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Obsidian Connector

Prerequisites: Needle account and API key.

Generate an API key​

1) Open your user menu → Settings​

Go to Settings

User menu → Settings

2) Generate (or copy) an API key​

Scroll down on the Settings page to the API Key section to reveal the key controls.

Generate API key

Settings → API Key

Quick start​

To use Obsidian connector in Needle you will configure a local sync daemon using needlectl.

Note: Obsidian uses a local folder on your machine. We cannot automate OS prompts (e.g., macOS Documents permissions), so setup is manual like with other desktop connectors.

1. Install needlectl​

npm install -g @needle-ai/needlectl@latest

2. Set your API key​

needlectl api-key set <YOUR_API_KEY>

3. Create a local connector for your Obsidian vault​

needlectl connectors local create \
  --name "Obsidian" \
  --collection-id <COLLECTION_ID> \
  -r "$HOME/Documents/Obsidian Vault"

4. Start the daemon and run a full sync​

needlectl daemon start
needlectl daemon sync

5. Done!​

That’s it. Your vault will be indexed and stay in sync while the daemon runs.

To re-run a full sync any time:

needlectl daemon sync

Check status / logs:

needlectl daemon status
needlectl daemon logs

Notes​

  • Supported types match Needle Web: markdown, pdf, docx, xlsx, pptx, csv, html, ics, txt, and png/jpeg/gif/webp images.
  • If your vault path contains spaces, quote it (e.g., "~/Documents/Obsidian Vault").
  • If you used manual uploads previously, you may see duplicates. Keep one source (manual or connector) to avoid confusion.

Troubleshooting​

  • macOS Full Disk Access: allow Terminal/iTerm (and Node) to access Documents to let the daemon read your vault.
  • If files don’t appear, force a full rescan: needlectl daemon sync.