Claude Notes (Obsidian plugin)

Sidebar, generate-note command, and live refresh for Markdown notes written into your vault by the Claude Code obsidian-notes-cli. No custom note format, no lock-in — it reads plain Markdown with YAML frontmatter via Obsidian's own metadata cache.

Part of a 3-repo integration:

• obsidian-notes-cli — writes the notes; this plugin reads them. Works fine without this plugin installed.
• obsidian-claude-notes (this repo, TypeScript).
• claude-code-obsidian-notes — Claude Code plugin that shells out to the CLI.

Requirements

• Obsidian >= 1.13.0
• Desktop only (see below)

Features

• Sidebar — lists every note with source: claude-code frontmatter, grouped by project. Click to open. Read via Obsidian's own metadata cache (getMarkdownFiles() + metadataCache.getFileCache()) — the plugin keeps no index of its own.
• "Generate note here" command — spawns the CLI with the current selection (or, if nothing's selected, the whole active note) piped in as the body. Desktop only: it spawns a child process, which isn't available on Obsidian mobile. Set the CLI binary path in settings first, or the command shows a Notice telling you to.
• Live refresh — if the local bridge is enabled, the CLI pings 127.0.0.1:<port>/notes right after writing a file; the sidebar re-renders ~150ms later. With the bridge off, the sidebar still updates — just on Obsidian's normal file-watcher cadence instead of instantly.

Settings

On load, the plugin reads .claude-notes.json if one already exists (e.g. from obsidian-notes vault:init) and uses its folderPattern/bridgePort — that file is the shared source of truth, not the plugin's own settings storage.

How it works

• Reading — no polling, no file watcher of its own: the sidebar is a live view over Obsidian's MetadataCache, so it's as current as Obsidian's index already is.
• Writing (the CLI's job) — this plugin never writes note content itself. The "Generate note here" command spawns the external CLI binary and lets it do the actual write + frontmatter; the plugin's role there is purely to invoke it with the right arguments and stdin.
• The bridge (src/bridge.ts) — an opt-in, loopback-only (127.0.0.1) HTTP server. It does not write or read vault content over the network; the POST body from the CLI is informational only, used solely to time a sidebar refresh shortly after a write. Nothing is exposed beyond localhost.

Disclosed capabilities

Obsidian's plugin review surfaces what a plugin can technically do, for transparency:

• Vault read/write/enumeration — the sidebar reads every Markdown file's cached frontmatter (getMarkdownFiles) to find source: claude-code notes, and the settings tab reads/writes .claude-notes.json directly via the vault adapter (needed because Obsidian doesn't index dotfiles through the normal Vault API).
• Shell execution (child_process.spawn) — only from the explicit "Generate note here" command, only to run the CLI binary path you configured in settings. Never triggered automatically.

Install

From Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for "Claude Notes", install and enable. Or view it directly on the community plugin list.

Manual install

1. npm install && npm run build.
2. Copy manifest.json, main.js, styles.css into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/claude-notes/.
3. Enable "Claude Notes" in Obsidian's Community Plugins settings.

Or grab the built main.js/manifest.json/styles.css straight from a release instead of building locally.

Development

npm install
npm run dev     # esbuild watch — rebuilds main.js on change
npm run build   # type-check (tsc) + production build
npm run lint    # eslint-plugin-obsidianmd, same checks as the plugin review

License

MIT.