Installation

Requirements

Obsidian 1.11.4 or newer. Pensum uses the SecretStorage and SecretComponent APIs introduced in that release.

Obsidian plugin

1. Open Obsidian Settings > Community Plugins
2. Click Browse and search for “Pensum”
3. Install and enable the plugin
4. Pensum will scan your vault on first load

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest GitHub Release
2. Create .obsidian/plugins/pensum/ in your vault
3. Copy the three files into that folder
4. Restart Obsidian and enable Pensum in Settings > Community Plugins

CLI

npm install -g @pensum/cli

Or via Homebrew:

brew install pensum

AI setup

Pro All-in-One or Trial: AI is managed by Pensum — no keys needed. Start a trial from Settings → Account or the first-run card in the Today view.

Pro BYO: open Pensum settings → AI, enable AI features, then create a secret in Obsidian’s keychain for each provider you want to use (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Deepgram) and reference its name in the corresponding provider row. Pensum never stores the key value — only the secret name. The Test button confirms each provider is reachable.

MCP server

Add to your Claude Code or Claude Desktop MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pensum": {
      "command": "pensum",
      "args": ["mcp-serve"],
      "env": { "PENSUM_VAULT": "/path/to/your/vault" }
    }
  }
}