Magic Toolbox: A Modular "Mini-OS" Architecture (Launcher + Global Widget + Backend API)

[Userwei0418]

Hi Trilium Community ,
I've been a long-time user of Trilium. With the UI changes in recent versions (removal of the custom toolbar), I found it challenging to organize my growing collection of custom scripts and buttons in the sidebar.

To solve this, I developed a modular architecture I call the "Magic Toolbox". I believe this pattern might offer some inspiration for future plugin/widget integrations in Trilium.

💡 The Concept
Instead of adding multiple buttons to the Launchbar, I created a single Global Widget (Host). This Host reads its child notes as Plugins.

• Trilium = OS: The main note acts as a lightweight operating system.

• Child Notes = Apps: Each child note (Text/Code) contains the logic for a specific tool.

This keeps the interface clean while allowing infinite extensibility.

✨ Features

Currently implemented modules

1. 🧰 Note Enhancement Toolbox

A centralized panel containing various utilities to boost your note-taking efficiency.

• Note Management: Merge or Split notes with ease.

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• Smart TOC: Generate a Table of Contents at the top of the note. Fully clickable and retains jump links even when exported to PDF.

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• LaTeX Rendering: Convert content wrapped in $ symbols into renderable math formulas.

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• Format Cleaning: Clean up formatting from pasted text (remove styles, unify fonts).

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• Video Widget: Convert video links into a read-only, renderable video player mode.

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• 🤖 AI Capabilities:
  • AI Summary: Generate intelligent summaries for your notes.

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• AI Translation: Translate selected text while keeping the original. The translation is displayed below in gray for easy contrast.

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• AI Polishing: Polish selected text to improve grammar and flow. Configurable to either append or overwrite the original text.

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2. 🎙️ AI Transcription

• Support for real-time audio recording or uploading audio files for text transcription.

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3. 🔖 Quick Bookmarks

• Navigate to your most frequently used notes quickly using Trilium's native search functionality.

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4. ⚡ Flash Thoughts

• Quickly append fleeting ideas or inspirations to today's "Daily Note" without switching contexts or leaving your current note.

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🛠️ Technical Implementation
Architecture: Host-Plugin pattern.

Safety: Uses new Function sandbox for plugin execution.

Stability: Solved CKEditor unexpected-error crashes (when modifying complex DOMs like video widgets) by using a combination of document.execCommand and editor.setData() with smart content detection.

Shortcuts: Supports global shortcuts (e.g., Alt+F) defined via attributes (#shortcut) on child notes, utilizing capture-phase event listeners to handle browser conflicts.

🚀 Try it out
I have open-sourced this configuration. Users can import it as a zip file and start using it immediately (No complex coding required).
Repository / Download: https://github.com/Userwei0418/trilium-Magic-Toolbox

I hope this "Global Widget + Backend API" approach provides a new perspective on how we can extend Trilium's functionality!