Vault Claude

Agentic AI research assistant for Obsidian — chat with Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama, or local models to read, write, search, and transform your notes.

Vault Claude embeds a powerful AI research assistant in your sidebar. It can read, write, search, and transform your notes using natural language. Unlike generic AI chat plugins, Vault Claude understands Obsidian — it knows about wikilinks, frontmatter, backlinks, tags, daily notes, and your vault's folder structure. Use it for research, coding, writing, analysis, or any knowledge work.

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Features

Five Connection Modes

Mode	What it uses	Cost	Best for
Claude Code CLI	Your existing claude installation	Included with Claude subscription	Users who already have Claude Code
Anthropic API	Direct API key	Pay-per-use	Full control, specific Claude model selection
OpenRouter	OpenRouter API key	Pay-per-use	Access to 200+ models (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama, etc.)
OpenAI API	Direct OpenAI API key	Pay-per-use	GPT-4.1, o4-mini, and other OpenAI models
Ollama (Local)	Local Ollama installation	Free	Privacy-first, offline, no API key needed

Two-Tiered Model System

Assign a primary model for complex tasks and a light model for quick, cheap operations (tagging, TOC generation, readability checks, finding links). Saves cost without sacrificing quality where it matters.

Sidebar Chat Panel

• Full markdown rendering with debounced streaming (smooth, efficient)
• Real-time SSE streaming across all API providers
• Tool call cards showing what the AI is doing (file reads, searches, edits)
• Insert to document — one-click button to paste any AI response into your active note
• Message selection — check multiple messages, then "Summarize to document" for AI-synthesized summaries inserted directly into your note
• Export conversation — save the entire chat as a markdown note in your vault
• Token usage and cost tracking (with free local model support for Ollama)
• Conversation history — save, load, and delete past chats

12 Obsidian-Native Tools

The AI doesn't just see your files — it understands your vault:

Tool	What it does
read_note	Read any note's content including frontmatter
write_note	Create new notes or overwrite existing ones
edit_note	Make targeted edits (find and replace)
search_vault	Full-text search across all notes
list_files	Browse folder contents
get_active_note	Get the currently open note with metadata
get_backlinks	Find all notes linking to a given note
get_tags	List all tags or find notes by tag
get_frontmatter	Read YAML frontmatter as structured data
get_vault_structure	Get the full folder tree with note counts
get_daily_note	Access daily notes by date
resolve_wikilinks	Resolve [[wikilinks]] to file paths

30+ Slash Commands

Type / in the chat to access commands organized by category:

Category	Commands
Writing	/brainstorm, /wordsmith, /expand, /draft, /headline, /metaphor, /dialogue, /hook, /conclude
Editing	/summarize, /outline, /rewrite, /fixup, /shorten, /tone, /translate
Analysis	/critique, /counterargument, /audience, /readability
Research	/ask, /find-hyperlinks, /research, /connect, /bibliography
Organization	/tags, /links, /toc, /frontmatter, /daily, /extract, /merge, /audit

All slash commands are also available in Obsidian's command palette (Ctrl+P).

@-Mention Context

Type @ in the chat to reference specific notes, folders, or tags. Their content is attached as context to your message. This lets you ask questions like:

Tell me how @ProjectNotes and @MeetingNotes/March relate to each other

Inline Diff Review

When Claude proposes file edits (in "Approve Edits" mode), changes are shown as inline diffs with:

• Line-by-line additions (green) and removals (red)
• Accept / Reject buttons per edit
• Change statistics (+N / -N)

Permission Modes

Mode	Behavior
Auto	Claude executes all operations without asking
Approve Edits	Read/search freely, but file modifications show diffs for review
Plan Only	Claude proposes a numbered plan, no execution until approved

Cost Tracking

• Per-conversation token count with cost estimates
• Hover the counter for a detailed breakdown (input/output tokens, costs)
• Supports pricing for Anthropic, OpenAI, and OpenRouter models
• Ollama shows token counts as "local" (free)

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Installation

From Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. Open Settings > Community Plugins in Obsidian
2. Search for Vault Claude
3. Click Install, then Enable

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a folder: .obsidian/plugins/vault-claude/
3. Copy the three files into that folder
4. Enable the plugin in Settings > Community Plugins

Development

git clone https://github.com/VictorAshishD/Obsidian_Claude.git
cd Obsidian_Claude
npm install
npm run dev      # Watch mode (auto-rebuilds)
npm run build    # Production build

After building, copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to .obsidian/plugins/vault-claude/.

