OpenBrain

AI-powered vault assistant for Obsidian. Chat with any LLM about your notes, record voice memos, run structured workflows, and manage your daily work — all from a side panel. Supports Anthropic, OpenRouter (200+ models), and Ollama (free, local). Connects to OpenClaw to access your vault from any messaging channel.

Features

Chat with your vault

Type a message and your AI responds with full context of your vault. It can search, read, create, and edit notes through 22 built-in vault tools. Reference any file with @ — or let smart context surface relevant notes automatically. Switch between Vault mode (full tool access) and Chat mode (fast conversation with image support).

Multiple providers

Choose your LLM provider:

• Anthropic — Claude models with native tool calling and vision
• OpenRouter — 200+ models (GPT-4o, Gemini, Llama, Mistral, Claude, and more)
• Ollama — Run models locally for free. No API key, no data leaves your machine

Switch providers anytime in settings. All providers support the same vault tools and skills.

Voice recording & transcription

Record voice memos with one click. Transcribe locally (private, offline via sherpa-onnx) or via your configured provider. Audio is automatically processed through active skills.

Skills (/commands)

Type / to activate specialized workflows:

• 1:1 — Prepare for and run one-on-one meetings with auto-loaded context
• Meeting Notes — Transcribe and structure meeting notes
• Morning Briefing — Review your day, tasks, and priorities
• End of Day — Summarize what happened, capture loose ends
• Weekly Review — Reflect on the week, plan ahead
• Monthly Review — Higher-level reflection and goal tracking
• Vault Health — Audit orphans, broken links, stale notes
• Note Organizer — Classify, tag, and suggest links for notes
• Project Status — Review project progress and next steps
• Create Skill — Build new skills through conversation

Skills are markdown files — create your own with /Create Skill or in OpenBrain/skills/.

22 vault tools

OpenBrain gives your LLM structured access to your vault:

Category	Tools
Search	Full-text search, contextual search
Read	Read notes, list files, get outlines
Graph	Backlinks, outgoing links, orphans, dead links
Metadata	Properties, tags, unresolved links
Write	Create, edit, append, rename, move, delete
Daily notes	Read and append to sections
Tasks	Get open/completed tasks from any file

Write tools are gated by permissions — off by default.

Daily note integration

Every conversation and meeting note is automatically linked in your daily note with a TLDR summary. Action items are extracted and added as tasks. Configure your daily note folder and date format in settings (supports nested {{YYYY}}/{{MM}} paths).

System prompt as a vault file

Your AI's instructions live at OpenBrain/system-prompt.md — editable right in Obsidian. Customize how it behaves, what sections to target in daily notes, and how to handle different types of requests.

Person profiles & 1:1 meetings

Create profiles for your team in OpenBrain/people/. The /1:1 skill loads their context, pulls recent meeting history, and creates a structured session note.

Smart context

OpenBrain automatically finds relevant vault notes for every message — no need to manually reference files. It searches by keywords, backlinks, and tags to surface what matters.

Templates

Built-in templates for daily notes, meetings, 1:1s, and projects. Customize them in OpenBrain/templates/. Skill templates also available for creating new workflows.

Quick capture

Capture a thought from the command palette without opening the panel. Goes straight to today's daily note.

OpenClaw integration

Connect OpenBrain to OpenClaw to access your vault from any messaging channel — WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram, Discord, Signal, and more.

When enabled, OpenBrain registers as an OpenClaw node and exposes vault commands so you can search, capture, and query from any device.

Setup: Enable in Settings → OpenClaw. Requires OpenClaw running locally.

Requirements

One of:

• Anthropic API key — Get one
• OpenRouter API key — Get one (access to 200+ models)
• Ollama — Install (free, runs locally, no API key needed)

Optional:

• Obsidian CLI — Enables enhanced vault search and task queries. Enable in Obsidian Settings → General → Command line interface.

Installation

From community plugins

1. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse
2. Search for "OpenBrain"
3. Install and enable

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create {vault}/.obsidian/plugins/open-brain/ and place the files there
3. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Getting started

1. Open the OpenBrain panel from the ribbon icon (brain) or command palette
2. Walk through the 3-step setup wizard
3. Choose your provider and add an API key (or select Ollama for free local use)
4. Start chatting — type a message, use @ for files, / for skills

A Getting Started note is created in your vault at OpenBrain/Getting Started.md with detailed documentation.

Folder structure

OpenBrain creates these folders in your vault:

OpenBrain/
  chats/              — saved conversations (.md files)
  skills/             — skill definitions
  templates/          — note templates (daily, meeting, 1:1, project)
  people/             — person profiles for 1:1s
  system-prompt.md    — editable AI instructions
  Getting Started.md  — documentation

Privacy & security

• Provider choice: Use Ollama for fully local, private AI — no data leaves your machine
• API key encryption: All API keys are encrypted using your system's keychain (macOS Keychain, Windows DPAPI) before storage
• Offline voice: Local transcription via sherpa-onnx runs entirely on your device
• Permissions: File editing is off by default. Enable per-conversation as needed
• No telemetry: Performance data stays local. Nothing is sent anywhere

Settings

Open Settings → OpenBrain to configure:

• Provider selection (Anthropic, OpenRouter, Ollama)
• API keys (encrypted, masked)
• Model selection (text field — future-proof for new models)
• Permissions (file editing)
• Daily note folder and format
• System prompt (opens the vault file)
• Obsidian CLI path
• OpenClaw integration

Disclaimer

This plugin is in early development. OpenBrain can create, modify, and delete files in your vault when write permissions are enabled. While permissions are off by default and require explicit activation, AI-generated actions may produce unexpected results.

• Back up your vault before enabling file editing
• Review changes before approving — the Note Organizer and Vault Health skills propose plans before acting
• The authors are not responsible for any data loss, file deletions, or vault corruption
• Use at your own risk — this software is provided as-is under the MIT License

We recommend starting with permissions off and enabling them only as needed for specific skills.

License

MIT