claude-obsidian

Claude + Obsidian knowledge companion. A running notetaker that builds and maintains a persistent, compounding wiki vault. Every source you add gets integrated. Every question you ask pulls from everything that has been read. Knowledge compounds like interest.

Based on Andrej Karpathy's LLM Wiki pattern.

What It Does

You drop sources. Claude reads them, extracts entities and concepts, updates cross-references, and files everything into a structured Obsidian vault. The wiki gets richer with every ingest.

You ask questions. Claude reads the hot cache (recent context), scans the index, drills into relevant pages, and synthesizes an answer. It cites specific wiki pages, not training data.

You lint. Claude finds orphans, dead links, stale claims, and missing cross-references. Your wiki stays healthy without manual cleanup.

At the end of every session, Claude updates a hot cache. The next session starts with full recent context, no recap needed.

Quick Start

Option 1: Clone as vault (recommended — full setup in 2 minutes)

git clone https://github.com/AgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian
cd claude-obsidian
bash bin/setup-vault.sh

Open the folder in Obsidian: Manage Vaults → Open folder as vault → select claude-obsidian/

Open Claude Code in the same folder. Type /wiki.

setup-vault.sh configures graph.json (filter + colors), app.json (excludes plugin dirs), and appearance.json (enables CSS). Run it once before the first Obsidian open. You get the fully pre-configured graph view, color scheme, and wiki structure out of the box.

Option 2: Install as Claude Code plugin

claude plugin install github:AgriciDaniel/claude-obsidian

In any Claude Code session: /wiki — Claude walks you through vault setup.

Option 3: Add to an existing vault

Copy WIKI.md into your vault root. Paste into Claude:

Read WIKI.md in this project. Then:
1. Check if Obsidian is installed. If not, install it.
2. Check if the Local REST API plugin is running on port 27124.
3. Configure the MCP server.
4. Ask me ONE question: "What is this vault for?"
Then scaffold the full wiki structure.

Commands

Cross-Project Power Move

Point any Claude Code project at this vault. Add to that project's CLAUDE.md:

## Wiki Knowledge Base
Path: ~/path/to/vault

When you need context not already in this project:
1. Read wiki/hot.md first (recent context cache)
2. If not enough, read wiki/index.md
3. If you need domain details, read the relevant domain sub-index
4. Only then drill into specific wiki pages

Do NOT read the wiki for general coding questions or tasks unrelated to [domain].

Your executive assistant, coding projects, and content workflows all draw from the same knowledge base.

Six Wiki Modes

Modes can be combined.

What Gets Created

A typical scaffold creates:

• Folder structure for your chosen mode
• wiki/index.md — master catalog
• wiki/log.md — append-only operation log
• wiki/hot.md — recent context cache
• wiki/overview.md — executive summary
• wiki/meta/dashboard.md — Dataview dashboard
• _templates/ — Obsidian Templater templates for each note type
• .obsidian/snippets/vault-colors.css — color-coded file explorer
• Vault CLAUDE.md — auto-loaded project instructions

MCP Setup (Optional)

MCP lets Claude read and write vault notes directly without copy-paste.

Option A (REST API based):

1. Install the Local REST API plugin in Obsidian
2. Copy your API key
3. Run:

claude mcp add-json obsidian-vault '{
  "type": "stdio",
  "command": "uvx",
  "args": ["mcp-obsidian"],
  "env": {
    "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "your-key",
    "OBSIDIAN_HOST": "127.0.0.1",
    "OBSIDIAN_PORT": "27124",
    "NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED": "0"
  }
}' --scope user

Option B (filesystem based, no plugin needed):

claude mcp add-json obsidian-vault '{
  "type": "stdio",
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "@bitbonsai/mcpvault@latest", "/path/to/your/vault"]
}' --scope user

Plugins (pre-installed)

These ship with the vault — enable them in Settings → Community Plugins → enable:

* Excalidraw main.js (8MB) is downloaded automatically by setup-vault.sh. It is not tracked in git.

Also install from Community Plugins (not pre-installed):

Also install the Obsidian Web Clipper browser extension — sends web pages to .raw/ in one click.

CSS Snippets (auto-enabled by setup-vault.sh)

Three snippets ship with the vault and are enabled automatically:

Banner Plugin

Add to any wiki page frontmatter:

banner: "_attachments/images/your-image.png"
banner_icon: "🧠"

The page renders a full-width header image in Obsidian. Works great for hub pages and overviews.

File Structure

claude-obsidian/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   ├── plugin.json              # manifest
│   └── marketplace.json         # distribution
├── skills/
│   ├── wiki/                    # orchestrator + references (7 ref files)
│   ├── wiki-ingest/             # INGEST operation
│   ├── wiki-query/              # QUERY operation
│   ├── wiki-lint/               # LINT operation
│   ├── save/                    # /save — file conversations to wiki
│   ├── autoresearch/            # /autoresearch — autonomous research loop
│   │   └── references/
│   │       └── program.md       # configurable research objectives
│   └── canvas/                  # /canvas — visual layer (images, PDFs, notes)
│       └── references/
│           └── canvas-spec.md   # Obsidian canvas JSON format reference
├── agents/
│   ├── wiki-ingest.md           # parallel ingestion agent
│   └── wiki-lint.md             # health check agent
├── commands/
│   ├── wiki.md                  # /wiki bootstrap command
│   ├── save.md                  # /save command
│   ├── autoresearch.md          # /autoresearch command
│   └── canvas.md                # /canvas visual layer command
├── hooks/
│   └── hooks.json               # SessionStart + Stop hot cache hooks
├── _templates/                  # Obsidian Templater templates
├── wiki/
│   ├── Wiki Map.canvas          # visual hub — central graph node
│   ├── canvases/                # welcome.canvas + main.canvas (visual demos)
│   ├── getting-started.md       # onboarding walkthrough (inside the vault)
│   ├── concepts/                # seeded: LLM Wiki Pattern, Hot Cache, Compounding Knowledge
│   ├── entities/                # seeded: Andrej Karpathy
│   ├── sources/                 # populated by your first ingest
│   └── meta/dashboard.md        # Dataview dashboard
├── .raw/                        # source documents (hidden in Obsidian)
├── .obsidian/snippets/          # vault-colors.css (3-color scheme)
├── WIKI.md                      # full schema reference
├── CLAUDE.md                    # project instructions
└── README.md                    # this file

AutoResearch: program.md

The /autoresearch command is configurable. Edit skills/autoresearch/references/program.md to control:

• What sources to prefer (academic, official docs, news)
• Confidence scoring rules
• Max rounds and max pages per session
• Domain-specific constraints

The default program works for general research. Override it for your domain. A medical researcher would add "prefer PubMed". A business analyst would add "focus on market data and filings".

Seed Vault

This repo ships with a seeded vault. Open it in Obsidian and you'll see:

• wiki/concepts/ — LLM Wiki Pattern, Hot Cache, Compounding Knowledge
• wiki/entities/ — Andrej Karpathy
• wiki/sources/ — empty until your first ingest
• wiki/meta/dashboard.md — Dataview dashboard (requires Dataview plugin)

The graph view will show a connected cluster of 5 pages. This is what the wiki looks like after one ingest. Add more sources and it grows from there.

Based on Andrej Karpathy's LLM Wiki pattern. Built by AgriciDaniel / AI Marketing Hub.