Creating an AI Chatbot in Obsidian

Duration: 4:25

We talk about creating an AI chatbot in Obsidian using Smart Connections. It's basically a really easy way to "talk to your notes" with whatever AI model you like.

Frequently asked questions

Does Obsidian have AI?
Yes. Obsidian itself does not ship with AI features, but it has a rich plugin ecosystem with several AI options. Smart Connections is one of the most popular, letting you chat with your notes using whichever model you choose.
What does the Smart Connections plugin do?
Smart Connections embeds your Obsidian notes and lets you have a conversation with them. It uses retrieval to pull the most relevant notes into context, then sends that context to your chosen AI model so you can ask questions and get answers grounded in your own writing.
Can I chat with my Obsidian notes?
Yes. With Smart Connections installed, you can open a chat panel inside Obsidian and ask questions about your vault. Answers cite the notes they were drawn from, so you can jump back to the source whenever you want.
Which AI models work with Smart Connections?
Smart Connections supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and local models through Ollama. You pick the one you want to use and provide the API key in the plugin settings.
How do I set up an AI chatbot in Obsidian?
Install the Smart Connections plugin from the Obsidian community plugin browser, enable it, then add an API key for whichever AI model you want to use. Once embeddings finish generating, the chat panel becomes available from the sidebar.
Is Smart Connections free?
The plugin itself is free and open source. The cost depends on the AI model you connect to it. Usage of OpenAI or Anthropic incurs API charges, while running a local model through Ollama has no per-query cost.


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