OpenBrain

AI assistant for Obsidian with voice recording, local transcription, structured workflows, and vault-wide tool access. Runs in the sidebar, a detached window, or as a floating recorder on your desktop.

Supports Anthropic, OpenRouter (200+ models), and Ollama (free, local). Connects to OpenClaw for vault access from any messaging app.

Install

Recommended: BRAT (auto-updates from GitHub releases)

1. Install BRAT from Obsidian community plugins
2. In BRAT settings: Add Beta Plugin > jkrack/OpenBrain
3. Reload Obsidian

Manual:

Download main.js, manifest.json, styles.css, and floatingRecorder.html from the latest release. Place them in {vault}/.obsidian/plugins/open-brain/.

Features

Chat with your vault

Type a message and the AI responds with full vault context. It can search, read, create, and edit notes through 22 built-in tools. Reference files with @, trigger skills with /, or let smart context surface relevant notes automatically.

Switch between Vault mode (full tool access, agentic loop) and Chat mode (fast conversation with image support).

Voice recording & transcription

Record voice memos from the sidebar or the floating desktop recorder. Two transcription engines:

• Neural Engine (local) — Runs on Apple Silicon via the FluidAudio-based STT daemon. Private, fast (~155x realtime), free, works offline. Uses Parakeet TDT 0.6B (25 languages). Downloads a ~1 GB model on first use.
• Anthropic API (fallback) — Sends audio to Claude. Requires an Anthropic API key and internet.

The floating recorder transcribes to clipboard. The in-panel recorder transcribes and processes through whatever skill is active.

Skills

Markdown files with YAML frontmatter that define structured workflows. Type / in the chat to activate:

Skill	What it does
Morning Briefing	Populates today's Focus section from recent daily notes
End of Day	Summarizes what shipped, flags carryovers
Meeting Notes	Structures voice recordings into summary + action items + transcript
1:1	Same as meeting notes, with person context loaded
Weekly Review	Synthesizes the week into a review note
Monthly Review	Higher-level review across weekly notes and 1:1s
Meeting Prep	Pulls attendee profiles, past notes, and open items
Project Status	Reviews progress, blockers, and next steps
Note Organizer	Classifies, tags, suggests links and filing
Vault Health	Audits orphans, broken links, missing frontmatter
Graph Enrichment	Adds typed relationship frontmatter to notes
Graph Health	Audits knowledge graph quality
Person Setup	Creates a person profile through conversation
Project Setup	Creates a project note through conversation
Create Skill	Builds new skills through conversation

Skills are vault files in OpenBrain/skills/ — edit them directly or create new ones.

Providers

Provider	Setup	Audio	Notes
Anthropic	API key from console.anthropic.com	Yes (API fallback)	Native tool calling
OpenRouter	API key from openrouter.ai	No	200+ models, OpenAI-compatible
Ollama	Install, run ollama serve	No	Free, fully local, no API key

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

22 Vault Tools

Category	Tools
Search	Full-text search, contextual search with snippets, semantic search (embeddings)
Read	Read notes, list files, get outlines
Graph	Backlinks, outgoing links, orphans, dead links, graph walk, entity search, graph stats
Metadata	Properties, tags, unresolved links
Write	Create, edit, append, rename, move, delete
Daily	Read daily note, append to sections
Tasks	Get open/completed tasks from any file or daily note

Write tools are permission-gated (off by default). Permissions are three-tiered: global settings > per-conversation header toggles > per-skill YAML definitions.

Daily Note Integration

Conversations and meeting notes are automatically linked in your daily note. The morning briefing skill populates the Focus section. End of day fills the EOD section. Skills create notes from templates with proper frontmatter.

Daily note template includes: Focus, Capture, Tasks due today, Overdue, Notes, Decisions, Context, End of Day.

Knowledge Graph

Optional background system that builds typed relationships between notes:

• On save — Heuristic detection of wikilinks to people/projects (instant, free)
• Hourly — Graph Enrichment skill runs the LLM for deeper analysis
• Weekly — Graph Health skill audits for gaps and disconnected clusters

Enable in Settings > Advanced > Knowledge graph.

Semantic Search

Optional local embedding system using ONNX models. Indexes your vault for semantic similarity search. Multiple models available (BGE-micro to Jina v2). Runs entirely on-device.

Enable in Settings > Advanced > Semantic search.

Floating Recorder (Desktop)

A desktop overlay window that records audio when Obsidian isn't focused. Trigger via command palette or a global hotkey (configurable). Transcribes locally via the STT daemon and copies to clipboard.

