FAQ
Common questions about Claudian.
Claudian is an Obsidian plugin that integrates Claude AI directly into your note-taking workflow. It provides a chat interface, note processing, and vault management through natural language.
Claudian itself is free and open source under the MIT license. However, you need an Anthropic API key to use Claude, which has associated costs based on usage.
Claudian uses intelligent model orchestration with these Claude 4 models:
- Claude Haiku 4.5 (fastest, lowest cost)
- Claude Sonnet 4 (balanced)
- Claude Opus 4 (highest quality, complex tasks)
No. Claudian requires an internet connection to communicate with Claude's API.
Your messages are sent to Anthropic's API to generate responses. Anthropic's privacy policy applies to this data. Your API key and settings are stored locally in your vault.
Your API key is stored in your vault at:
.obsidian/plugins/claudian/data.json
It is never sent anywhere except Anthropic's API for authentication.
Only when you explicitly:
- Process a specific note
- Use batch processing on selected notes
- Enable vault context for Agent Mode
Claude doesn't have continuous access to your vault.
Chat history is kept in memory during your session. When you close Obsidian or clear the chat, the conversation is lost. We don't store your conversations externally.
- Go to console.anthropic.com
- Create an account or sign in
- Navigate to API Keys
- Create a new key
Costs depend on:
- The model you use
- Number of tokens in your messages
- Frequency of use
Check Anthropic's pricing page for current rates.
- Use Economic execution mode (routes all tasks to Haiku 4.5)
- Reduce max tokens in settings
- Be concise in your messages
- Reduce notes/tags in context
Agent Mode allows Claude to execute actions on your vault through natural language. For example:
- "Create a new folder called Projects"
- "Move all notes about Python to Programming/"
- "Copy my notes to Archive/"
- "Delete empty notes in Drafts/"
See Agent Mode for details.
Agent Mode distinguishes between file operations (copy, move, backup) and content transformations (summarize, translate). If you ask to "copy" or "backup" a note, the content should be preserved exactly. If the agent is summarizing when you expect a copy, try being more explicit:
- Say "copy this note exactly to Archive/" instead of "put this in Archive"
- Use words like "copy", "backup", "duplicate" for exact copies
- Use words like "summarize", "translate", "rewrite" only when you want changes
While Claude is generating a response, the Send button changes to a Stop button (with a red color). Click it to immediately cancel the request. This is useful for:
- Stopping long responses you no longer need
- Canceling a request to correct your prompt
- Freeing up to send a new message
Yes, in two ways:
- Click "Create note" on any chat response to save it as a note
- Use Agent Mode to create notes directly: "Create a note about meeting notes"
Batch processing lets you analyze multiple notes at once using templates like:
- Extract key ideas
- Executive summary
- Identify questions
- Extract action items
See Batch Processing for details.
Concept maps analyze a set of notes and generate a visual diagram showing:
- Main concepts
- Relationships between concepts
- Cross-cutting themes
The output uses Mermaid format for visualization.
Claudian requires Obsidian v1.0.0 or higher.
Claudian should work on Obsidian mobile, but experience may vary. The desktop version is the primary development target.
No known conflicts. If you experience issues with other plugins, please report them on GitHub.
Check:
- API key is configured
- Internet connection is working
- Anthropic API is operational
See Troubleshooting for detailed solutions.
Some folders are protected by default:
.obsidiantemplates_templates
Check Settings > Protected folders to adjust.
Yes! Claudian is MIT licensed. Source code is available at github.com/Enigmora/claudian.
- Report bugs via GitHub Issues
- Submit feature requests
- Create pull requests for improvements
- Help with translations
Yes! Open an issue on GitHub with the "feature request" label describing your idea.
