Why Claudian in Obsidian Only Allowed 3 Chat Tabs and How I Expanded It to 10

✨ Before We Start

This is a very specific problem, but also a very easy one to run into if you actually use Obsidian as a real AI workspace.

I had already installed Claudian inside my Obsidian knowledge base and configured it to use Codex. Everything worked fine at first: chat, model switching, and conversation forks.

Then I tried to open another tab.

The plugin showed this message:

Maximum 3 tabs allowed

So the issue was clear: Claudian only allowed 3 chat tabs at the same time.

For casual use, that might be enough. But if you use Obsidian as a personal knowledge base and AI workbench, 3 tabs runs out very quickly.

This post records the full process:

• what the issue actually was
• where the config file lives
• what I changed
• why the direct fix only goes up to 10
• what to do later if I want to remove the limit further

🚨 The Exact Problem

Once I already had 3 chat tabs open in Claudian, creating a new one triggered this error:

Maximum 3 tabs allowed

This is not a Codex limitation. It is not an Obsidian limitation either.

It comes from Claudian itself.

So the root cause is not model selection, login, or API setup. It is a plugin setting.

🧩 My Actual Environment

To keep this practical, here is the exact environment I was using.

At this point, Claudian was already configured to use Codex by default. This tab limit issue happened after all of that was already working.

🔍 First Check: Is It Really a Config Problem?

I checked the Claudian config file here:

F:\我的个人知识库\pop-st\.claudian\claudian-settings.json

Inside it, I found this:

"maxTabs": 3

That already explained most of the issue.

Claudian was reading a maximum tab count of 3, so when I tried to open the fourth tab, it showed:

Maximum 3 tabs allowed

🛠️ What I Actually Changed

Step 1: Change maxTabs from 3 to 10

I directly changed this:

"maxTabs": 10

The related config looked like this:

{
  "settingsProvider": "codex",
  "model": "gpt-5.4",
  "providerConfigs": {
    "codex": {
      "enabled": true,
      "cliPath": "C:\\Users\\40933\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\codex.cmd",
      "cliPathsByHost": {
        "pop": "C:\\Users\\40933\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\codex.cmd"
      },
      "customModels": "gpt-5.4"
    }
  },
  "maxTabs": 10
}

The most important part is just this:

"maxTabs": 10

The other fields were already part of my earlier Codex setup. They were not the main cause of the 3-tab restriction.

♻️ How the Change Takes Effect

After editing the config file, Obsidian needs to reload the setting.

The safest options are:

1. Close and reopen the Claudian panel
2. Restart Obsidian completely

After restarting, the tab limit is no longer 3. It becomes 10. 🎉

🔒 Why I Could Only Change It to 10

This is the key detail.

At first, I thought I could simply change maxTabs to a bigger number like 20. But after checking the Claudian source code, I found that the plugin clamps the value internally.

The logic looks like this:

const maxTabs = this.settings.maxTabs ?? 3;
return Math.max(3, Math.min(10, maxTabs));

That means:

• the minimum is 3
• the maximum is 10

So even if you manually write:

"maxTabs": 20

the plugin will still only use 10 at runtime.

That is why the simple config-only fix can only expand the limit to 10.

🎚️ The Settings UI Also Confirms This

Later I checked the settings UI code and found that the plugin uses a slider:

slider.setLimits(3, 10, 1)

So the author clearly intended the normal user-facing range to stay between 3 and 10.

In practice, that means:

• if you want 5, 8, or 10, that is just normal configuration
• if you want more than 10, you are no longer editing config, you are changing plugin behavior

⚡ If You Hit the Same Problem, Here Is the Fast Fix

Config file location

Open:

your-vault\.claudian\claudian-settings.json

In my case:

F:\我的个人知识库\pop-st\.claudian\claudian-settings.json

Change this

"maxTabs": 3

to this:

"maxTabs": 10

Save and restart Obsidian

After that, Claudian can use up to 10 tabs. 🎉

🧪 What I Also Confirmed Along the Way

To make sure the troubleshooting path stays clear, here are the things I already confirmed were not the cause.

1. This is not a Codex model issue

Whether you use:

• gpt-5.5
• gpt-5.4
• gpt-5.4-mini

does not change the tab limit.

2. This is not a Codex CLI path issue

My current path is:

C:\Users\40933\AppData\Roaming\npm\codex.cmd

That affects whether Claudian can launch Codex, but it does not affect the maximum number of tabs.

3. This is not a vault path issue

Even if your vault path contains Chinese characters or a different drive letter, the tab limit still comes from Claudian's own maxTabs config and source-level clamp.

🚀 The Next Step If I Want More Than 10

If 10 still feels too small, then changing the config file is no longer enough. The next step is to modify Claudian itself.

The path is straightforward:

Option 1: Change the hard upper bound in source code

Take logic like this:

return Math.max(3, Math.min(10, maxTabs));

and raise the upper limit, for example:

return Math.max(3, Math.min(30, maxTabs));

Option 2: Change the slider range in the settings UI

Take:

slider.setLimits(3, 10, 1)

and change it to:

slider.setLimits(3, 30, 1)

That way the settings screen itself can control a larger range without hand-editing JSON every time.

Option 3: Rebuild and replace the plugin

After changing the source code, the process becomes:

1. rebuild Claudian
2. replace the plugin files in the vault
3. restart Obsidian and test again

At that point, this is no longer just configuration. It becomes plugin customization.

💭 My Practical Take

From the plugin author's perspective, a default of 3 and a maximum of 10 makes sense.

More tabs means:

• a more crowded UI
• more session state to manage
• potentially more memory usage

But from the perspective of using Obsidian as a personal knowledge base plus AI workbench, 3 is simply too small.

For me, 10 feels like a good balance:

• enough for daily parallel work
• not too crowded
• no need to maintain a custom plugin build yet

✅ Final Summary

The core of the issue is simple:

• Claudian was reading maxTabs = 3
• so the fourth tab triggered Maximum 3 tabs allowed
• editing Vault/.claudian/claudian-settings.json can raise it to 10
• but the current plugin version hard-limits the maximum to 10
• if I want more than 10, I need to modify the source code and rebuild the plugin

If you also use Obsidian as a real personal knowledge base and AI workspace, this is one of those small settings that is worth fixing early. 📝

At the very least, change it from 3 to 10. 🙌