OK Claude fixed it all.

Here are the notes:

Bug: Plugin fails to load on Obsidian Mobile 1.13.0 (Android)

Summary

Two bugs introduced by Obsidian Mobile 1.13.0 prevent Harper from loading correctly on Android. Both are timing issues caused by changes to how Obsidian initializes plugins at startup.

Bug 1: "Failed to load plugin" on startup

Root cause

In 1.13.0, addSettingTab() now immediately calls display() on the settings tab when it is registered. This triggers FB.update() → updateDescriptions() / updateSettings() / updateDefaults() / updateStructuredConfig(), all of which call this.state.* methods. However, this.state is null at this point because it is only assigned inside the onLayoutReady callback, which hasn't fired yet.

This throws:

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'getDescriptionHTML')
    at FB.updateDescriptions (plugin:harper:1998:589)
    at FB.update (plugin:harper:1998:273)
    at t.addSettingTab (app.js:1:3737378)

Fix

Guard the four methods in FB that are called by update() so they no-op when state is not yet initialized:

updateDescriptions() {
  this.state && this.state.getDescriptionHTML().then(...)
}
updateSettings() {
  this.state && this.state.getSettings().then(...)
}
updateDefaults() {
  this.state && this.state.getDefaultLintConfig().then(...)
}
updateStructuredConfig() {
  this.state && this.state.getStructuredLintConfig().then(...)
}

Then call this.settings.update() after reloadSettingsFromDisk() completes inside onLayoutReady, so the settings tab properly initializes once state is ready:

this.app.workspace.onLayoutReady(async () => {
  this.state = new $E(...)
  this.registerEditorExtension(this.state.getCMEditorExtensions())
  await this.reloadSettingsFromDisk()
  this.settings?.update()   // <-- add this
  this.setupStatusBar()
})

Bug 2: Squiggles flashing and tap tooltip not working after startup

Root cause

Even after Bug 1 is fixed, the plugin loads but doesn't function correctly — squiggle underlines flash on and off and tapping them produces no tooltip. This also resolves itself after a manual disable/enable cycle.

The cause is that on Android 1.13.0, onLayoutReady fires before Obsidian's editor infrastructure is fully settled. Harper's onLayoutReady callback runs immediately, registers the CodeMirror linter extension, and starts the worker — but the editor views that receive the extension are not yet in a stable state. The result is a race condition where the linter extension initializes against an incomplete editor environment.

Manually disabling and re-enabling the plugin works because by that point Obsidian is fully initialized and the editor views are stable.

Fix

Defer Harper's onLayoutReady initialization by a short interval to allow Obsidian's editor infrastructure to finish settling:

this.app.workspace.onLayoutReady(() => {
  setTimeout(async () => {
    this.state = new $E(...)
    this.registerEditorExtension(this.state.getCMEditorExtensions())
    await this.reloadSettingsFromDisk()
    this.settings?.update()
    this.setupStatusBar()
  }, 2000)
})

A 2-second delay was confirmed to resolve the issue. The minimum safe value may be lower and could be worth testing, or the delay could be made configurable. Alternatively, a more robust fix would be to hook into a later Obsidian lifecycle event if one becomes available.

Also noted: harper.setup() is not awaited

In initializeFromSettings, this.harper.setup() is called without await/yield, meaning the linter can start running before setup completes. This is likely benign in most cases since requests are queued, but it is worth fixing for correctness:

// before
this.harper.setup()

// after  
await this.harper.setup()

Environment

Obsidian Mobile 1.13.0, Android
Plugin worked correctly on all prior versions
All three issues are absent on desktop (Electron) and do not appear when the plugin is manually disabled and re-enabled after startup

Uh oh!

Failed to load plugin #3540

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