault, the clipper, and the prompt stay. Ollama does not.

Use this when the laptop cannot keep a 7B model in RAM, or when the local answer keeps turning into a tutorial. The trade is simple: the text of the note leaves the house.

Do not send confidential or secret material — medical notes, passwords, unpublished work, anything you would not paste into a cloud form. That stays on the offline path.

What you sign up for

A Google account is enough. Open Google AI Studio and accept the terms. AI Studio then creates a default project and a key.

That key is for the Gemini API. It is not the login of gemini.google.com, and it is not a Gemini Advanced subscription. The chat site and the API are different doors.

New keys created in AI Studio are authorization keys. Copy one from the API keys page. The free tier is enough to tidy notes. Billing is only for higher limits and some larger models. Do not enable it unless a request actually fails for quota.

Never paste the key into a note, a screenshot, or this site. If it leaks, delete it on that page and create another.

What does not change

Firefox, Obsidian Web Clipper, and legacy mode are the same as in the offline post. A long Grok or Gemini thread still has to be scrolled and copied in pieces. The API does not see the browser.

Ctrl+P still runs the generator on the open note. The instruction still goes after the pasted dialogue.

Point Text Generator at Google

In Obsidian: Settings → Text Generator → provider Google / Gemini (the label depends on the plugin version).

• API key: paste the key from AI Studio. The field is the only place it belongs.
• Model: the dropdown is stale. gemini-2.0-flash and gemini-2.5-flash return 404 on a new key. Click the pencil beside the model name and type the current endpoint from the Gemini API models page — today gemini-3.8-flash, with no models/ prefix. If that 404s, try gemini-3.5-flash-lite. Copy the endpoint, not the display name. Do not trust the names shipped with the plugin. Pro is slower and may want billing.
• Leave the base URL empty unless you run a proxy. The default endpoint is Google’s.

Save, open the clipped note, Ctrl+P, run Text Generator. No Konsole. No localhost.

If the plugin has a system line, use the same clerk instruction as offline:

You are a clerk. You output Markdown. You never explain how to work.

And at the bottom of the note, after the chat:

Turn the dialogue above into a vault note.
Headings: Done / Decisions / Open.
European Portuguese or English — match the dialogue.
No how-to. No jokes. If it is not in the dialogue, omit it.

When it fails

• API key not valid — wrong key, or a key from another Google account. Create it again on the API keys page while logged in as the same user.
• Model not found — the name in the plugin is stale. Pick Flash from the dropdown, do not type an old gemini-pro id from a 2024 guide.
• Empty answer — the plugin sent the instruction and not the note. Select the dialogue and generate from the selection.
• Quota — wait, or shorten the clip. Do not jump to billing for one note.

Offline or online

Same vault. Two providers. Pick by the machine, not by the note.