claudian

Claudian

An Obsidian plugin that embeds AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Grok Build, OpenCode, Pi, DeepSeek Harness, and more to come) in your vault. Your vault becomes the agent's working directory — file read/write, search, bash, and multi-step workflows all work out of the box.

Features & Usage

Open Claudian interface from the ribbon icon or command palette. Everything works like your familiar coding agent, Claude Code, Codex, Grok Build, OpenCode, Pi, and DeepSeek Harness — talk to the agent, and it reads, writes, edits, searches and run commands in your vault.

Inline Edit — Select text or start at the cursor position + hotkey to edit directly in notes with word-level diff preview.

Projects — Group sessions that work toward a shared goal. Every member shares the project's instructions and a memory file that the agents keep current, and the agents can cooperate by finding, reading and messaging each other.

Zen Mode — Collapse the sidebar holding Claudian and the chat moves to a compact composer at the bottom of your notes, with a one-line activity preview and the conversation one click away.

Slash Commands & Skills — Type / or $ for reusable prompt templates or Skills from user- and vault-level scopes.

@mention — Type @ to reference vault files, folders and other Claudian sessions.

Cross-Session Messaging — Let agents read, message, steer or interrupt other Claudian sessions, or start new ones on any provider.

Side Chat (/side or /btw) — Explore a separate, temporary conversation with follow-ups and tools while keeping the main chat unchanged.

MCP Servers — Connect external tools through each coding agent's native CLI-managed MCP configuration.

Tabs & Session Management — Use multiple tabs in single-pane mode or a persistent session manager beside the chat in dual-pane mode.

Collaboration — Collab is now a standalone plugin. See Claudian Collab.

Requirements

• At least one of the following harnesses:

  • Claude Code

  • Codex

  • DeepSeek Harness

  • Grok Build

  • OpenCode

  • Pi

• A compatible subscription or API provider

• Obsidian v1.13.0+

• Desktop only (macOS, Linux, Windows)

Claudian now supports OpenCode v2, OpenCode v1 support will end on October 30, 2026. See the OpenCode v2 migration guide.

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (recommended)

1. Open Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins → Browse

2. Search for "Claudian" and click Install

3. Enable the plugin

Or install directly from the community plugin page.

From source (development)

1. Clone this repository into your vault's plugins folder:

   cd /path/to/vault/.obsidian/plugins
   git clone https://github.com/YishenTu/claudian.git realclaudian
   cd realclaudian

2. Install dependencies and build:

   npm install
   npm run build

3. Enable the plugin in Obsidian:

   • Settings → Community plugins → Enable "Claudian"

Development

# Watch mode
npm run dev

# Production build
npm run build

Privacy & Data Use

• Sent to API: Your input, attached files, images, and tool call outputs. Depending on the selected provider, data is sent to Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (Codex), xAI (Grok), or the providers configured in OpenCode, Pi, or DeepSeek Harness. The destination can be configured through provider settings and environment variables.

• No telemetry or unsolicited background activity: Claudian does not run telemetry beacons. UI polling timers read local Obsidian/editor selection state only. Network activity is limited to explicit provider runtime work, configured MCP endpoints, a 127.0.0.1-only listener that OpenCode, DeepSeek and Grok sessions use for Claudian's session tools, provider SDK/CLI calls needed to answer your requests, and their configured services.

Troubleshooting

The following sections use Claude Code as an example.

Provider CLI not found

If Claudian cannot auto-detect a provider CLI, verify that the CLI is installed and available through PATH. Typical errors include spawn claude ENOENT and Claude Code CLI not found.

On macOS and Linux, Obsidian launched from the Dock or a desktop entry does not inherit your terminal's PATH, so Claudian reads PATH once from your login shell ($SHELL -i -l). CLIs and Node.js installed through version managers such as nvm, fnm, Volta, asdf, or mise are found the same way your terminal finds them. Reload Claudian after changing your shell profile. If your profile is slow or interactive, skip that part when CLAUDIAN_RESOLVING_ENVIRONMENT is set; Claudian falls back to common install locations if the shell does not answer within 10 seconds.

On Windows, Obsidian uses the PATH from your user and system environment variables. Restart Obsidian after changing them.

Leave the CLI path setting empty first so Claudian can auto-detect the CLI. If auto-detection fails, find the executable path, open Settings → Claudian → Providers → Claude Code, expand the Claude Code installation card, and set Claude Code CLI path.

For Codex on macOS, auto-detection also checks ChatGPT.app in /Applications and ~/Applications, including its nested codex-cli/CodexCLI.app runtime. A configured CLI path or shared PATH entry takes precedence.

Note: On Windows, avoid .cmd and .ps1 wrappers. Use claude.exe for native installs, or cli-wrapper.cjs for package-manager installs. cli.js is only a legacy fallback for older Claude Code npm packages.

Alternative: Add your Node.js bin directory to PATH in Settings → Claudian → General → Environment → Shared environment.

A newly released model is missing

Claudian discovers models from each configured provider rather than keeping its own hard-coded model list. A model can therefore be available through a provider API or announced publicly before it appears in the catalog returned for your provider installation, configuration, and account.

1. Update the provider CLI or application, when applicable, and confirm the model appears there.

2. In Settings → Claudian → Providers, open the provider and confirm its CLI path, environment, and other connection settings use the same installation and account.

3. Under Models, open Browse models, then click Refresh if models are already listed, or Discover otherwise, to request the current catalog.

4. Enable the new model and start a new chat if you want to use it. Existing chats keep their selected model.

If the model is still absent, the active provider runtime or account has not reported it to Claudian. Public or API availability alone does not guarantee catalog availability for every provider integration or account. Avoid editing Claudian's installed bundle to add the model manually; those changes are unsupported and will be overwritten by updates.

For OpenCode, discovery failures show the request error, including a server error reference when supplied. A successful catalog with no enabled models instead shows configuration guidance. Check the vault's .opencode/opencode.json, compare opencode models --standalone from that vault using the same CLI and environment, and use opencode debug paths to locate OpenCode logs. With OpenCode v2, configured V1 plugins may be incompatible; an empty catalog alone does not establish a plugin failure.

Node.js not found for an npm-installed CLI

npm-installed provider CLIs need Node.js. Claudian prefers the Node.js next to the CLI, then the first one on PATH. If the CLI still reports that Node.js is missing (for example env: node: No such file or directory), check where your terminal finds it:

dirname "$(which node)"

Either:

1. Install the native binary (recommended).

2. Add that directory in Settings → Claudian → General → Environment → Shared environment: PATH=/path/to/node/bin.

Authentication fails while the CLI subscription works