Paste with Intent

Why It Works

• Anticipation: The application correctly anticipates the user's intent. When the clipboard contains a URL and the active context is a visual canvas, the highest probability action is to create an embed. By automating this, Obsidian removes cognitive load and respects the user's momentum.
• Efficiency: This interaction collapses a three or four-step process (Click "Add Card" → Select "Web Embed" → Paste URL → Click "Confirm") into a single, familiar keyboard shortcut. It transforms a clunky workflow into a moment of pure flow.
• Spatial Awareness: The embed appears precisely at the cursor location, not in a default corner or at the center of the screen. This honors the user's spatial focus and reinforces the feeling of direct manipulation, as if they placed the object there themselves.
• Familiarity: It leverages a deeply ingrained user behavior—pasting—and gives it a superpower. There's no new interface to learn; the system just gets smarter.

Where You've Seen It

• Notion: Pasting a URL into a page provides an option to create a bookmark or an embed, adding a confirmation step but following the same principle.
• FigJam: Pasting a URL can create a rich link preview sticker, turning a web address into a visual object on the canvas.
• Linear: Pasting links from Figma or GitHub into an issue description automatically creates a rich, linked preview, understanding the context of the content.
• Slack: Pasting a link into the message field automatically unfurls a preview, converting a string of text into a more useful block of information.