OpenClaw

Chat with your OpenClaw AI agent directly from Obsidian.

Your vault becomes the workspace. Your AI lives in the sidebar. No browser tabs, no separate apps — just your notes and your AI, side by side.

Features

• Chat sidebar — Talk to your AI agent from any Obsidian tab
• Streaming responses — See replies appear in real-time
• Markdown rendering — Code blocks, lists, links rendered natively
• Tool call visibility — See files read/written, commands run, pages fetched
• Cross-device sync — Chat history and tool calls persist via Obsidian Sync
• "Ask about this note" — Send any note as context with one command
• Dark/light theme — Follows your Obsidian theme automatically

Prerequisites

Before you install the plugin, you'll need:

• OpenClaw gateway running somewhere (Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi)
• Tailscale on all your devices
• Gateway bound to Tailscale: openclaw config set gateway.bind tailnet && openclaw gateway restart
• A small patch to OpenClaw so it accepts Obsidian's app://obsidian.md origin — see below.

One-time OpenClaw patch (required)

Obsidian's renderer loads from app://obsidian.md. Per the URL spec, custom schemes have a "null" origin, so vanilla OpenClaw rejects the websocket handshake from Obsidian. This plugin needs a one-line fallback added to OpenClaw's origin check.

Run this on your gateway machine:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oscarhenrycollins/obsidianclaw/main/scripts/patch-openclaw.sh | sudo bash

The script is idempotent, backs up the file it edits, and restarts the gateway. Review it first: scripts/patch-openclaw.sh.

⚠️ Re-run this after every openclaw update — gateway upgrades wipe the patch. We're tracking an upstream fix so this requirement can be removed.

Install

Official Community Plugin (recommended)

1. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse
2. Search for OpenClaw
3. Click Install, then Enable

Plugin page: https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/openclaw

BRAT (optional)

If you want pre-release builds:

1. Install BRAT
2. BRAT → Add Beta Plugin
3. Use repo: oscarhenrycollins/obsidianclaw

Connect

The setup wizard opens automatically after install:

1. Gateway URL:
   • Preferred: https://<your-tailnet-hostname> (plugin converts to wss://.../ws)
   • Alternate: ws://<your-tailscale-ip>:18789
2. Auth Token: from ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json → gateway.auth.token
3. Click Test connection
4. Approve the device from the OpenClaw dashboard or CLI:

   openclaw devices list
   openclaw devices approve <requestId>
   

Done. The device is remembered permanently.

If connection fails, first confirm gateway health and Serve routes: openclaw status and tailscale serve status

Commands

Troubleshooting

"Could not connect" / "Disconnected" — Most common cause: the gateway stopped. SSH into your gateway machine and run openclaw gateway restart. If that fixes it, the gateway had crashed. Also check: Is Tailscale running on both devices? Is the URL correct (ws://<tailscale-ip>:18789)? Is the token right?

Connection rejected right after an OpenClaw update — openclaw update wipes the origin-check patch. Re-run the one-time OpenClaw patch on your gateway machine.

"Pairing required" — Every new device needs a one-time approval. Run openclaw devices list and openclaw devices approve <requestId> on your gateway machine, or approve from the dashboard.

Switching devices — Force-quit Obsidian and reopen. It picks up synced data from the other device.

Security

Three layers: Tailscale encrypts all traffic (WireGuard VPN), gateway token authenticates connections, and Ed25519 device keys fingerprint each device. Your keys never leave your machine.

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/oscarhenrycollins/obsidianclaw.git
cd obsidianclaw
npm install
npm run build

Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to .obsidian/plugins/openclaw/.

Links

• ObsidianClaw — Official site
• OpenClaw — The AI agent framework
• Bot Setup Guide — Full setup walkthrough
• Humanity Labs — Built by Humanity Labs

License

MIT