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Setup

Option 1: Claude Code CLI (No API Key Needed)

If you already have Claude Code installed and a Claude subscription:

1. Ensure Claude Code CLI is installed: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
2. Authenticate: claude login
3. In plugin settings, select Claude Code CLI as connection mode
4. The status indicator will show green when connected

This uses your existing subscription — no additional cost.

Option 2: Anthropic API Key

1. Get an API key from console.anthropic.com
2. In plugin settings, select Anthropic API Key as connection mode
3. Paste your key (stored locally in plugin data)
4. Select your preferred model (Haiku, Sonnet, or Opus)

Option 3: OpenRouter

1. Get an API key from openrouter.ai/keys
2. In plugin settings, select OpenRouter API Key as connection mode
3. Paste your key
4. Click Refresh models to load all available models
5. Select any model — Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, Llama, Mistral, and hundreds more

Option 4: OpenAI API

1. Get an API key from platform.openai.com/api-keys
2. In plugin settings, select OpenAI API Key as connection mode
3. Paste your key
4. Select your preferred model (GPT-4.1, o4-mini, GPT-4o, etc.)

Option 5: Ollama (Local)

1. Install Ollama from ollama.com
2. Pull a model: ollama pull llama3.2 (or any model you prefer)
3. In plugin settings, select Ollama (Local) as connection mode
4. The plugin auto-detects your local models — select one from the dropdown
5. No API key needed, runs entirely on your machine

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Keyboard Shortcuts

All shortcuts are configurable via Obsidian's hotkey settings:

Action	Default
Open chat panel	(set in Settings > Hotkeys)
Start new conversation	(set in Settings > Hotkeys)
Stop current generation	Escape (while generating)

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Architecture

src/
├── main.ts                      # Plugin entry point
├── settings.ts                  # Settings tab with provider-specific UI
├── agent/
│   ├── agent-service.ts         # Core agent with Anthropic + OpenRouter + CLI routing
│   ├── claude-cli-client.ts     # Claude Code CLI subprocess wrapper
│   ├── openrouter-client.ts     # OpenRouter API client (OpenAI format)
│   └── obsidian-tools.ts        # 11 Obsidian-native tool definitions
├── commands/
│   └── slash-commands.ts        # 30+ slash commands with two-tiered model routing
├── storage/
│   └── conversation-store.ts    # Conversation persistence (.obsidian-claude/conversations/)
└── ui/
    ├── chat-view.ts             # Sidebar chat panel (ItemView)
    ├── cost-tracker.ts          # Token usage and cost estimation
    ├── diff-view.ts             # Inline diff rendering with accept/reject
    └── mention-autocomplete.ts  # @-mention autocomplete dropdown

How It Works

API modes (Anthropic / OpenRouter): The plugin implements an agentic tool-use loop. It sends your message to the API along with tool definitions. When Claude wants to read a file, search, or edit, it returns a tool call. The plugin executes the tool using Obsidian's vault API and sends the result back. This loop continues until Claude has a final response.

CLI mode: The plugin spawns claude -p "your message" as a subprocess, with the vault as the working directory. Claude Code handles its own tool execution (file I/O, search, bash). The final result is returned to the chat UI.

Data Storage

• Settings: Stored in .obsidian/plugins/obsidian-claude/data.json (Obsidian's standard plugin data)
• Conversations: Saved to .obsidian-claude/conversations/*.json within your vault
• API keys: Stored locally in plugin data — never transmitted except to your configured API provider

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License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Author

Victor Dasari — victordasari.com

Built with Claude Code.