Claude Vault Assistant

Run pre-defined claude prompts against your obsidian vault, within obsidan itself.

An Obsidian plugin that lets you define reusable prompt files (PROMPT-*.md) and run them against your vault or the currently active note using the Claude Code CLI in headless mode.

Prerequisites

• Obsidian v0.15.0+
• Claude Code CLI installed and authenticated

Installation

1. Go to the latest release
2. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css
3. Create a folder called claude-vault-assistant inside your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory
4. Copy the downloaded files into that folder
5. Enable the plugin in Obsidian Settings > Community Plugins

Currently have an open PR to get plugin added to the official community plugins list for one click installation.

Usage

Create a CLAUDE.md note in the root of the vault

Create a note in the root of your vault and name it CLAUDE. Fill this out with vault conventions claude should know when working within your vault.

An example CLAUDE.md:

# Personal Assistant - Vault Convetions
You are a personal assistant helping organize and maintain notes in an obsidian vault.

## Vault Structure
- /daily-notes - One note per day (YYY-MM-DD format)
- /projects - Notes related to ongoing projects
- /templates - Obsidian templates for daily notes and other recurring note types
- /people - Notes related to specific individuals

## Conventions
- Always use [[wiki links]] when referencing other notes, projects, or people
- File names should be lowercase with hyphens (e.g., new-project-research.md)
- the `brain-dump.md` note in the root is used for raw brain dumps and unprocessed notes (Claude sorts this into the right folders)
  - when processing brain dumps, break it out into spearate notes in the appropriate folders or append to existing notes if appropriate
- If a note references a person make their name link to their note in `/people`, if they don't have a note, create one and link it.

## Preferences
- Keep notes concise - bullet points over paragraphs
- always include a `## Key Takeaways` section in research notes
- when creating people notes, include: name, role/channel, how they're relevant, and any links to related notes with a short description of their relevance in the note.

Creating prompt files

Create PROMPT-*.md files at the root of your vault. Each file defines a reusable prompt. The file name (minus the PROMPT- prefix and .md extension) becomes the display name in the picker.

Example: A prompt to summarize a note and provide bullet list of links at the top of a note, PROMPT-summarize.md:

You are an Obsidian note summarizer. Your job is to read the provided note and append a concise bulleted summary to the end of it.

## Instructions

1. **Read the full note** before summarizing.
2. **Identify the key points** — focus on facts, decisions, findings, action items, and conclusions.
3. **Write a `## Summary` section** with a bulleted list capturing the essence of the note. Each bullet should be one clear, concise statement.
	1. These should provide quick links to appropriate sections where possible.
4. **Append the Summary section to the end of the note.** Do not modify any existing content.
5. **Do not add information that isn't in the note.** Only distill what is already there.
6. **Use [[wiki links]]** for any referenced people, projects, or notes that aren't already linked.

Example: A prompt intended to be ran against specific notes, PROMPT-refine-note.md:

You are an Obsidian note editor. Your job is to refine and improve the provided note while preserving its meaning and intent.

## Instructions

1. **Improve clarity and conciseness** — Tighten language, remove redundancy, and favor bullet points over long paragraphs. Every sentence should earn its place.
2. **Professional tone** — Rewrite informal or rough language to read cleanly and professionally without losing the author's voice.
3. **Structure** — Ensure the note has clear headings, logical flow, and consistent formatting. Add a `## Key Takeaways` section at the end if one doesn't exist.
4. **Add missing [[wiki links]]** — Identify any references to people, projects, tools, concepts, or other notes that should be linked with `[[wiki links]]` but aren't. Add them.
5. **Fix formatting** — Correct any broken markdown, inconsistent list styles, or missing frontmatter.
6. **Do not fabricate content** — Only reorganize and refine what is already there. Do not add new facts, claims, or sections beyond links and Key Takeaways.

Running prompts

There are four ways to run a prompt:

1. Ribbon icon — Click the bot icon in the left sidebar to open the prompt picker (vault scope)
2. Command palette — Use Run Claude Prompt (Vault) to run against the entire vault
3. Command palette — Use Run Claude Prompt (Active Note) to run scoped to the currently open note
4. Command palette — Use Run ad-hoc Claude prompt to type a one-off prompt directly without creating a prompt file

After selecting a prompt, Claude's output streams in real time into a sidebar pane. Tool calls (file reads, edits, etc.) are shown as collapsible sections beneath the output.

