Obsidian AI: plugins, local models, MCP and agents compared

Updated 9 min read

There are five ways to use AI with Obsidian: a chat or search plugin inside the app, a local model so your notes never leave your machine, an MCP server that lets Claude and other agents reach the vault, a coding agent such as Claude Code working in the vault folder, and the LLM wiki pattern, where the agent writes and maintains the notes. All five work because a vault is a folder of plain markdown files. When we counted downloads in Obsidian’s plugin list on 1 October 2026, the two most installed AI plugins both run Claude Code or Codex inside the vault.

What are the ways to use AI in Obsidian?

Obsidian’s docs say it stores notes as markdown plain text files in a vault, a folder on your local file system, and that it refreshes when another program changes them. So AI can come in through a plugin that runs inside Obsidian, or through any program that edits files in that folder.

Approach Where the model runs What the AI can touch Best for
Chat and search plugin A cloud API or a local model The notes you or the plugin send it Questions about your notes while you write
Local model Your own machine The same, offline Private notes, no API bill
MCP server Usually the cloud; the server runs next to the vault Whatever the server’s tools allow Claude Desktop, Cursor and other MCP clients
Coding agent in the vault The agent runs locally and calls a model Every file in the folder, plus shell commands Bulk edits, restructuring, routines
LLM wiki Same as a coding agent A wiki the agent owns A knowledge base built from sources

They combine well: a related-notes plugin while you write, an agent for the bigger jobs.

Which Obsidian AI plugins are the most installed?

Obsidian publishes its community plugin list and every plugin’s download count on GitHub. We pulled both on 1 October 2026: 8,277 plugins with 153.7 million downloads between them. 973 mention AI terms in their name or description (AI, LLM, GPT, Claude, Ollama, agent, embeddings, MCP and similar). Together those have 11.2 million downloads, 7.3% of the total.

The seven most downloaded, with stars and license read from each GitHub repository the same day:

Plugin Downloads Rank of all plugins What it does License Stars
Claudian 2,281,223 10 Runs Claude Code, Codex and other agents in a panel, with the vault as their working directory MIT 15,555
Copilot 2,237,880 13 Chat and vault search; version 4 runs opencode, Claude Code and Codex AGPL-3.0 7,775
Smart Connections 1,222,320 22 Related notes and semantic search with a built-in local embedding model No standard license detected 5,477
Local REST API with MCP 759,498 37 REST API and MCP server for the vault MIT 2,981
Text Generator 585,641 48 Generates text with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or local models MIT 1,991
Agent Client 284,989 90 Chat with Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and other ACP agents Apache-2.0 2,439
Smart Composer 174,781 131 Chat with note context, one-click edits, MCP tools MIT 2,330

Three of the top six put a coding agent inside Obsidian. Download counts are all-time totals, so Copilot’s number includes years as a chat plugin, but Claudian, which does nothing except run agents, is the 10th most downloaded of all 8,277 plugins.

Check the last update before you install. Copilot and Claudian were both updated on 1 October 2026, and Smart Composer’s last push was in February 2026. BMO Chatbot (53,545 downloads) was last pushed in September 2024, and its README says the author is too busy to update it.

5,687 of the 8,277 listings, including Claudian’s and Agent Client’s, end with “This plugin has not been manually reviewed by Obsidian staff.” That is normal for newer plugins. Agent Client’s README says it launches your agents as child processes and lets them run terminal commands. Running agents is what these plugins are for, so read what one does before you turn it on.

Which plugin should I use to chat with or search my notes?

  • Smart Connections, for related notes as you write, with no setup. Its README says it ships with a local embedding model, needs no API key, and is private and offline by default. The core plugin is free. Pro plugins (inline connections, Bases integration and others) cost $30 a month or $299 a year, with a 14-day trial.
  • Copilot, for one panel with chat, vault search and agents. It is free with your own API key, a local model, or an existing Claude Code or Codex login. Plus costs $14.99 a month or $139.99 a year and adds Copilot-hosted models, multi-agent chats, and better web search and PDF parsing. A one-time $349.99 Supporter plan includes two years of Plus.
  • Smart Composer, for chat that edits the note in front of you, with MCP tools in the chat. It takes OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini API keys, and Ollama. It can also connect a Claude or OpenAI subscription instead of a key; its README warns of reports of Claude accounts being banned or restricted when subscription OAuth is used through third-party tools.
  • Text Generator, for templates that write into a note. Its README says it is free and open source, and it works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face and local models.

Can I use Obsidian AI with a local model?

Yes. Several plugins are built for it.

  • Smart Connections indexes the vault with its built-in model, so related notes and semantic search work with no key and no other app.
  • Local GPT (99,684 downloads, MIT) works with Ollama and OpenAI-compatible servers, for privacy and offline use. For vault search, its README has you pull an embedding model first:
ollama pull nomic-embed-text
  • Smart Composer, Copilot, Text Generator and BMO Chatbot also accept local models, through Ollama or, for BMO, LM Studio as well.

A local model keeps your notes on your machine. How good its answers are depends on the model and your hardware. We have not benchmarked them.

