Claude Code from the Sidebar

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1

Claude Sidebar — Run Claude Code directly in Obsidian

This plugin allows you to embed Claude Code (Anthropic’s terminal based AI assistant) in your sidebar.

Claude can read and edit files in your vault without you leaving Obsidian.

What it does:

  • One-click to open Claude Code
  • No terminal or folder navigation needed
  • Multiple tabs for parallel conversations

Screenshot 2026-01-05 at 1.52.02 PM
Screenshot 2026-01-05 at 1.52.02 PM1920×1200 187 KB

How it works:
Click the bot icon in the ribbon (or set a hotkey) → Claude Code opens in the right sidebar panel.

Requirements:

  • Claude Code installed
  • macOS, Linux, or Windows (experimental)
  • Python 3

Install via BRAT:

  1. Install BRAT plugin if you don’t have it
  2. Add beta plugin: derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar
  3. Enable “Claude Sidebar” in Community Plugins

Or install via command line, instructions on github: derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-sidebar

10 Likes
2

Very nice! Thank you. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
3

Nice work, working on Windows
Sometimes a little buggy, command line freezes, but overall a good experience so far

1 Like
4

Glad to hear Paul! And feel free to open up an issue on github if you notice more bugs.

5

Thanks Peter! and appreciate your engagement.

1 Like
6

I will do that.

I have been experimenting with using an AI Tools inside Obsidian as an alternative to a full terminal experince. It’s working pretty well so far. Currently refining my Claude commands to call agents and skills.

This solves a lot of the usage limits I kept hitting with Claude Code previously.
It’s not exactly like having Claude Code terminal in your browser as it uses the Agent Communication Protocol ACP but the UX is very similar and extremely powerful.

Still needs a bit of work but good to have options

7

This is awesome. I need this on iOS :-). But Bravo for doing this.

8

Really appreciate your work. Until now i’ve been using Claude Cowork on my vault for some easy tasks. I already had a well-developed Claude.md, so i asked the Cowork instance to set up the ./claude structure for me. It did an excellent job and allowed me to hit the ground running.

Now Claude Code works in my sidebar and I started teaching it all kinds of new tricks …

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built this for iOS / Android, on my github: derek-larson14/obsidian-claude-anywhere

10

thats’s awesome to hear, glad you’re liking it

11

Nice integration. How are you handling context — does Claude Code get access to the curent note content, or just the vault path?Asking because the main challenge with AI sidebar plugins is Deciding what to feed as context: current note only, linked notes,Or ful vault index. Each has very different results for knowledge work.

12

This is great, the first plugin for this purpose that actually works. However I cannot paste into the command line with copy-paste nor Ctrl-V. Any ideas how to get this functionality?

1 Like
13

Thanks @dtlarson. Great work. Is it possible to have the terminal get access to the current open note?

1 Like
14

yes, you can use “send file path to claude” from command palette (or with a hotkey) and Claude will read the current file.

15

@Jhald what OS are you using?

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@petrnzrnk To feed the current file you can use the “send file to claude” or a portion via the “send selection to claude” commands, or just @ certain files or folders. Otherwise, Claude runs as it usually does, off of your prompts / CLAUDE.md / memory files / etc.