Claude Sidebar

Run Claude Code in your Obsidian sidebar.

Built by Derek Larson. Pair with commands →

Features

• Embedded terminal - Full terminal in your Obsidian sidebar
• Auto-launches Claude - Claude Code starts automatically
• Multiple tabs - Run multiple Claude instances side by side
• Folder context menu - Right-click any folder to open Claude in that directory
• YOLO mode - Launch Claude with --dangerously-skip-permissions via right-click menus
• Multi-backend - Switch between Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Gemini CLI in settings

Requirements

• macOS, Linux, or Windows
• Python 3
• Claude Code

Installation

Quick Install (Mac/Linux)

In your vault folder, run:

curl -sL https://github.com/derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz | tar -xz -C .obsidian/plugins && mv .obsidian/plugins/obsidian-claude-sidebar-main .obsidian/plugins/claude-sidebar

Then in Obsidian: Settings → Community Plugins → Refresh → Enable "Claude Sidebar"

Windows: See Windows Setup below.

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create folder: <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/claude-sidebar/
3. Copy the downloaded files into that folder
4. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings → Community Plugins

BRAT (Auto-Updates)

1. Install BRAT from Community Plugins
2. In BRAT settings, click "Add Beta plugin"
3. Enter: derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar
4. Enable "Claude Sidebar" in Settings → Community Plugins

BRAT handles updates automatically when new releases are published.

From Community Plugins

Once approved, you'll be able to search for "Claude Sidebar" in Community Plugins → Browse.

Updating

Paste into a Claude Code session from your vault:

Update the Claude Sidebar plugin. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from https://github.com/derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar/releases/latest/download/ into .obsidian/plugins/claude-sidebar/. Tell me the old and new version numbers.

Manual

In your vault folder, run:

cd .obsidian/plugins/claude-sidebar
curl -LO https://github.com/derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar/releases/latest/download/main.js
curl -LO https://github.com/derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar/releases/latest/download/manifest.json
curl -LO https://github.com/derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar/releases/latest/download/styles.css

Then restart Obsidian or disable/re-enable the plugin.

Usage

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/de98439a-8a1f-4a8a-9d02-44027d756462

• Click the bot icon in the left ribbon to open Claude
• Right-click the bot icon for YOLO mode, folder targeting, or resuming a conversation
• Right-click any folder for "Open Claude here" or "Open Claude here (YOLO)"
• Use Command Palette (Cmd+P) for all commands:
  • Open Claude Code / New Claude Tab / Close Claude Tab
  • Toggle Focus: Editor ↔ Claude - Quick switch between editor and Claude
  • Run Claude from this folder - Start Claude in the active file's directory
  • Resume last conversation - Pick up where you left off (--continue)
  • Send File Path to Claude / Send Selection to Claude
• Press Shift+Enter for multi-line input
• Set your own hotkeys in Settings → Hotkeys

Platform Support

Platform	Status
macOS	✅ Supported
Linux	✅ Supported
Windows	⚠️ Experimental

Want to use it on iOS or Android? See Claude Anywhere.

Windows Setup (Experimental)

Windows requires additional dependencies:

1. Install Python 3 from python.org
2. Install pywinpty:

pip install pywinpty

3. Install the plugin (run from your vault folder in PowerShell):

$u="https://github.com/derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar/archive/main.zip"; Invoke-WebRequest $u -OutFile s.zip; Expand-Archive s.zip .obsidian\plugins -Force; Move-Item ".obsidian\plugins\obsidian-claude-sidebar-main" ".obsidian\plugins\claude-sidebar" -Force; Remove-Item s.zip

4. Then in Obsidian: Settings → Community Plugins → Refresh → Enable "Claude Sidebar"

Note: Windows support is experimental. Performance may be slower than macOS/Linux due to ConPTY overhead.

How It Works

• xterm.js for terminal emulation
• Python's built-in pty module for pseudo-terminal support (macOS/Linux)
• pywinpty for Windows PTY support

Development

The PTY scripts (terminal_pty.py for Unix, terminal_win.py for Windows) are embedded as base64 in main.js for Obsidian plugin directory compatibility. To rebuild after modifying:

./build.sh

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome at github.com/derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar

License

MIT