Stopping a run

• Click the Stop button in the output pane, or
• Use the Stop Claude command from the command palette

Output pane

Use Open Claude Output from the command palette to open the output pane at any time. It has two tabs:

• Output — Live-streamed markdown output from the current or most recent run, with status indicators (Idle / Running / Complete / Error / Stopped / Limit Reached)
• History — A log of past runs showing prompt name, scope, timestamp, duration, status, and cost. Click any entry to review its cached output. Use the Clear History button to remove all entries.

CLAUDE.md support

If a CLAUDE.md file exists at the root of your vault, its contents are automatically passed as a system prompt to every run. Use this to set global instructions, conventions, or context that should apply to all prompts.

Frontmatter overrides

Add YAML frontmatter to any prompt file to override plugin settings on a per-prompt basis. Supported fields:

---
model: sonnet
maxTurns: 10
maxBudget: 0.50
allowedTools: [Read, Grep, Glob]
---
Your prompt content here...

Field	Type	Description
model	string	Override the Claude model (e.g. sonnet, opus, haiku)
maxTurns	number	Maximum agentic turns for this prompt
maxBudget	number	Maximum cost in USD for this prompt
allowedTools	string[]	Tools Claude is allowed to use (inline [Read, Grep] or block YAML list)

Prompts with overrides display badges in the picker so you can see at a glance which settings differ from defaults.

Notifications

• An in-app notice appears when a run finishes
• A system notification is sent when Obsidian is not focused, so you can switch away during long runs

Vault refresh

After Claude edits files, the plugin automatically refreshes modified files in Obsidian so you see changes immediately without needing to reopen or reload.

Privacy & Network Usage

This plugin spawns the Claude Code CLI as a local child process. When you run a prompt, the CLI sends your prompt content and relevant vault files to Anthropic's API for processing. No data is sent by the plugin itself — all network communication is handled by the CLI.

• Account required: You need an authenticated Anthropic account with billing to use the Claude Code CLI.
• What is sent: Prompt file contents, vault file contents read by Claude during a run, and any system prompt from your CLAUDE.md file.
• What is stored locally: Run history (prompt name, scope, timestamps, cost, and output) is stored in the plugin's data file within your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory.
• No telemetry: This plugin does not collect analytics or send any data independently of the CLI.

See Anthropic's Privacy Policy for details on how Anthropic handles data sent via the CLI.

Settings

Configure the plugin in Obsidian Settings > Claude Vault Assistant:

Setting	Default	Description
Allowed tools	Read, Grep, Glob, Write, Edit	Comma-separated list of tools Claude is allowed to use
CLI path	claude	Path to the Claude CLI executable
Max turns	50	Maximum number of agentic turns per run
Max budget (USD)	No limit	Maximum cost per run in USD
Model override	CLI default	Override the default Claude model
Max history entries	50	Maximum number of run history entries to keep

Architecture

• src/main.ts — Plugin entry point, registers commands and views
• src/settings.ts — Plugin settings interface and settings tab
• src/claude-runner.ts — Spawns Claude CLI as a child process
• src/stream-parser.ts — Parses streamed JSON output from the CLI
• src/output-view.ts — Sidebar output pane with markdown rendering and history tab
• src/run-history.ts — Run history storage, retrieval, and pruning logic
• src/prompt-scanner.ts — Scans vault root for PROMPT-*.md files
• src/frontmatter.ts — Parses YAML frontmatter overrides from prompt files
• src/prompt-picker.ts — Modal for selecting a prompt to run
• src/adhoc-prompt-modal.ts — Modal for typing ad-hoc prompts
• src/vault-refresher.ts — Refreshes modified files after a run

Development

Setup

npm install

Build

# Development (watch mode)
npm run dev

# Production build
npm run build

Test

# Run tests
npm test

# Watch mode
npm run test:watch

License

MIT