Chat Panel
The chat panel opens as a sidebar. Type your message and press Enter to send. Use Shift+Enter to insert a newline without sending. The "Send on Enter" behaviour can be toggled in Settings → Cortex.
Claude has access to your full vault — it can read, write, create, move, and organize notes. The vault root is Claude's working directory.
Attaching Context
Attached items appear in a bar above the input field. Click × to remove an item, or the pin icon to keep it attached for every subsequent message in the session.
@-mention a note
Type @ anywhere in the input to open an autocomplete dropdown. The currently open note is pre-selected — press Enter immediately to attach it. Start typing to filter by name. Press ↑ / ↓ to navigate, Enter or Tab to select, Escape to dismiss. The full contents of the selected note are prepended to your message.
Non-Markdown files (.fountain, .txt, etc.) show their extension in the dropdown. The file types included are configurable — see @-mention file types in Settings.
Attachment button (paperclip)
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Attach file | Opens your system file picker. Text files (.md, .txt, .js, etc.) are read inline. Images and PDFs are copied to a temporary folder so Claude can read them. |
| Attach URL | Passes a URL to Claude as-is. Claude fetches or references it based on your message. |
| @ Add note | Opens the same vault note search as the @ shortcut. |
Paste from clipboard
Paste images directly with Ctrl+V / Cmd+V:
- Screenshots — take a screenshot, paste into Cortex
- Files from Explorer/Finder — copy a
.png,.jpg,.gif,.webp, or.pdfand paste
Pasted images appear in the context bar. They're saved to .obsidian/plugins/cortex/tmp/ and are not automatically cleaned up.
Drag and drop
Drag any file from your filesystem and drop it onto the Cortex panel. The panel highlights with a dashed border while dragging. Text files are read inline; images and PDFs are handled the same as the file picker.
Send selected text
Highlight text in any open note, then run Cortex: Send selection as context from the Command Palette (or bind it to a hotkey). The selection is attached as a labeled snippet.
Context Gauge
A ring icon appears in the input bar after your first message. Hover to see how much of the 200K token context window remains. Click it to manually compact the session history if it's filling up.
Tool Call Visibility
While Claude is working, tool calls appear above the response bubble in real time — you can see what Claude is reading, writing, or searching. When the response completes, the tool list collapses to a single toggle line. Click to expand or collapse.
Running Obsidian Commands
Claude can execute Obsidian commands directly. Three are pre-approved by default:
| Command | ID |
|---|---|
| Quick switcher | switcher:open |
| Daily notes: Open today's | daily-notes |
| Search current file | editor:open-search |
You can manage the full list in Settings → Cortex → UI Bridge & Commands.
How permission works
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Command in allowlist | Runs immediately |
| Command not in allowlist (prompt mode on) | Modal appears: Allow or Deny, with Don't ask again |
| Allow + Don't ask again | Runs and added to allowlist permanently |
| Deny + Don't ask again | Added to denylist — future attempts silently blocked |
| Command in denylist | Silently blocked (add to allowlist to re-enable) |
| Prompt mode off | Unlisted commands hard-blocked with an explanatory notice |
Example Prompts
"Summarize the note [[Project Alpha]]"
"Find all notes tagged #meeting from last week and create a summary"
"Rename all notes in 03_Cards that start with 'Untitled' based on their content"
"Open today's daily note"
"Refresh the Dataview on this page"
"Create a new note from my Project template"