Claude skill for Obsidian, tested: the official five-pack
The definitive Obsidian skill package is maintained by kepano — Steph Ango, Obsidian's CEO — which makes it as close to official as this ecosystem gets. It is actually five skills in one repo, and only one of them needs Obsidian installed. We installed all five.
- Repo
- kepano/obsidian-skills
- Stars
- 43,034 as of 2026-07-23
- Commit tested
- a1dc48e
- Install
npx skills add https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills -a claude-code -s '*' -y- Install time
- 2.0s (measured)
- Environment
- os Linux 6.18.5 (cloud sandbox), node v22.22.2
- Failures hit
- 0
- Tested on
- 2026-07-23
- Verified scope
- All five skills installed and their package structures were inspected.
- Not verified
- A desktop-backed obsidian-cli workflow or an end-to-end vault transformation.
What you actually get: five skills, not one
| Skill | What it does | Needs Obsidian running? |
|---|---|---|
obsidian-cli | Drives the Obsidian CLI: read, create, search notes, manage tasks and properties, even develop and debug plugins/themes against the live app | Yes — desktop app open |
obsidian-markdown | Obsidian's markdown dialect: wikilinks, embeds, callouts, properties/frontmatter | No |
obsidian-bases | The Bases format (Obsidian's database views) — the largest reference in the pack | No |
json-canvas | Read/write JSON Canvas files (whiteboards) | No |
defuddle | Clean web pages into readable markdown for clipping into a vault | No |
That split matters more than any listing conveys: four of the five are pure format
knowledge that works anywhere — an agent on a server can write valid Bases views and
canvases into your synced vault without Obsidian existing on that machine. Only
obsidian-cli requires the app, and it says so in its first line.
The install, as it actually happened
npx skills add https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills -a claude-code -s '*' -y2.0 seconds, all five skills landed. One trap worth flagging: the upstream README lists the
SSH form first (git@github.com:kepano/obsidian-skills.git), which fails on any
machine without GitHub SSH keys — if the install errors on authentication, use the https URL
above. The Claude Code plugin-marketplace route
(/plugin marketplace add kepano/obsidian-skills) also works if you prefer managed
updates.
What broke
No failures were recorded within the verification scope above. This does not extend the claim beyond that published scope.
Who it's for
Anyone whose notes live in Obsidian and whose agent sessions keep producing content that
belongs there. The honest framing: this pack's value is highest on your own machine, where
obsidian-cli unlocks live vault search and plugin development. On a remote box you
still get the four format skills — which is precisely what most "agent writes to my vault"
workflows need. It is also, at 43,034 stars (as of
2026-07-23), the most adopted item in our entire first
batch.
FAQ
Does this replace an Obsidian MCP server?
Different layer. MCP servers expose vault operations as tools; these skills teach the agent Obsidian's formats and CLI. They compose — and for plain "write me a proper note with wikilinks and frontmatter" work, the skills alone are enough.
Which one should I install if I only want one?
obsidian-markdown, for vault-formatted writing anywhere. Add
obsidian-cli when the agent runs on the same machine as your vault. The installer's
-s flag takes individual names.