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Obsidian Theme & Claudian Plugin Setup

·5 min read·
#obsidian#ai#config

This post documents how to set up Obsidian's theme/skin configuration and install the Claudian AI plugin for Claude Code integration.

1. Theme: AnuPpuccin

The vault uses AnuPpuccin, a Catppuccin-based theme with extensive color scheme and UI customization options.

Install the Theme

  1. Open Obsidian → Settings → Appearance → Themes
  2. Click Manage → search for AnuPpuccin
  3. Click Install and use

Tip: The theme follows the system light/dark mode ("theme": "system" in appearance.json).

Current Color Scheme

Mode Color Scheme Accent
Dark ctp-mocha-old (Mocha) ctp-accent-rosewater
Light ctp-rosepine-light (Rosé Pine) ctp-accent-light-green

Enabled Theme Options

Configured via the Style Settings plugin (Settings → Style Settings → AnuPpuccin):

Option Description
File Icons Show icons in the file explorer
Floating Header Floating title bar
Collapse Folders Animated folder collapse
Colorful Frame Colored window frame border
Colorful Frame Icon (Light/Dark) Colored window icon
Rainbow Folders Rainbow folder colors (title, collapse icon, indentation, subfolders)
Custom Checkboxes Custom checkbox styles
Codeblock Numbers Line numbers in code blocks
Speech Bubble Blockquote speech bubble style
Header Divider Color Colored header dividers
Header Color Colored header text
Callout Style anp-callout-block (block-style callouts)
Active Line anp-current-line-border (current line border highlight)
Tab Style anp-alternate-tab-toggle (alternate tab style)
PDF Blend (Light/Dark) PDF blend mode
Canvas Dark BG Dark background for Canvas

2. Style Settings Plugin

Style Settings (obsidian-style-settings) provides a GUI to adjust theme and plugin CSS variables — no manual CSS editing needed.

Install

  1. Open Obsidian → Settings → Community Plugins → Browse
  2. Search for Style Settings → Install → Enable

Usage

  • Go to Settings → Style Settings panel
  • Expand the relevant theme/plugin section
  • Changes apply instantly, no restart required

3. Extended Colorschemes CSS Snippet

extended-colorschemes.css adds more color schemes to AnuPpuccin, including Atom, Everforest, Gruvbox, Material Mint, Nord, Notion, Solarized, Dracula, and more.

Install

  1. Download extended-colorschemes.css into the .obsidian/snippets/ directory
  2. Go to Settings → Appearance → CSS Snippets → enable extended-colorschemes

Note: After enabling, go to Style Settings → AnuPpuccin Themes Extended to select the extended color scheme. The current Light mode uses ctp-material-mint-light.

4. Font Configuration

The vault uses FiraMono Nerd Font Mono as the editor font.

# Install via Homebrew
brew install --cask font-fira-mono-nerd-font

Set in: Settings → Appearance → Font → Text font → enter FiraMono Nerd Font Mono

5. Claudian Plugin

Claudian (v2.0.2) embeds Claude Code as an AI collaborator directly in Obsidian. The vault becomes Claude's working directory, enabling file read/write, search, bash commands, and multi-step workflows.

Official Repository: https://github.com/YishenTu/claudian

Note: Claudian is NOT in the official Community Plugins marketplace — install via manual download, BRAT, or building from source.

Prerequisites

# Install Claude Code CLI first
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Installation Methods

  1. Go to Claudian Releases
  2. Download the latest release assets: main.js, manifest.json, styles.css
  3. Create a folder: .obsidian/plugins/claudian/ in your vault
  4. Paste the 3 files into the claudian folder
  5. In Obsidian: Settings → Community Plugins → Enable "Claudian"

Method 2: BRAT Plugin Manager

  1. Install BRAT from Community Plugins (Settings → Community Plugins → Browse → search BRAT → Install)
  2. Go to Settings → BRAT → Add Beta Plugin
  3. Paste the repository URL: 
    https://github.com/YishenTu/claudian
  4. Click "Add Plugin" — BRAT will install Claudian automatically
  5. Enable Claudian in Settings → Community Plugins

Method 3: Build from Source

cd /path/to/vault/.obsidian/plugins
git clone https://github.com/YishenTu/claudian.git
cd claudian
npm install
npm run dev

Important: Claudian is desktop-only — macOS, Linux, Windows only. Not available on mobile.

Configuration

Claudian settings are stored in .claudian/claudian-settings.json. Key options:

Setting Current Value Description
permissionMode yolo Skip all confirmation prompts, execute directly
model haiku Default model (fast, low cost)
thinkingBudget off Thinking budget disabled
effortLevel high High effort level
safeMode acceptEdits Auto-accept file edits
tabBarPosition input Tab bar at the input area

Warning: permissionMode: "yolo" skips all confirmations — Claude modifies files directly. Make sure the vault has Git version control as a safety net.

Keyboard Navigation

Key Action
w Scroll up
s Scroll down
i Focus input

Workflow

  1. Open the Claudian panel in Obsidian
  2. Type instructions — Claude operates with the vault as its working directory
  3. Review Claude's changes
  4. Commit via Obsidian Git

Tip: Works best with the Explore → Plan → Code → Commit flow from the Claude Code usage guide.

Enabled Community Plugins

Plugin Purpose
obsidian-git Git version control and auto-sync
obsidian-kanban Kanban board view
task-board Task board panel
obsidian-style-settings GUI for theme/plugin CSS variables
claudian Claude Code AI collaboration