KatmerCode: Claude Code inside Obsidian

  • Author/Source: Halil Kaan Canan, GitHub

  • Original: https://github.com/hkcanan/katmer-code

  • Key Ideas

  • Obsidian plugin that runs Claude Code as a sidebar chat panel using the Agent SDK. Built for researchers who write in Obsidian and want AI assistance for literature review, citation checking, manuscript editing, and peer review without leaving the editor.
  • Inline diff editing: word-level track changes directly in the editor — red strikethrough for removals, green underline for additions, accept (✓) or undo (✕) per change.
  • Connects to any MCP server configured in ~/.claude.json. Supports /compact, tabs, session resume, streaming — everything Claude Code terminal can do.
  • Seven academic research skills as slash commands:
    • /peer-review — 8-criteria evaluation (originality, argument, literature, methodology, …), radar chart, section-by-section feedback.
    • /cite-verify — checks every reference against CrossRef, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex; flags mismatches in author/year/title; tests claim faithfulness.
    • /lit-search — parallel queries across arXiv, Semantic Scholar, PubMed, OpenAlex; dedupes and ranks.
    • /citation-network — interactive citation graph (vis.js) with timeline view.
    • /research-gap — identifies temporal, methodological, thematic, and application gaps, scored by feasibility and impact.
    • /journal-match — recommends target journals from your reference profile.
    • /abstract — generates abstracts in 5 formats (structured, narrative, graphical, highlights, social media).
  • Reports render as HTML inside Obsidian, with tables and charts. Longer skills (peer review with cite verification, gap analysis) parallelize via subagents.

  • Honest framing: "research aids, not oracles" — /peer-review is not a substitute for a human reviewer; /cite-verify may falsely flag valid refs when database coverage is thin. Outputs are a map, not the territory.

  • Summary

KatmerCode is the most credible attempt yet to put Claude Code inside the editor most academics already write in. The plugin is desktop-only (it shells out to the local Claude Code CLI) and exposes the agent as a sidebar chat plus a slash-command surface for seven academic skills. The inline diff UX is the standout feature: instead of a separate "show changes" preview, the model's edits are word-level track-changes you accept or reject inside your live document — closer to the Word/Google Docs collaboration pattern than the file-overwrite pattern most Claude Code users are used to.

The skills themselves are workmanlike but well-bounded. /cite-verify hits real bibliographic APIs (CrossRef, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex) rather than relying on the model's parametric memory — directly addressing the citation-hallucination problem central to many AI-assisted research tools. /journal-match and /research-gap are the most distinctive contributions; both lean on the cited reference profile rather than abstract semantic similarity, which produces more grounded recommendations.

  • Relevance to Economics Research

For economists already using Obsidian for note-taking and literature management (a sizable subset), KatmerCode collapses the toolchain: PDFs annotated in Obsidian, drafts written in Obsidian, peer review and citation verification run in the same sidebar. The inline-diff editing pattern is also a useful design reference for anyone building research workflows that need lower friction than file-overwrite. For empirical economists less invested in Obsidian, /cite-verify's database-first verification protocol is portable to other workflows (the same APIs work from any agent).