Everything Hydrate Can Do

A complete AI assistant for Obsidian. Chat, edit, search, automate—all from your sidebar.

Chat & Context

Conversational AI that understands your vault

Sidebar Chat Interface

Cursor-like chat panel in your Obsidian sidebar. Send messages, see responses in real-time.

Drag-and-Drop File Attachment

Drag files into chat to give the AI context. Attach multiple notes at once.

Text Selection Capture

Capture selected text from your editor with /select tokens. Reference specific passages.

Chat History

Conversations save automatically. Browse, search, and reload previous chats.

Export to Markdown

Export any conversation as a formatted Markdown note in your vault.

Context Suggestions

AI suggests relevant notes based on your conversation. Add them with one click.

Image Input Support

Paste or drag images into chat. AI analyzes photos, diagrams, and screenshots. Pro feature.

Hydrate chat interface with history and file attachments

File Operations

Read, edit, and create notes from chat

Read Files

AI can read any file in your vault to understand context and answer questions.

Edit Files

Make changes to existing notes directly from chat. AI writes, you approve.

Create Files

Generate new notes from scratch. AI creates, you decide where to save.

Changes View

Inline highlights show additions, deletions, and modifications. Accept or reject each change individually.

Patch System

Surgical edits using before/after context matching. Precise changes without overwriting.

Multi-File Operations

AI can work across multiple files in a single conversation. Refactor, move, reorganize.

Hydrate changes view showing inline edits with accept/reject controls

Templates & Automation

Build reusable prompts and workflows

Slash Commands

Create reusable prompts triggered by /commands. Fuzzy search to find them quickly.

Format Registry

Save templates for common outputs. Markdown, JSON, or plain text content types.

Rules System

Define rules that apply based on frontmatter tags. Customize AI behavior per-note.

Versioned Templates

Templates support versioning. Update without breaking existing workflows.

Hydrate slash command modal with fuzzy search

Views & UI

Alternative ways to view your notes

Issue Board

Kanban-style board for task management. Parse Markdown into groups, issues, and items.

Task Lists

Interactive checkboxes in the Issue Board. Mark items complete without editing Markdown.

React View Host

Switch between Markdown editor and React views. Route based on frontmatter tags.

Expandable Cards

Collapse and expand groups and cards in the Issue Board. Focus on what matters.

Custom View Creation

Use /create-view to generate custom React views from a prompt, and /edit-view to modify them. Max feature.

Hydrate Issue Board with groups and task cards

Integrations

Connect external tools and services

MCP Server Support

Connect Model Context Protocol servers for external tool integrations. Pro feature.

Multiple LLM Providers

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google. Switch models per-conversation or set a default.

Server Configuration

Enable/disable servers, configure paths, test connections. Full control over integrations.

Tool Execution

AI can use tools from connected MCP servers. Extend capabilities beyond the vault.

Hydrate MCP server settings with connected tools
Pro Feature

Image Input Support

Paste or drag images directly into your chat. Ask the AI to analyze screenshots, diagrams, handwritten notes, photos of whiteboards, or any visual content.

  • Drag-and-drop — Drop images directly into the chat input
  • Paste from clipboard — Cmd+V screenshots instantly
  • Visual analysis — Extract text, describe diagrams, understand content
Hydrate image input showing drag-and-drop image attachment in chat
Max Feature

Create Custom Views from Chat

Use /create-view to generate custom React views from a prompt, then /edit-view to refine them. Kanban boards, dashboards, data visualizations—describe what you want and iterate until it's perfect.

Hydrate create-view command generating a custom React component
Hydrate custom view result showing a generated dashboard

Slash Commands

/create-view to build, /edit-view to refine

React Components

AI generates working React code with Tailwind styling

Hosted in Vault

Views save to your vault and appear via frontmatter routing

Full Feature List
Everything included with Hydrate—free tier and Pro

Chat & Context

  • • Sidebar chat interface
  • • Drag-and-drop file attachment
  • • Text selection capture
  • • Chat history & search
  • • Export to Markdown
  • • Context suggestions
  • • Image input support (Pro)
  • • Stop/cancel requests

File Operations

  • • Read file content
  • • Edit existing files
  • • Create new files
  • • Changes view before apply
  • • Patch with context matching
  • • Replace selections

Search & Discovery

  • • Semantic vector search
  • • Full vault indexing
  • • Configurable file types
  • • Context suggestions
  • • Relevance scoring

Templates & Automation

  • • Slash commands
  • • Format Registry
  • • Rules system
  • • Frontmatter triggers
  • • Template versioning

Views & UI

  • • Issue Board view
  • • Interactive task lists
  • • React view hosting
  • • Custom view creation (Max)
  • • Expandable cards
  • • Dark mode support

Integrations

  • • OpenAI, Anthropic, Google
  • • MCP server support (Pro)
  • • BYOK model
  • • Per-conversation model
  • • Server health monitoring

Try It Free

Install Hydrate with your own API keys. No credit card required.

Install for Obsidian