What it does

agentmd is a markdown-first runtime for AI agents — each agent is a single .md file with YAML frontmatter and a Markdown body. This plugin turns Obsidian into a visual front end for a local agentmd backend, so you can browse, run, and observe your agents without leaving your vault.

The plugin connects to a local agentmd instance over a Unix domain socket. It never talks to a remote server itself, and it can launch the backend as a local subprocess only when you explicitly ask it to.

How it connects

• Transport: the plugin communicates with agentmd over a Unix domain socket (default ~/.local/state/agentmd/agentmd.sock, configurable in settings). This requires Node.js APIs that are only available on Obsidian Desktop — hence the plugin is desktop-only.
• Starting the backend: the plugin can start agentmd for you, but only when you click the status-bar dot, use the "Start backend" command, or trigger the "Start Agentmd" action. Doing so runs your local agentmd CLI (agentmd start -d). It does not start anything automatically.
• Live updates: while connected, the plugin uses a server-sent-events (SSE) stream from the backend for real-time updates, falling back to periodic health polling when SSE is unavailable.

Requirements

• Obsidian 1.5+ (Desktop only — mobile is not supported)
• agentmd v0.14.0+ installed and reachable on your machine

Features

• Single sidebar panel, three tabs — Agents, Live, and History, all in one place.
• Drill-down detail — click any agent or execution to open its detail screen; a ‹ back bar returns to the previous tab.
• Run agents with one click, or run an agent against the currently open note.
• Live executions — running agents show an animated state (spinning border, pulsing icon); the Live tab streams tool calls, AI responses, and final answers in real time.
• History — full execution history with status-colored results (success / failure / cancelled) and filters by status, agent, and period.
• Per-agent emoji — taken from the agent's icon: frontmatter (resolved by agentmd); when absent, the plugin derives a stable emoji from the agent name.
• Scheduler controls — pause and resume scheduled runs from the command palette.
• Backend lifecycle — start and stop your local agentmd backend from the command palette or the status-bar dot.

The panel

The plugin adds a single Agentmd panel to the sidebar (also reachable via the ribbon bot icon).

A ‹ back bar at the top of any detail screen returns you to the originating tab.

Installation

Manual (current)

The plugin is not yet in the Obsidian community list, so install it manually:

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest GitHub release.
2. Place all three files in <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/agentmd/. The folder name must be agentmd.
3. In Obsidian, go to Settings → Community plugins and enable Agentmd.

Community plugins (once approved)

When the plugin is accepted into the community list, you'll be able to install it from Settings → Community plugins → Browse by searching for Agentmd.

Setting up agentmd

The plugin requires a local agentmd backend (v0.14.0+).

1. Install agentmd by following the instructions in the agentmd repository.
2. Start the backend, either by running it yourself:

   agentmd start -d
   

   or by clicking the status-bar dot / running the Start backend command in Obsidian (this runs your local agentmd CLI).

By default the plugin connects to ~/.local/state/agentmd/agentmd.sock. If your backend listens on a different socket, change the Socket path setting (see below).

The status bar shows a dot labeled Agentmd: a green dot when connected via SSE, amber when connected via polling fallback, and a hollow gray dot when offline. Click it to start or stop the backend.

Commands

Available in the command palette:

Settings

Configure under Settings → Agentmd.

Privacy & permissions

All communication is local:

• The plugin connects only to your own agentmd instance, over a Unix domain socket on your machine. It does not connect to any external or remote service.
• It does not send your vault contents to any external service, and it contains no telemetry.
• It can launch a local agentmd subprocess (your agentmd CLI), but only when you explicitly start the backend — via the status-bar dot or the "Start backend" command. Nothing is started automatically.

Note: agents you run may themselves call external LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.) through the agentmd backend, according to your agentmd configuration. That behavior belongs to the backend you control, not to this plugin.

Troubleshooting

Backend offline. If the status bar shows the gray (offline) dot, the plugin can't reach agentmd. Start the backend (click the dot or run "Start backend"), and confirm the Socket path setting matches the socket your backend is actually listening on. If "Start backend" fails, set the Agentmd executable setting to the full path of your agentmd CLI (find it with which agentmd).

Plugin not loading. Make sure the plugin folder is named exactly agentmd (i.e. <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/agentmd/) and contains main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css. Then enable Agentmd under Settings → Community plugins.

Development

git clone https://github.com/z-fab/agentmd-obsidian.git
cd agentmd-obsidian
npm install

npm run dev      # watch mode
npm run build    # production build
npm test         # run tests

Project structure

main.ts                          Plugin entry point
src/
  client/                        HTTP-over-socket client, SSE parsing/streaming
  store/event-store.ts           Reactive state (agents, running, history)
  views/
    panel-view.ts                Single panel: tab bar, back bar, screen dispatch
    nav.ts                       Navigation state reducer (tab + stack)
    screens/                     Agents / Live / History + agent & execution detail
  ui/                            Emoji resolution, DOM card helpers, formatting
  settings.ts / settings-tab.ts  Settings interface, defaults, and UI
  backend-monitor.ts             SSE-driven health monitoring with fallback
  backend-lifecycle.ts           Start/stop the local backend

License

MIT © 2026 Fabricio Zillig