AI Terminal for Obsidian

Use AI assistants like Claude Code and Antigravity inside Obsidian, right next to your notes.

Note: macOS only (Obsidian desktop v1.13+). Windows, Linux, and mobile devices (iOS/Android) are not supported.

What is this?

AI Terminal adds terminal panels to Obsidian for two AI coding assistants, Claude Code (Anthropic) and Antigravity (Google), and for a normal shell. The assistants start in the vault folder, so they can read and edit the notes directly.

Features:

• AI panels in Obsidian. Claude Code, Antigravity or a shell open as panels, like any other tab.
• Context from the editor. The AI can see the open note and the selected text.
• Live updates. Notes the AI edits change in Obsidian right away.
• Undo for AI changes. A copy of the notes is saved before each message to the AI, so changes can be undone.

What you need

• A Mac with the Obsidian desktop app, version 1.13 or newer. Windows, Linux and mobile devices (iOS/Android) are not supported.

• Claude Code or the Antigravity CLI (or both), and an account for it. Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan (Pro or Max) or Anthropic API credits:

  • Claude Code: install guide
  • Antigravity CLI: install guide

• Apple's command line tools. The plugin needs Python and git, which come with them. Open the Terminal app, paste this line and press Enter:

  xcode-select --install
  

  Then follow the window that opens. If it says the tools are already installed, you are done.

To check that the AI is ready, type claude --version (or agy --version) in Terminal and press Enter. You should see a version number.

Install

From Obsidian (once AI Terminal is in the community plugin list):

1. Open Settings › Community plugins. If Restricted mode is on, turn it off.
2. Click Browse, search for AI Terminal, click Install, then Enable.

By hand (before that, or to pick a version):

1. Open the latest release and download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css.
2. In Obsidian, open Settings › Community plugins. If Restricted mode is on, turn it off.
3. Next to Installed plugins, click the folder icon. Finder opens the plugins folder of your vault.
4. In that folder, make a new folder named ai-terminal and put the three files in it.
5. Back in Obsidian, click the reload icon next to Installed plugins. Then turn on AI Terminal.

If step 3 does not open a folder: open your vault folder in Finder and press Cmd+Shift+. to show hidden folders. Open .obsidian, and make a folder named plugins in it if there is none.

First start

1. Click the terminal icon in the left ribbon and pick Claude Code (or Antigravity, or Shell). A panel opens on the right.
2. The first time, you see a few questions:
   • "Enable AI session snapshots for this vault?" → click Enable. This turns on undo for AI changes.
   • The AI asks if you trust the folder → choose Yes.
   • macOS asks "“Obsidian” would like to access files in …" → click Allow.
   • Antigravity may ask you to sign in with Google.
3. Type your question in the panel and press Enter.

How to use

To do this	Do this
Open an AI panel	Click the terminal icon on the left, or press Cmd+P and type "AI Terminal"
Ask about a note	Click into the note, then ask in the panel: "summarize the note I have open"
Ask about part of a note	Select the text, click into the panel and ask: "explain the selected text"
Point the AI at a note	Click into the note, press Cmd+P and run "Send note path to terminal". The note's path appears in the panel. Add your question and press Enter
Start a new line without sending (Claude)	Shift+Enter
Copy / paste	Cmd+C / Cmd+V
Undo what the AI changed	See Undo AI changes

Panels work like normal Obsidian tabs: you can drag them, split them or move them to another window, and the AI keeps running. When you restart Obsidian, the panels come back (Claude resumes each panel's conversation; Antigravity resumes its latest session).

Undo AI changes

1. Press Cmd+P and run "Restore notes from before an AI session…".
2. Pick a time from the list. It shows when it was, which AI, and the start of your message.
3. You see the notes that changed. Untick any note you changed yourself and want to keep.
4. Click Restore.

Restored by mistake? Run the command again and pick "Before restore".

Snapshots save your notes only (.md, .canvas and .base files), not images, PDFs or settings. They stay on your Mac, outside the vault.

Safety

• Do not type in a note while the AI is editing it. One of the two changes can be lost. Keep Obsidian's File Recovery on (Settings › Core plugins). It keeps older versions of each note.
• Your notes go to the AI company. Notes and text the AI reads are sent to Anthropic (Claude Code) or Google (Antigravity), like everything else you send to these tools.
• Read the AI's permission questions. The AI can also change files that snapshots do not cover (images, settings, files outside the vault).
• Snapshot history restarts after a vault move. Moving or renaming the vault folder starts a new, empty history.
• The plugin's own connection is local. The link between Obsidian and the AI panels works only on your Mac and is locked with a key that changes every time. Other computers cannot reach it.
• Clean up after you uninstall. If you used Antigravity, open Terminal and run agy mcp remove obsidian. Obsidian cannot tell the plugin that it was removed, so the plugin cannot do this itself. See the full clean-up steps.

Common problems

• "Command not found: claude": Obsidian cannot find the AI program. In Terminal, run which claude (or which agy). Copy the path it prints, for example /Users/you/.local/bin/claude, into Settings › AI Terminal › Profiles › "Claude Code command" (or "Antigravity command").
• "Python 3 not found": install Apple's command line tools (see What you need). If you already have Python 3, put its path (from which python3) into Settings › AI Terminal › Terminal › "Python path".
• macOS blocked access ("Operation not permitted"): open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Files and Folders › Obsidian and turn on the folder of your vault. Then open a new panel.
• A message says "Reload the plugin": in Settings › Community plugins, turn AI Terminal off, then on again. This closes the open panels.
• Antigravity does not show the note name near its input box: this is normal. Ask about "the note I have open", or run "Send note path to terminal".

For more, see Troubleshooting in the user guide.

What the plugin uses and accesses

Obsidian asks plugins to say this clearly. In short: no payment, no ads, no telemetry, and the plugin itself never connects to the internet.

• Account. The plugin is free and needs no account. The AI tools need their own: Claude Code needs an Anthropic account with a paid plan or API credits, Antigravity needs a Google account.
• Network. The plugin runs a small server that only your own Mac can reach (127.0.0.1, locked with a key). The AI tools in its panels use it to read the open note and the selection. The AI tools themselves connect to their companies (Anthropic, Google) and send what you ask and the notes they read — the same as when you use them in Terminal.
• Files outside your vault. The plugin needs these to run the AI tools and to keep the undo history out of your vault:
  • ~/.config/obsidian-ai-terminal/: small helper scripts that the AI tools run (they come with the plugin, nothing is downloaded) and a lock file.
  • ~/.local/share/obsidian-ai-terminal/: the snapshot history for undo.
  • ~/.claude/: while "Claude IDE connection" is on, a connection file in ~/.claude/ide/ lets Claude Code see your selection. The plugin also reads Claude Code's settings (to give a tip about diffs) and its conversation files (to continue a conversation after a restart).
  • Antigravity: while "Antigravity bridge" is on, the plugin adds an obsidian entry to Antigravity (agy mcp add) and the rule mcp(obsidian/*) to ~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/settings.json, so Antigravity can use the note tools without asking each time.
  • Your shell settings (such as ~/.zshrc) are read by starting your login shell, so the AI tools find the same programs as in Terminal.

More

• User guide: every feature and setting, what the AI can see, where snapshots are saved, known limitations.
• Development: build from source, the in-app test checklist, running the tests, releasing.

License

MIT