Obsidian MCP Second Brain Server

A read-only MCP server for intelligent, secure access to your Obsidian vault—enabling semantic search, metadata filtering, and more for LLMs.

Features

• Efficient Database Storage: SQLite-based indexing for large vaults with persistent caching

• Memory Mode Option: Optional in-memory indexing for small vaults or development

• Semantic Search: Full-text search across all notes with fuzzy matching

• Tag-Based Filtering: Search by hierarchical tags (e.g., work/puppet, tech/golang)

• Path-Based Filtering: Filter by directory patterns (e.g., Work/Puppet/**)

• Temporal Queries: Filter notes by creation/modification dates

• Metadata Filtering: Filter by type, status, and category

• Note Retrieval: Get full content of specific notes

• Smart Summarization: Generate summaries of note collections

• Recent Notes: Quick access to recently modified notes

• Archive Control: Optionally include archived notes in searches

• Security: Path traversal protection, file size limits, input validation

Read-Only Design

This MCP server is intentionally read-only to ensure your vault remains safe during AI interactions. It provides:

• ✅ Search and retrieve notes

• ✅ Filter by metadata and paths

• ✅ Generate summaries and statistics

• ❌ No note creation or editing

• ❌ No file modifications

For write operations, consider using dedicated Obsidian plugins with built-in safety checks.

Installation

Configuration & Installation

One-Click Installation

• VS Code:

• VS Code Insiders:

• Cursor:

Manual Installation

No installation needed! Use directly with npx:

Local Development

This makes the server available globally as obsidian-mcp-sb.

Claude Code & Claude Desktop

Claude Code

Add the server using:

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

See docs/configuration.md for vault structure, CLI arguments, and configuration examples.

See docs/api.md for the full MCP API reference and usage examples.

Usage with Claude Code

Add to your MCP configuration file.

Single Vault Configuration

macOS/Linux: Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: Edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Multiple Vault Configuration

You can configure multiple vault instances:

Local Development Setup

If you're developing locally with npm link:

See docs/examples.md for more example queries.

Documentation

See docs/README.md for:

• API Reference

• Configuration & CLI Options

• Example Queries

• Development & Storage Architecture

• Contributing

• Dependencies

• Architecture & Database Schema

• Security & Search

• Example Queries

• Development

• Contributing

• Dependencies

• License

Quick Start

Run the server instantly with npx (no install required):

Or add to Claude Code/Claude Desktop (see Configuration & Installation below).

Troubleshooting & FAQ

See docs/configuration.md for common issues and solutions.

See docs/search.md for details on search weights and scoring.

See docs/security.md for details on security features and protections.

See docs/development.md for development workflow and storage details.

See docs/contributing.md for contribution guidelines.

Storage Architecture

The server uses SQLite database storage by default for efficient indexing and persistent caching:

• Database Mode (Default): Stores indexed notes in .obsidian-mcp/notes.db within your vault

  • Persistent indexing (survives server restarts)

  • Efficient for large vaults (1000+ notes)

  • Full-text search with SQLite FTS5

  • Lower memory usage

• Memory Mode (Optional): Use --use-memory flag for in-memory storage

  • Faster for small vaults (<100 notes)

  • No disk I/O overhead

  • Useful for development and testing

  • Uses Fuse.js for fuzzy search

See docs/architecture.md for the architecture diagram. See docs/database-schema.md for the database schema.

Architecture

• src/index.ts: MCP server implementation with tool handlers

• src/vault.ts: Vault indexing orchestration and security controls

• src/storage.ts: Storage interface abstraction

• src/database-storage.ts: SQLite-based storage implementation

• src/memory-storage.ts: In-memory storage implementation with Fuse.js

• src/storage-factory.ts: Storage factory pattern for mode selection

• src/config.ts: Configuration management with defaults

• src/types.ts: TypeScript type definitions and validation utilities

• src/__tests__/: Unit tests for critical functionality

See docs/dependencies.md for a full list of production and development dependencies.

License

MIT