Overview
What's In This Guide
How to connect Granola so Claude can pull any meeting or call
How to turn an Obsidian vault into the working folder Claude reads every time
How to connect Excalidraw so Claude draws diagrams for you
The Connectors tab vs Claude Code, explained in two sentences
A 3-tool workflow that chains all of them together
First, the One Thing That Confuses Everyone
Two Ways Things Connect to Claude
Two of these tools live in Claude's Connectors (Granola and Excalidraw). You add them in a couple of clicks and Claude can reach them inside any chat.
One of them (Obsidian) connects a different way: through Claude Code or Claude Cowork, by pointing Claude at a folder on your computer. That sounds like the harder route. It's actually the better one, and I'll show you why when we get there.
Where connectors live
Open Claude's Settings and go to Connectors. On claude.ai this now sits under the Customize page. It works the same in the desktop app and the web.
Granola
ConnectorA free AI notetaker that records and transcribes in the background of any call. It doesn't join as a bot like other notetakers. It just listens.
Connect it to Claude and Claude can pull any transcript, summarize meetings, and find your action items.
Set it up
- 1
Download Granola at granola.ai and sign in. Let it run in the background during your next call. The free tier keeps your notes from the last 30 days.
- 2
In Claude, open Settings and go to Connectors. Click Browse connectors and search Granola.
- 3
Hit Connect, sign in through the browser pop-up, and authorize it.
- 4
Open a new chat, click the tools icon, and make sure Granola is toggled on.
Heads up
Granola's Claude connector needs a paid Claude plan (Pro or above). The Granola free tier is fine. It's Claude that has to be paid for the connector to work.
Prefer the terminal? In Claude Code, run claude mcp add granola --transport http https://mcp.granola.ai/mcp, then run /mcp, select Granola, and choose Authenticate.
Test it
"Connect to Granola and summarize my meetings from this week. Pull out every action item assigned to me."
The move most people miss
Pair Granola with Obsidian. Ask Claude to take a Granola transcript and write a clean summary into your vault. Now the conversation lives in your second brain instead of getting lost in an app.
Obsidian
Claude Code / CoworkA free note-taking app where every note is a plain text file on your computer. It becomes your second brain.
Here's the part most people get wrong. You're not really "connecting Obsidian to Claude." You're creating a folder and pointing Claude at it. That folder is your vault. It becomes your working home base. You point Claude Code or Claude Cowork at it every single time you work. It doesn't matter what you're working on that day. Point Claude at that folder, and it reads everything you've ever written.
Set it up (recommended path)
Download Obsidian at obsidian.md (free). Create a vault and pick a folder for it. That folder is now your working folder.
Install Claude Code with one command, or open Claude Cowork in the desktop app.
$ npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code Point Claude at the vault. In the terminal, move into the folder and run Claude. In Cowork, open that folder as your project and approve it when asked.
$ cd /path/to/your-vault && claude Add a CLAUDE.md file at the root of the vault. Claude auto-reads this at the start of every session. It's how Claude knows who you are and how your vault is organized. Copy the template below to start.
# [Your Name]: Vault Context for Claude
## Who I am
[Your role, what you're working on, relevant background. 2-3 sentences.]
## How this vault is organized
- 00-Inbox/: raw capture, quick notes
- 01-Projects/: active work
- 02-Reference/: research, saved articles
- 03-Journal/: daily notes
## Current focus
[What you're working on right now. Update this every few sessions.]
## What Claude should always do
- [Preference 1, e.g., "always ask before creating new files"]
- [Preference 2, e.g., "use bullet points over paragraphs"]The rule: point Claude at this folder every time. Capture in Obsidian, and Claude always has your full context.
Power-user path (the Connectors route)
If you specifically want plain Claude chat (not Claude Code) to read your vault through the Connectors system, there's a community MCP server for it. It's more technical:
- In Obsidian, install the Local REST API community plugin and copy its API key.
- Add a custom connector in Claude (or edit
claude_desktop_config.json) pointing at themcp-obsidianserver with your API key.
Honest take: it works, but it needs JSON editing and a package manager (uv). For almost everyone, the Claude Code path above is faster and does more. Use this only if you want vault access inside the regular Claude chat.
Test it
"Summarize everything I have on [topic] across my vault."
"What have I been working on this week based on my notes?"
Excalidraw
ConnectorExcalidraw makes clean, hand-drawn style diagrams. Connected to Claude, you describe what you want and Claude draws it directly in the chat. No account, no API key, free.
Set it up
- 1
In Claude, open Settings and go to Connectors. Click Browse connectors and search Excalidraw.
- 2
Hit Connect. There's no sign-in. It just turns on. (Custom connector alternative: choose Add custom connector and use the URL
https://mcp.excalidraw.com.) - 3
Open a new chat, toggle Excalidraw on, and ask Claude to draw something. Use Open in Excalidraw to edit the result, or tweak it inline.
Test it
"Use Excalidraw to turn this into a flowchart: [paste a process, a funnel, an org chart, anything]."
The move most people miss
Point it at your other tools. "Diagram how my Obsidian vault is organized." Or "Take the plan from my last Granola meeting and draw it as a flowchart."
The Stack
How the Three Work Together
Granola
Captures what was said.
Obsidian
Where it lives, and what Claude reads.
Excalidraw
Turns any of it into a picture.
Run them as one chain. Granola transcribes your strategy call. You ask Claude to pull that transcript and save the key decisions into your Obsidian vault. Then you ask Claude to draw the plan in Excalidraw. One conversation. Three free tools. Captured, remembered, visualized.
You don't need a bigger AI budget. You need three free tools pointed at the same brain.
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