Buildian

Buildian

Buildian is an unofficial Obsidian plugin that connects your vault to the xAI Grok Build CLI. This project is based on Claudian and modified to adapt Claudian's agent workflow for the Grok Build CLI.

Buildian is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by xAI.

Features & Usage

Open the Buildian chat sidebar from the ribbon icon or command palette. Select text and use the hotkey for inline edit. The CLI runs with your vault as its working directory, so it can read, write, edit, and search files in your vault.

Inline Edit — Select text or start at the cursor position + hotkey to edit directly in notes with word-level diff preview.

Slash Commands & Skills — Type / or $ for reusable prompt templates or Skills from user- and vault-level scopes.

@mention - Type @ to mention anything you want the agent to work with, vault files, subagents, MCP servers, or files in external directories.

Plan Mode — Toggle via Shift+Tab. The agent explores and designs before implementing, then presents a plan for approval.

Instruction Mode (#) — Refined custom instructions added from the chat input.

MCP Servers — The runtime manages MCP through its own CLI-native configuration.

Multi-Tab & Conversations — Multiple chat tabs, conversation history, fork, resume, and compact.

Requirements

• Grok CLI installed and authenticated with grok login.
• Obsidian v1.7.2+
• Desktop only (macOS, Linux, Windows)

Installation

From GitHub Release

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a folder called buildian in your vault's plugins folder:

   /path/to/vault/.obsidian/plugins/buildian/
   

3. Copy the downloaded files into the buildian folder
4. Enable the plugin in Obsidian:
   • Settings → Community plugins → Enable "Buildian"

From source (development)

1. Clone this repository into your vault's plugins folder:

   cd /path/to/vault/.obsidian/plugins
   git clone https://github.com/YuChenSSR/buildian.git buildian
   cd buildian
   

2. Install dependencies and build:

   npm install
   npm run build
   

3. Enable the plugin in Obsidian:

   • Settings → Community plugins → Enable "Buildian"

Development

# Watch mode
npm run dev

# Production build
npm run build

Privacy & Data Use

• Sent to API: Your input, attached files, images, and tool call outputs are sent through the CLI according to the Grok CLI's behavior and your xAI account/API configuration.
• Local storage: Buildian settings and session metadata are stored in vault/.buildian/.
• Environment variables: Provider subprocesses inherit the Obsidian process environment plus any variables you configure in the plugin. This is needed for CLI authentication, proxies, certificates, and PATH resolution.
• Device-specific paths: Per-device CLI paths use an opaque local key stored in browser local storage, not your system hostname.
• Background activity: This plugin does not run telemetry beacons. UI polling timers read local Obsidian/editor selection state only. Network activity is limited to explicit runtime work, configured MCP endpoints, and CLI calls needed to answer your requests.

Troubleshooting

Grok CLI not found

If you encounter spawn grok ENOENT or Grok CLI not found, the plugin can't auto-detect your Grok installation.

Solution: Leave the setting empty first so the plugin can auto-detect Grok. If auto-detection fails, find your CLI path and set it in Settings → Buildian → CLI path.

Alternative: Add your Node.js bin directory to PATH in Settings → Environment → Custom variables.

Can't see Grok Build model / can't connect to xAI

If the Grok Build model doesn't appear or the CLI can't reach xAI, your network may require a proxy to access xAI. Configure proxy environment variables in Settings → Environment → Shared environment:

HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:<port>
HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:<port>

Replace <port> with the port of your local proxy (e.g. Clash, V2Ray, or any HTTP proxy on your machine). Restart Obsidian after changing the values so the CLI subprocess picks them up.

npm CLI and Node.js not in same directory

If using a shell-managed CLI, check whether grok is visible to GUI apps:

which grok

If different, GUI apps like Obsidian may not find Node.js.

Solutions:

1. Install native binary (recommended)
2. Add Node.js path to Settings → Environment: PATH=/path/to/node/bin

If you have a feature request or run into any bugs, please submit a GitHub issue.

Architecture

src/
├── main.ts                      # Plugin entry point
├── app/                         # Shared defaults and plugin-level storage
├── core/                        # Provider-neutral runtime, registry, and type contracts
│   ├── runtime/                 # ChatRuntime interface and approval types
│   ├── providers/               # Provider registry and workspace services
│   ├── auxiliary/               # Shared provider auxiliary services
│   ├── bootstrap/               # Plugin bootstrap wiring
│   ├── security/                # Approval utilities
│   └── ...                      # commands, mcp, prompt, storage, tools, types
├── providers/
│   ├── claude/                  # Claude SDK adaptor, prompt encoding, storage, MCP, plugins
│   ├── codex/                   # Codex app-server adaptor, JSON-RPC transport, JSONL history
│   ├── opencode/                # Opencode adaptor
│   ├── pi/                      # Pi RPC adaptor, model discovery, JSONL history
│   └── acp/                     # Agent Client Protocol shared transport
├── features/
│   ├── chat/                    # Sidebar chat: tabs, controllers, renderers
│   ├── inline-edit/             # Inline edit modal and provider-backed edit services
│   └── settings/                # Settings shell with provider tabs
├── shared/                      # Reusable UI components and modals
├── i18n/                        # Internationalization (10 locales)
├── types/                       # Shared ambient types
├── utils/                       # Cross-cutting utilities
└── style/                       # Modular CSS

Roadmap

• Grok Build CLI provider integration
• Local install path separated from Claudian
• More runtime testing across platforms

License

Licensed under the MIT License.

Star History

Acknowledgments

• Claudian, which this plugin is based on.
• Obsidian for the plugin API
• xAI for the Grok Build CLI