Claude Session Export Obsidian

Export Claude Code conversations to Obsidian-compatible markdown with full user/assistant conversation, automatic project detection, and clean YAML frontmatter.

Installation

/plugin marketplace add vranac/claude-session-export-obsidian

Then run the interactive setup:

/session-export:setup

Quick Start

1. Install the plugin (above)
2. Run /session-export:setup to configure your vault path, hooks, and project map
3. Sessions auto-sync on context compaction and session end
4. For batch export: cse export --today

Commands

CLI Usage

For batch export outside of Claude Code, add a shell alias to ~/.zshrc:

alias cse="uv run ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-session-export-obsidian/skills/session-export/scripts/claude-session-export.py"

Then:

cse export --today              # export today's sessions + memories
cse export --all                # export all sessions + memories
cse export --project my-project   # export by project + memories
cse export --memory             # export memories only (no sessions)
cse export --memory --project my-project   # memories for one project
cse sync --session-id UUID      # sync a specific session + its memories
cse note "some note" --session-id UUID  # add a note

Configuration

VAULT_DIR (required)

Path to your Obsidian vault(s). The script resolves it in this order:

1. VAULT_DIR environment variable (shell profile, Claude Code settings, or parent process)
2. .env file in current working directory
3. Error with setup instructions

Set it in your shell profile:

# ~/.zshrc
export VAULT_DIR="$HOME/obsidian-vault"

Or create a .env file:

VAULT_DIR=/Users/you/obsidian-vault

For per-project overrides (e.g., client vault):

// .claude/settings.local.json
{ "env": { "VAULT_DIR": "/path/to/client-vault" } }

Multi-vault

Comma-separated paths export to multiple vaults simultaneously. Directory paths cannot contain commas, so commas are a safe delimiter:

VAULT_DIR="/Users/you/obsidian-personal,/Users/you/obsidian-client"

Each vault has its own project-map.yaml, so the same session can have different project names or thinking settings per vault. JSONL files are parsed once and written to all vaults. Output is prefixed with the vault name:

[obsidian-personal] Synced: .../my-project/2026-03-27-1030-abc12345.md
[obsidian-client] Synced: .../my-project/2026-03-27-1030-abc12345.md

If a vault's config is missing or broken, it's skipped with a warning — other vaults continue.

Project Map (required)

Create $VAULT_DIR/project-map.yaml to configure output and map encoded directory names to project names:

output_dir: Claude-Sessions    # top-level folder name in vault (default: Claude-Sessions)

projects:
  my-project:
    patterns:
      - "-Users-you-dev-my-project"
      - "-Users-you-dev-my-project-*"
  another-project:
    patterns:
      - "-Users-you-dev-another-project-*"

Each project uses a patterns: key containing a list of encoded directory names to match. Per-project options can be added alongside patterns::

projects:
  research-project:
    patterns:
      - "-Users-you-dev-research-*"
    include_thinking: true
    include_commands: false
    include_tool_context: true

A shorthand list format (without the patterns: key) is also supported but cannot include per-project options.

Matching rules:

• Exact match first (highest priority)
• Glob match second (fnmatch)
• Longest/most-specific glob wins if multiple match
• No match = session skipped. Unmatched directories are reported at the end of export so you can add them to the map

To find your encoded directory names:

ls ~/.claude/projects/

Per-project options

• include_thinking (default: false) — include Claude's thinking blocks as collapsible Obsidian callouts
• include_commands (default: true) — include slash command invocations (e.g., /session-export:sync) in the conversation output. Set to false to filter them out.
• include_tool_context (default: false) — when a user rejects or approves a tool use with a comment, show the proposed change (edit diff, file content, bash command) in a collapsible Obsidian callout alongside the comment. Useful for reviewing what was rejected/approved. Off by default as it can significantly increase file size.

Output

Sessions and memories are exported to $VAULT_DIR/{output_dir}/ organized by project:

Claude-Sessions/
├── my-project/
│   ├── memory/
│   │   ├── feedback_example.md
│   │   └── MEMORY.md
│   ├── 2026-03-15-1400-abc12345.md
│   └── 2026-03-16-0900-def67890.md
└── another-project/
    ├── memory/
    │   └── ...
    └── ...

Session files are named {date}-{HHMM}-{session_id_prefix}.md. Memory files are copied as-is from ~/.claude/projects/{encoded-dir}/memory/ — only newer files are copied on re-sync.

Frontmatter

---
type: claude-session
date: 2026-03-27
session_id: e296b4f9-a304-4774-adb2-5fe84a9f4914
title: "Exploring session export design"
summary: ""
project: my-project
source_dir: -Users-you-dev-my-project
git_branch: feature/xyz
last_activity: 2026-03-27T14:30:00Z
tags: []
related: []
---

Conversation

Clean user/assistant pairs. XML command messages are cleaned (<command-name>/sync</command-name> becomes /sync). Tool results, meta messages, and system records are filtered out.

The ## My Notes section is preserved across re-syncs for your annotations.

Hooks

Hooks are not auto-registered. You opt in via /session-export:setup, which adds them to your global or local settings.

When enabled, the plugin syncs on three events:

• PreCompact — before context compression, when conversation is at max richness
• SessionEnd — when the session terminates
• SessionStart (clear) — when the user runs /clear, exports the previous conversation before it resets. Without this, conversations cleared without compaction or session end would not be exported.

No per-message syncing. The JSONL transcript is the live record; markdown export is for checkpoints and review.

Manual hook configuration

If you prefer to add hooks manually instead of using /session-export:setup, add this to ~/.claude/settings.json (global) or .claude/settings.local.json (project-local):

{
  "hooks": {
    "PreCompact": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "uv run ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-session-export-obsidian/skills/session-export/scripts/claude-session-export.py sync",
            "timeout": 15
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "SessionEnd": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "uv run ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-session-export-obsidian/skills/session-export/scripts/claude-session-export.py sync",
            "timeout": 15
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "SessionStart": [
      {
        "matcher": "clear",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "uv run ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-session-export-obsidian/skills/session-export/scripts/claude-session-export.py sync",
            "timeout": 15
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

If you installed via --plugin-dir for local development, replace the path accordingly.

Requirements

• uv — Python package runner
• Python 3.11+
• Claude Code

No manual dependency installation needed. uv handles everything via PEP 723 inline metadata.

{
  "name": "claude-session-export-obsidian",
  "owner": {
    "name": "Srdjan Vranac",
    "email": "claude-session-export@vranac.io"
  },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "claude-session-export-obsidian",
      "description": "Export Claude Code sessions to Obsidian markdown with full conversation, project detection, and frontmatter",
      "source": "./"
    }
  ]
}