Hi, I’m Michelle G Dyason. I’m an independent maker and researcher working across philosophy, knowledge work, accessibility, music, movement, reading and writing.

I did not begin as a conventional software developer. I use AI as a collaborative bridge into programming: I bring the problem, lived context, design judgement, testing, criticism and responsibility; AI helps me explore and implement possible solutions. I learn from the code, review feedback and the feedback from people who use what I make. My aim is to turn real frustrations and curiosities into tools that give people more agency.

Why I create:

Most projects began because I wanted something that did not quite exist: calmer scholarly notes, safer vault reorganisation, a mobile-friendly dictionary, a way to learn theme design without already knowing CSS, reflective tools beyond narrow psychological categories, or gentle practice apps for actual beginners. I share the results because other people may be living with the same problem.

My GitHub projects

• Theme School — a disposable visual teaching plugin for designing Obsidian themes. It explains real CSS variables, supports light and dark baselines, and exports a standalone theme so learners can eventually remove this plugin scaffold.

• The Deleometer — an AI-assisted reflective journaling plugin for Obsidian. It offers multiple interpretive perspectives, continuing conversations, goals and history, without presenting AI as diagnosis or truth.

• PDF Scholia Scribe — a maintained citation-focused fork of PDF++. It keeps exact links to PDF passages while producing calmer scholarly notes, Zotero & vault-assisted citations and managed reference lists.

• Literature Flow — an Obsidian fork for finding open-access research, following citations and building useful literature maps with less dependence on paywalls.

• Dictionary Plus — an enhanced Obsidian Dictionary fork with desktop and mobile selection, right-click lookup and flashcard-ready history, so learning a word need not interrupt writing.

• Vault Reorganizer — previews bulk vault changes, preserves links, manages attachments and can assist with image names and handwritten-note conversion, making large vaults safer to clean up.

• Index Note Splitter — turns selections or heading sections into linked notes and the source into an index, helping long notes become navigable networks.

• DOCX Exporter Plus — exports Obsidian Markdown to Word with real headings, links, images, embeds and captions, bridging Markdown workflows and institutions that require DOCX.

• Natural Language Syntax Highlight Plus — a maintained fork that distinguishes parts of speech and adds teaching, minimal and high-contrast modes, making sentence structure visible.

• Open Access PDF Search — an xbar/SwiftBar menu-bar tool using OpenAlex to find lawful open-access papers and direct PDFs in one click.

• Art-Rock Guitar Primer — a native macOS beginner app with original exercises, practice ladders, metronome and local-file controls, making expressive guitar practice approachable.

• Tai Chi Follow Along — a macOS and web app with readable cues, animated guides and outcome-based sessions for older beginners, supporting balance, calm, mobility and confidence.

• Scripts — small automations and utilities built around recurring practical needs.

• Obsidian Sync Vault — a vault-related placeholder and infrastructure repository, rather than a released product.

• xbar-plugins — my fork of the xbar community collection, used to develop and contribute menu-bar utilities.

• obsidian-releases-the-deleometer-community-plugin — a working fork used to contribute The Deleometer to Obsidian’s community directory.

• The_Obsidian_Deleometer — the archived first-generation repository, preserved as the project’s beginning and superseded by v2.

• Hello-World — my earliest GitHub learning repository: a small marker of where this journey began.

Across these projects I prefer open source, plain files, reversible actions, visible previews, clear privacy explanations and tools that teach rather than create permanent dependence. Forks are identified because attribution matters; archived and infrastructure repositories are included because the learning history matters too.

Support here helps me keep learning, testing, documenting and maintaining these projects, including the less visible work needed to make experimental tools safer and more usable. Human review, contributions and thoughtful criticism are always welcome.

All public projects: github.com/MichelleGDyason