How do I let Claude or another agent read my vault over MCP?

Run an MCP server next to the vault; Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and many other agents speak MCP. Three servers, with GitHub stars on 1 October 2026:

  • Local REST API with MCP (2,981 stars) runs inside Obsidian and serves MCP at https://127.0.0.1:27124/mcp/ behind an API key. Obsidian has to be open.
  • mcp-obsidian (4,456 stars) is a Python server that reaches the vault through that plugin.
  • MCPVault (1,675 stars) is a Node.js server that reads the files directly, so Obsidian does not need to be running.

The Local REST API README’s command for Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http obsidian https://127.0.0.1:27124/mcp/ \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <your API key>"

Obsidian’s help docs do not mention MCP at all (we searched their source on 1 October 2026). What it does ship is a command line interface, which needs the 1.12.7 installer or later. The Obsidian MCP guide has each server’s tools and config and the CLI commands, and Claude Code MCP covers adding servers in general.

Should I just run Claude Code in my vault?

For anything bigger than a question, often yes. Claude Code and Codex read, write and search the files in the folder you start them in, so you need no plugin and no server:

cd ~/path/to/your/vault
claude

Claude Code’s docs say most of its surfaces need a Claude subscription or an Anthropic Console account, and the terminal CLI also supports third-party providers. Put a CLAUDE.md at the vault root that says where notes go and how to link them (what goes in one), and keep the vault in Git so you can review each change.

To stay inside Obsidian, Claudian, Agent Client and Copilot run the same agents in a side panel. Claudian makes the vault the agent’s working directory and supports Claude Code, Codex CLI, Grok Build, OpenCode and Pi. Agent Client speaks the Agent Client Protocol, has nine presets including Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and Hermes Agent, and is desktop-only; your agents keep the MCP servers and skills they already have. Both launch the agent you have installed, signed in with its own account.

Obsidian + Claude Code walks through a vault layout, a CLAUDE.md for notes, and what to let the agent write.

What is the LLM wiki pattern in Obsidian?

In Andrej Karpathy’s gist the agent is the writer. You keep raw sources in one folder, and the agent writes and maintains a wiki of linked pages from them: summaries, entity and concept pages, an index and a log. Obsidian is where you read it. He keeps the agent open on one side and Obsidian on the other, browsing links and the graph view as the agent edits: “Obsidian is the IDE; the LLM is the programmer; the wiki is the codebase.”

Any coding agent in the vault can run it with a schema file. There is also a plugin, Karpathy LLM Wiki (56,358 downloads, Apache-2.0), which turns notes and PDFs into linked entity and concept pages with graph-based Q&A. Our LLM wiki guide explains the pattern, and LLM wiki in Obsidian sets one up step by step.

To see a vault’s pages and links as a graph without Obsidian, open the folder in the wiki graph viewer. It runs in your browser and uploads nothing.

What if your agents run somewhere other than your laptop?

Everything above runs on the machine with the vault. The Local REST API listens on 127.0.0.1, MCPVault is a local process, and Claudian and Agent Client launch agents installed on your desktop. Claude on the web, ChatGPT, or a Hermes or OpenClaw bot on a server cannot reach any of them.

One way around it is a copy. Obsidian Headless, in open beta, syncs a vault from the command line without the desktop app, and Obsidian lists giving “agentic tools access to a vault without access to your full computer” among its uses. It needs Node.js 22 or later and an Obsidian Sync subscription. Each machine then works on its own copy.

Share it with your other agents

The other way is one hosted wiki that every agent reaches over MCP. Dexio is one. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Hermes, OpenClaw, Claude and ChatGPT read and write the same linked markdown pages at https://app.dexio.wiki/mcp, and you see what they know as a page graph at app.dexio.wiki. Every change is kept with the name of the agent that made it.

It is a separate wiki from your vault. Your agents write there what all of them need, and you can download it as a zip of markdown files at any time. It is free for one person; Team is $10 and Business $20 a member a month, and agents never count as members. The code is open source under AGPL-3.0.

If you work alone on one machine and want Obsidian’s editor, themes and plugins, stay in the vault. It is free and needs no server. Dexio fits when your agents are spread across machines, chat apps or a team. To connect one, send it:

Connect yourself to my Dexio wiki. The steps are at https://dexio.wiki/agents.md: read the whole file, not a summary, and follow them.

Setup for each agent is in the guides for Claude Code and Codex, and AI second brain compares the wider options.

FAQ

Is there a free AI plugin for Obsidian? Yes. Smart Connections’ core plugin, Text Generator, Local GPT, Claudian and Agent Client are free to use, and Copilot is free with your own key, a local model or an agent login. With a cloud model you still pay that provider.

Do my notes leave my computer? With a local model, no. With a cloud model, what the plugin sends goes to the provider. Claudian’s README lists your input, attached files, images and tool call outputs. Agent Client’s says it is your messages, mentioned notes and attachments.

Can I use my Claude subscription instead of an API key? Through Claude Code, yes: Claudian, Agent Client and Copilot run your installed Claude Code with its own login. Smart Composer’s direct subscription connect comes with the warning above.

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