AI and Obsidian go together like peanut butter and jelly, but not all tools are created equal. I tested a local LLM with Obsidian, but I found it didn't perform the way I would have liked. When the chance arose to integrate my vault with Claude, an AI I use regularly for clerical tasks, I had to try it out. What I found completely revolutionized my workflow and took my Obsidian experience to the next level. I already loved the tool for its ability to aggregate my notes and esoteric interests in one place, but Claude allows me to combine that data in ways I wouldn't expect, and links Obsidian with any service connected to Claude.

I can use it to create content from emails

Tracking pitching has never been easier

Part of being a writer means sending story pitch ideas to different outlets. Those pitches become dramatically more successful if I follow up on them, especially with how busy editors can be. But there's a problem there: I'm incredibly forgetful, especially these days. With a newborn at home, I'm lucky if I know where anything is at any given time. I have a folder within Obsidian for tracking all of my pitches, and with Claude, all I have to do is ask it to create notes and log any pitches made since a given date. I provide a template for it to base the notes on, so everything follows the same format.

I do this at least once a week, and it automatically creates notes that then appear in a dedicated Base, listing the follow-up date. And if, for some reason, it doesn't work properly, Claude can search my vault and tell me each pitch that's nearing its follow-up deadline. And that's just one example. I also use it to track every payment issued and list upcoming meetings in my Obsidian calendar.

Claude acts like a personal book concierge who knows my reading tastes

It's helped me break out of a reading slump

I keep track of my reading history in Obsidian using a few handy plugins, so Claude can easily view my entire reading history and make suggestions for other titles I might enjoy. Recently, I found myself in a slump. I had just finished a ten-book series, and while I had several books that sounded interesting, nothing seemed to grab me in the same way that series did. So I asked Claude for recommendations for books to read, and its answers helped me come across a sequel to something I'd previously read that I had forgotten about. That said, it's not perfect; it suggested I read "Dungeon Crawler Carl" by Dakota Kraut. Two problems there. First, I've already read the entire "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series, and Dakota Kraut is not the author.

After that, I took things a step further. I utilized Claude's research function (similar to ChatGPT's Deep Research) to explore lesser-known titles and discover hidden gems. That yielded much better results, although there were still a few flaws. For example, it suggested "The Spellshop" and "The Enchanted Greenhouse," both titles that are popular enough to be found on a Target endcap. On the other hand, it also found stories I'd never heard of before that are exactly the kind of thing I like to read.

Claude easily generates flashcards to help with study

It's my own tutor

Obsidian is a phenomenal tool for studying new subjects. I've used it to brush up on my French studies, and one of the ways Claude helps out there is by generating flashcards. I can ask it to generate a series of flashcards on a given subject based on what is already in my vault, and it produces a result that I can easily use with other plugins, such as Spaced Repetition or Flashcards. It has been an admittedly long time since I graduated from university, and I have forgotten how to study effectively in that time. Using Claude in this way helps me combat my tendency to forget information that sits unused in a dusty corner of my mind for too long.

Even with a paid subscription, the daily limitations are frustrating

And using Claude with Obsidian accelerates resource use

Claude has multiple subscription tiers. I'm a Pro member, which gives me significantly more usage than the free tier. However, even that is quickly burned through on a day of heavy use. Claude has weekly limits in addition to rolling daily limits that reset every five hours, and when I'm using it to call my Obsidian vault to generate notes, edit existing content, and more, I find myself butting against those usage restrictions far sooner than expected. While there are ways to mitigate resource usage — namely, starting new chats rather than continuing a longer message — it's still an annoyance I would prefer not to deal with.

The restrictions pale in comparison to the benefits

The email integration alone is useful enough to make up for any shortcomings

Despite my issues with Claude's usage restrictions, the benefits it offers to my daily Obsidian usage more than make up for it. Its ability to automatically update my pitch tracking is more than enough to compensate for any issues I might otherwise have with Claude. I find that the more I use the integration, the better I become at asking it to perform exactly the task I want the first time, rather than requesting multiple revisions afterward. In time, I hope to see more streamlined performance.

Obsidian is good, but it's better with AI

Any Obsidian power user will tell you that a great deal of time is spent managing your vault. While it can be a fun way to pass the time, it can also be a meaningless distraction. Integrating Obsidian with Claude or a similar tool gives you the ability to pass the clerical, administrative work off to AI, allowing you more time to focus on the things that matter.