MCP server for Obsidian

# MCP server for Obsidian MCP server to interact with Obsidian via the Local REST API community plugin. <a href="https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/3wko1bhuek"><img width="380" height="200" src="https://glama.ai/mcp/servers/3wko1bhuek/badge" alt="server for Obsidian MCP server" /></a> ## Components ### Tools The server implements multiple tools to interact with Obsidian: - list_files_in_vault: Lists all files and directories in the root directory of your Obsidian vault - list_files_in_dir: Lists all files and directories in a specific Obsidian directory - get_file_contents: Return the content of a single file in your vault. - search: Search for documents matching a specified text query across all files in the vault - patch_content: Insert content into an existing note relative to a heading, block reference, or frontmatter field. - append_content: Append content to a new or existing file in the vault. - delete_file: Delete a file or directory from your vault. ### Example prompts Its good to first instruct Claude to use Obsidian. Then it will always call the tool. The use prompts like this: - Get the contents of the last architecture call note and summarize them - Search for all files where Azure CosmosDb is mentioned and quickly explain to me the context in which it is mentioned - Summarize the last meeting notes and put them into a new note 'summary meeting.md'. Add an introduction so that I can send it via email. ## Configuration ### Obsidian REST API Key There are two ways to configure the environment with the Obsidian REST API Key. 1. Add to server config (preferred) ```json { "mcp-obsidian": { "command": "uvx", "args": [ "mcp-obsidian" ], "env": { "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "<your_api_key_here>", "OBSIDIAN_HOST": "<your_obsidian_host>", "OBSIDIAN_PORT": "<your_obsidian_port>" } } } ``` Sometimes Claude has issues detecting the location of uv / uvx. You can use `which uvx` to find and paste the full path in above config in such cases. 2. Create a `.env` file in the working directory with the following required variables: ``` OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=your_api_key_here OBSIDIAN_HOST=your_obsidian_host OBSIDIAN_PORT=your_obsidian_port ``` Note: - You can find the API key in the Obsidian plugin config - Default port is 27124 if not specified - Default host is 127.0.0.1 if not specified ## Quickstart ### Install #### Obsidian REST API You need the Obsidian REST API community plugin running: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api Install and enable it in the settings and copy the api key. #### Claude Desktop On MacOS: `~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json` On Windows: `%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json` <details> <summary>Development/Unpublished Servers Configuration</summary> ```json { "mcpServers": { "mcp-obsidian": { "command": "uv", "args": [ "--directory", "<dir_to>/mcp-obsidian", "run", "mcp-obsidian" ], "env": { "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "<your_api_key_here>", "OBSIDIAN_HOST": "<your_obsidian_host>", "OBSIDIAN_PORT": "<your_obsidian_port>" } } } } ``` </details> <details> <summary>Published Servers Configuration</summary> ```json { "mcpServers": { "mcp-obsidian": { "command": "uvx", "args": [ "mcp-obsidian" ], "env": { "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>", "OBSIDIAN_HOST": "<your_obsidian_host>", "OBSIDIAN_PORT": "<your_obsidian_port>" } } } } ``` </details> ## Development ### Building To prepare the package for distribution: 1. Sync dependencies and update lockfile: ```bash uv sync ``` ### Debugging Since MCP servers run over stdio, debugging can be challenging. For the best debugging experience, we strongly recommend using the [MCP Inspector](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/inspector). You can launch the MCP Inspector via [`npm`](https://docs.npmjs.com/downloading-and-installing-node-js-and-npm) with this command: ```bash npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory /path/to/mcp-obsidian run mcp-obsidian ``` Upon launching, the Inspector will display a URL that you can access in your browser to begin debugging. You can also watch the server logs with this command: ```bash tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-mcp-obsidian.log ```