Claude Code Skills for Obsidian

An Obsidian plugin that connects your notes to the Claude Code CLI. Highlight any text in a note, right-click to select a skill, and get a streaming AI response in a persistent side panel — without leaving Obsidian.

Features

• Right-click selected text → pick a Claude Code skill → response streams into the sidebar
• Persistent side panel — stays open while you read and edit your notes
• Multi-turn conversation — follow-up questions in the same session (full context preserved via --resume)
• Freeform chat — open the panel without selecting text via the ribbon icon or command palette
• Loading animation — three-dot bounce while Claude is connecting and thinking
• Full conversation export — save the entire transcript (user messages + all responses) as a vault note
• Linux process isolation — subprocess wrapped in systemd-run --scope with IPAddressDeny=any where available

Requirements

• Claude Code CLI installed and authenticated (claude binary on your PATH)
• Obsidian desktop app (plugin is desktop-only — uses Node.js child_process)

Network usage: This plugin spawns the claude CLI as a subprocess. The CLI communicates with the Anthropic API over the internet. No data is sent by this plugin directly — all network activity goes through the Claude Code CLI.

Installation

From Community Plugins (once approved)

1. Settings → Community plugins → Browse
2. Search for Claude Code Skills
3. Install and enable

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Copy them to <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/claude-code-skills/
3. Settings → Community plugins → enable Claude Code Skills

Configuration

Settings → Claude Code Skills:

Setting	Description	Default
Claude binary path	Full path to the claude executable	Auto-detected on first load
Working directory	Directory claude runs from. Put your CLAUDE.md here for project context.	Home directory
Timeout (ms)	Max time to wait before killing the subprocess	120000 (2 min)
Max budget per query (USD)	Hard API spend cap per invocation. Set to 0 to disable	0.25
Output folder	Vault folder where "Create Note" saves transcripts. Leave empty for vault root	(vault root)

The claude binary is auto-detected from common install locations on first load. Run which claude in a terminal if auto-detection fails.

Usage

Skill dispatch (primary workflow)

1. Highlight any text in a note (e.g., a YARA rule, a log snippet, a code block)
2. Right-click → select Claude: [skill name] from the context menu
3. The side panel opens — your selected text appears as a user bubble and Claude's response streams in
4. Type follow-up questions in the input box at the bottom (Enter to send, Shift+Enter for newline)
5. Optionally: Create Note to save the full conversation transcript, or Copy last for just the last response
6. Close Session when done — kills the subprocess and closes the panel

Freeform chat (no selection required)

• Click the bot icon in the left ribbon, or
• Ctrl+P → Open Claude Code Skills panel

The panel opens empty and you can type anything. Claude runs with the context of your configured working directory.

Skills

This plugin reads skills from ~/.claude/skills/. Each skill is a directory with a SKILL.md file containing YAML frontmatter:

~/.claude/skills/
  my-skill/
    SKILL.md    ← frontmatter: name, description

SKILL.md frontmatter example:

---
name: My Skill
description: What this skill does
---

If no skills are found, the right-click menu will be empty but the freeform panel still works.

How it works

The plugin spawns claude --print --output-format stream-json --include-partial-messages as a subprocess:

• Initial skill invocation sends /{skillId}\n\n{selected text} on stdin
• Follow-up messages use --resume <sessionId> for multi-turn continuation
• Streamed JSON events are parsed as they arrive — text appears chunk by chunk
• On Linux, the subprocess is wrapped in systemd-run --scope --user -p IPAddressDeny=any for process isolation
• The subprocess is killed if the panel is closed or Close Session is clicked

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/p3nguln5/obsidian-claude-code-skills.git
cd obsidian-claude-code-skills
npm install       # one-time: installs build tools
npm run build     # compiles src/*.ts → main.js

Then copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to your vault's .obsidian/plugins/claude-code-skills/ directory.

For development with auto-rebuild on save: npm run dev

License

MIT — see LICENSE