Obsidian

You can run a powerful MCP server that lets you interact with your Obsidian vault through natural language queries, advanced search, backlinks, and full note CRUD. This server is designed to work with Claude Code and other MCP clients, unlocking seamless, context-aware access to your vault content.

How to use

Connect your MCP client to the Obsidian MCP Server to start querying and managing notes. You can ask natural language questions about your vault, perform intelligent searches that consider link structures and tags, inspect backlinks, and read, write, create, append, or update notes directly through the MCP interface. Use guided narrative paths to explore linked notes, audit notes for missing frontmatter, and discover related content based on links, keywords, and recency. The server runs locally and reads your vault from the path you provide via environment configuration.

How to install

Follow these concrete steps to install and run the Obsidian MCP Server locally.

# 1) Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dbmcco/obsidian-mcp.git
cd obsidian-mcp

# 2) Install dependencies
npm install

# 3) Build the project
npm run build

Configuration

Configure how you run the server and provide the vault path to the MCP client by setting environment variables in your runtime configuration.

Here is a standard local runtime example you can adapt for Claude Code or Claude Desktop. The server runs as a local process and reads your vault path from OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH.

Security and environment

Ensure your Obsidian vault path is absolute and that the runtime has permission to read the vault files. Do not expose vault contents to untrusted clients.

Troubleshooting

If the server cannot connect, verify that the path to the compiled index script is correct and that the vault path is provided and accessible. Ensure the build step completed successfully before starting the server.

Available tools

query_vault

Process natural language queries about vault content.

search_notes

Search for notes by filename or content using exact text matching.

intelligent_search

Advanced search with link graph analysis, tag hierarchies, and structural context weighting.

list_directories

Browse vault directory structure with note counts.

get_note

Retrieve the full content of a specific note.

get_backlinks

Find all notes that link to a specific note with context.

write_note

Write or completely overwrite a note.

create_note

Create a new note with frontmatter and content.

append_to_note

Append content to an existing note.

update_note_section

Update a specific section identified by heading.

guided_path

Generate a narrative tour through linked notes starting from a seed note.

audit_recent_notes

Find recently modified notes missing frontmatter or structure.

contextual_companions

Discover notes related to a topic or seed note based on links, keywords, and recency.

fresh_energy

Find recently updated notes lacking backlinks or outgoing links (needing integration).

initiative_bridge

Track project/initiative-tagged notes with outstanding tasks.

pattern_echo

Find notes that reuse specific phrasings, bullet patterns, or framework fragments.

synthesis_ready

Detect clusters of interlinked notes that lack a summary/synthesis note.