Configure in Settings > Voice > Floating recorder.

OpenClaw Integration

Connect to OpenClaw to access your vault from WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram, Discord, Signal, and more. OpenBrain registers as a node and exposes vault commands over WebSocket.

Enable in Settings > OpenClaw. Requires OpenClaw running locally.

Getting Started

1. Open the OpenBrain panel from the ribbon icon or command palette
2. Walk through the setup wizard — choose a provider, add an API key (or select Ollama)
3. Start chatting: type a message, use @ for files, / for skills
4. For voice: click the mic icon to record, stop to transcribe

A Getting Started guide is created at OpenBrain/Getting Started.md on first run.

Vault Structure

OpenBrain/
  skills/           — skill definitions (editable .md files)
  templates/        — note templates (daily, meeting, 1:1, project)
  chats/            — saved conversations
  people/           — person profiles
  meetings/         — meeting notes
  reviews/          — weekly/monthly reviews
  projects/         — project notes
  recordings/       — floating recorder output
  system-prompt-work.md     — AI instructions (work days)
  system-prompt-weekend.md  — AI instructions (weekends)
  Getting Started.md

All folders are configurable in Settings > Folders.

STT Daemon (Apple Silicon)

The local transcription daemon is a Swift binary using FluidAudio for Apple Neural Engine acceleration.

Install: Settings > Voice > "Download Neural Engine STT" — downloads the binary from the matching GitHub Release.

Or build from source:

cd swift/openbrain-stt
swift build -c release
cp .build/release/openbrain-stt ~/.openbrain/bin/

The daemon communicates over a Unix socket at ~/.openbrain/stt.sock, auto-downloads the model on first transcription, and exits after 30 minutes idle.

Development

npm install
npm run dev          # Watch mode — hot-reloads into Obsidian
npm run build        # Type-check + production build
npm run test         # Run vitest suite (193 tests)
npm run test:watch   # Watch mode tests

Architecture

src/
  main.ts              — Plugin lifecycle, commands, views
  panel.tsx            — Main chat UI (~1500 lines, React hooks)
  chatEngine.ts        — Agentic loop with typed event system
  tools.ts             — 22 tool definitions
  toolEngine.ts        — Tool execution dispatch
  skills.ts            — Skill parser, post-actions, cleanResponse
  vaultIndex.ts        — In-memory vault metadata index
  smartContext.ts       — Keyword extraction + relevance scoring
  stt.ts / sttClient.ts — STT daemon client
  audioConverter.ts    — WebM-to-WAV conversion for daemon
  providers/
    anthropic.ts       — Native Anthropic API
    openrouter.ts      — OpenAI-compatible (OpenRouter)
    ollama.ts          — Local Ollama
  components/          — 14 React components
  __tests__/           — 17 test files, 193 tests

Key conventions:

• Typed chat events (AG-UI inspired): content, tool_start, tool_end, done, error
• Content/status separation prevents tool narration from leaking into skill outputs
• cleanResponse() strips model self-narration as a safety net
• All providers implement LLMProvider interface with streaming + tool formatting
• esbuild externals: obsidian, electron, @codemirror/*, @lezer/*, Node builtins

Releasing

./scripts/release.sh patch   # or: major, minor, x.y.z

Bumps version in manifest.json, package.json, versions.json. Commits, tags, pushes. GitHub Actions builds the plugin + STT daemon and creates a release. BRAT picks it up automatically.

Evaluating Skills

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-... npx tsx scripts/eval-skills.ts           # all skills
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-... npx tsx scripts/eval-skills.ts morning   # one skill
npx tsx scripts/eval-skills.ts --dry-run                               # audit prompts

Scores each skill output for narration violations, format compliance, and tool budget adherence.

Privacy & Security

• Ollama: Fully local — no data leaves your machine
• API keys: Encrypted via system keychain before storage
• Local STT: Runs entirely on-device (Apple Silicon)
• Permissions: Write access off by default, per-conversation toggles
• No telemetry: Nothing is sent anywhere

Disclaimer

Early development. OpenBrain can create, modify, and delete files when write permissions are enabled. Permissions are off by default and require explicit activation, but AI-generated actions may produce unexpected results.

• Back up your vault before enabling file editing
• Review changes — skills like Note Organizer and Vault Health propose plans before acting
• Use at your own risk — provided as-is under the MIT License

License

MIT