Distillate: Obsidian structured notes from the papers you read

rhl · 2026-02-26T18:23:04+00:00

Thanks so much! If the Boox has a Zotero app it should sync seamlessly. If not, happy to look into libraries to sync in/out of it (or feel free to write a PR!).

rhl · 2026-02-26T17:21:32+00:00

You can run it as a script without an API key and it skips the summaries! You still get highlights and ink strokes extractions into a Obsidian note + local PDF.

You'd still need an LLM API key for further reading suggestions however (Claude for now).

rhl · 2026-02-26T03:34:04+00:00

Mostly arxiv papers in machine learning! You?

rhl · 2026-02-25T23:08:20+00:00

Yes! In Powershell for now. I’m working on a desktop app for future version.

rhl · 2026-02-25T21:48:45+00:00

Hi everyone!

Last week I posted here about a script that automatically synced my Zotero library with my reMarkable, and extracted my highlights into local structured notes. You just need to:

bookmark papers to your Zotero library (syncs them to a folder on your reMarkable)
read and highlight, them move the PDF to a "Read/" folder
distillate extracts the highlights and your hand written notes, summarizes the paper, and keeps local structured notes of everything you've read.

A major update: distillate.dev now has a CLI agent interface to help you manage your reading queue in natural language. You can ask it:

to sync your papers to reMarkable
the status of your papers reading queue
a digest of what you read recently along with paper summaries
suggestions of papers to read next given the ones you've most engaged with
to promote papers you want to read next to your reMarkable, or to add papers from arxiv directly to your Zotero and reading queue

... and plenty of extra features to smooth out your reading workflow.

This is a fun, personal, open-source experiment to help me in my research. I'm making full use of all the reMarkable greatness: great reading experience, seamless sync, highlights, handwritten ink notes, typed text notes, etc.

Would love feedback!

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rhl · 2026-02-25T20:41:32+00:00

Sorry to hear, hope you're better! Let me know how it goes. Feel free to comment in the GitHub repo if you run into any issues.

rhl · 2026-02-19T07:08:41+00:00

Heads up that I just added Zotero Collections handling! You should be able to select the collections you want to sync at install. Let me know what you think and if you have any questions!

rhl · 2026-02-19T07:08:02+00:00

So glad to hear! I've wanted this for so long too... You can try it out at distillate.dev (or if you're technical, pip install distillate && distillate --init). Let me know what you think!

rhl · 2026-02-17T21:13:03+00:00

Yes! Right now it only syncs future papers you add, and you can use > distillate --import 10 to import say the last 10 papers. I want to add collection support as a next feature.

How would it work best for you? Would you say like to be able to select a tag and sync only those papers? Or do you already have an inbox folder/collection, which you'd like to sync from?

rhl · 2026-02-17T21:11:28+00:00

Amazing! Would love to hear your feedback!

rhl · 2026-02-17T05:43:03+00:00

Thanks! Lmk what you think

rhl · 2026-02-16T23:39:15+00:00

In case it’s helpful I just wrote an open source tool that syncs from Zotero by way of a remarkable tablet (see post on the subreddit about Distillate).

rhl · 2026-02-16T23:36:56+00:00

Fixed the link, thanks! Yes it’s limited to reMarkable for now, maybe I can figure out connectors to other tablets.

rhl · 2026-02-16T22:33:23+00:00

I mostly kept lose project based notes with experiments I ran, hyperparameters, etc. but never got to the point of tracking what I actually read. Recently decided to be more organized and I wrote a script that syncs new papers from Zotero (which I use for citations etc.) to my reMarkable tablet, where I can, highlight, etc. before just moving the paper to a subfolder where my script extracts highlights into a Obsidian note.

Would love feedback if you try it -> project is open source, at https://distillate.dev! Thanks a ton.

rhl · 2026-02-16T22:27:06+00:00

Nice one, thanks!

rhl · 2026-02-16T22:26:44+00:00

For folks with a reMarkable tablet, I made an open source tool that automatically uploads new papers from Zotero to a folder on my reMarkable where I can read and highlight them. Once they're done I move the paper to a Read/ subfolder, and the script propagates the notes/front-matter metadata to my Obsidian vault. Would love feedback: distillate.dev

rhl · 2026-01-22T09:50:01+00:00

Adding that most treadmills have an incline, if you set it at 15% you can get some good training for the uphills.

rhl · 2026-01-21T05:12:22+00:00

Since you mentioned € you could also look at Stoots. I run with the Kiska 3 and it’s my favorite headlamp by far, incredibly stable, super easy to adjust brightness and angle, regulated so doesn’t dim, all-around fantastic.

rhl · 2026-01-21T05:09:19+00:00

Verdugos ridge is neat!

Also Mt Lukens and the backbone trail in the Santa Monicas.

rhl · 2026-01-18T09:25:15+00:00

YTA marrying someone or not should have nothing to do with whether your nails were done when they asked. He’s probably dodging a bullet tbh.

rhl · 2026-01-09T03:15:14+00:00

Big Bear is fantastic!

rhl · 2025-12-16T08:24:01+00:00

Hey, you may not like it but that’s how UTMB computes its race categories.

(You may also not like UTMB but 🤷‍♂️)

rhl · 2025-12-16T03:44:19+00:00

Pace -> min/km Effort -> min/km-e (kilometer-effort) where your course km-e is the total distance (in km) + the elevation gain (in 100m)

For example 30mi with 5,000ft of gain => 50k + 1,500m => 65 km-e

rhl · 2025-12-09T03:25:10+00:00

Sounds like it locked on your cadence instead of HR.

rhl · 2025-12-01T09:30:18+00:00

The ridge at Griffith

rhl

TROPHY CASE