Lean Terminal

An embedded terminal panel for Obsidian, powered by xterm.js and node-pty. Run shell commands directly inside your vault workspace — no external windows needed.

Desktop only. Requires Obsidian 1.5.0+.

Features

• Full PTY terminal (not a simple command runner) with interactive shell support
• Multiple terminal tabs with rename and color-coding support
• Auto-detects your shell: PowerShell 7 / Windows PowerShell / cmd.exe on Windows, $SHELL on macOS/Linux
• Four built-in color themes: Obsidian Dark, Obsidian Light, Monokai, Solarized Dark
• Clickable URLs in terminal output
• Auto-resize on panel resize
• Opens at vault root by default
• Clipboard support: Ctrl+V / Cmd+V paste, Ctrl+C / Cmd+C copy (with selection)
• Notification sounds when background tab commands finish (4 sound types, adjustable volume)
• Shift+Enter inserts a newline instead of submitting (muscle memory friendly for Claude Code users)
• Custom background color override with color picker (match your vault theme)
• Configurable: shell path, font size, font family, cursor blink, scrollback, panel location

Installation

Via BRAT (recommended)

1. Install the BRAT plugin if you don't have it
2. Open Settings > BRAT > Add Beta Plugin
3. Enter: sdkasper/lean-obsidian-terminal
4. Enable the plugin in Settings > Community Plugins
5. Go to Settings > Terminal > Download binaries and click Download — this fetches the native terminal binary for your platform
6. Open the terminal via the ribbon icon or command palette

Manual Installation

1. Clone this repository
2. Run npm install && npm run build
3. Run node install.mjs "/path/to/your/vault"
4. Restart Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings > Community Plugins

Usage

Action	How
Open terminal	Click the terminal icon in the ribbon, or run Open terminal from the command palette
Toggle terminal	Command palette: Toggle terminal, or click the ribbon icon again
New tab	Command palette: New terminal tab, or click the + button in the tab bar
Rename tab	Right-click the tab label
Close tab	Click the x on the tab
Split pane	Command palette: Open terminal in new pane

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Shell path	Auto-detect	Path to shell executable. Leave empty for auto-detection
Font size	14	Terminal font size in pixels
Font family	Menlo, Monaco, 'Courier New', monospace	Terminal font stack
Theme	Obsidian Dark	Color theme for the terminal
Cursor blink	On	Whether the cursor blinks
Scrollback	5000	Number of lines kept in scroll history
Background color	Theme default	Override the theme background with any CSS color (hex, RGB, etc.)
Default location	Bottom	Where new terminal panels open (Bottom or Right)
Notify on completion	Off	Sound + notice when a background tab command finishes
Notification sound	Beep	Choose from Beep, Chime, Ping, or Pop
Notification volume	50	Volume for notification sounds (0–100)

How It Works

The plugin uses xterm.js for terminal rendering and node-pty for native pseudo-terminal support. node-pty spawns a real shell process (PowerShell, bash, etc.) and connects its stdin/stdout to xterm.js via Obsidian's Electron runtime. This gives you a fully interactive terminal — not just command execution.

On Windows, the plugin uses the winpty backend because Obsidian's Electron renderer does not support Worker threads required by ConPTY.

Feedback

Use this repo to report bugs, request features, or ask questions.

• Report a Bug
• Request a Feature
• Report a Performance Issue
• Ask a Question / Share Feedback

Development

npm install
npm run dev          # Watch mode (auto-rebuild on save)
npm run build        # Production build
node install.mjs     # Install to default vault (D:\LOS Test)

License

MIT