Using AI Chat Archive exports in Obsidian

This guide shows how to take a Markdown export from AI Chat Archive and turn it into a first-class note in your Obsidian vault — with metadata, backlinks, and a Dataview query that lists every archived Claude conversation.

Prerequisites:

Obsidian installed.
AI Chat Archive installed and producing Markdown exports.
A vault you're happy to modify (or create a new one first to experiment).
Optional but recommended: Dataview community plugin.

1. Drop exports into a dedicated folder

Create a folder in your vault — _archive/claude/ is a good pick. Move every exported .md file into it.

YourVault/
├── _archive/
│   └── claude/
│       ├── 2026-03-12 Designing a REST API.md
│       ├── 2026-03-14 Refactoring the auth layer.md
│       └── …
├── Daily/
├── Projects/
└── …

2. Add a frontmatter header to each export

AI Chat Archive's Markdown doesn't include YAML frontmatter (we keep the format platform-neutral). Add it yourself so Obsidian can index, filter, and Dataview-query the notes.

Open each export and prepend:

---
source: claude.ai
type: conversation
created: 2026-03-12
updated: 2026-03-12
tags: [claude, archive]
---

Or, automated: set up Obsidian's Templater plugin with this snippet that auto-adds frontmatter based on the Created: line that AI Chat Archive writes:

<%*
const content = await tp.file.content;
const createdMatch = content.match(/Created:\s*([^\s|]+)/);
const updatedMatch = content.match(/Updated:\s*([^\s|]+)/);
const fm = [
  '---',
  'source: claude.ai',
  'type: conversation',
  `created: ${createdMatch?.[1] ?? 'unknown'}`,
  `updated: ${updatedMatch?.[1] ?? 'unknown'}`,
  'tags: [claude, archive]',
  '---',
  ''
].join('\n');
tR += fm;
%>

3. A Dataview query that lists every Claude conversation

Create a note called Claude archive.md in your vault:

# Claude conversation archive

```dataview
TABLE
  created AS "Created",
  updated AS "Updated",
  length(file.outlinks) AS "Outlinks"
FROM "_archive/claude"
WHERE source = "claude.ai"
SORT created DESC
```

You now have a live table of every archived Claude conversation, sorted by date.

4. Backlink from your daily notes

When you reference a past conversation in a daily note:

## 2026-04-23 Daily

Worked on the v3 API spec again. See [[2026-03-12 Designing a REST API]] for
the earlier thread.

Obsidian creates a wiki-link. The archived conversation now appears in the note's Backlinks pane, and over time your archive becomes a web of "past Claude thinking" you can traverse from any direction.

5. Bundling attachments alongside

If you exported with Include attachments in the ZIP (paid feature), unzip each conversation folder into your vault. Obsidian resolves relative links inside Markdown files — so > 📎 Attachment: design-brief.pdf next to a physical attachments/design-brief.pdf in the same folder gets the attachment rendered inline in Obsidian's preview.

_archive/claude/
├── 2026-03-12_Designing-a-REST-API/
│   ├── Designing-a-REST-API.md         ← transcript
│   └── attachments/
│       └── design-brief.pdf            ← Obsidian renders this inline
└── …

6. Search across all Claude chats

With everything imported:

Search (Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-F) across your full Claude history from one place.
Graph view shows conversations connected to whatever else you've linked them to.
Tags (#claude) filter the graph to show just the Claude subgraph.

You now have a fully local, permanently searchable Claude archive that grows as you chat.