Obsidian MCP Server

Find orphaned notes that may need organization or cleanup.

When to use:

• Regular vault maintenance and cleanup

• Finding forgotten or disconnected notes

• Identifying notes that need better organization

• Preparing for vault reorganization

• Finding candidates for archival or deletion

Orphan types explained:

• no_backlinks: Notes with no incoming links (most common definition)

• no_links: Notes with no incoming OR outgoing links (completely isolated)

• no_tags: Notes without any tags (untagged content)

• no_metadata: Notes with minimal/no frontmatter properties

• isolated: Notes with no links AND no tags (truly disconnected)

Default exclusions:

• Templates folder (usually contains reference notes)

• Archive folder (already organized)

• Daily folder (daily notes often standalone)

When NOT to use:

• Finding specific notes (use search_notes)

• Getting all notes in a folder (use list_notes)

• Finding notes by content (use search tools)

Performance note:

• Scans entire vault and checks links/metadata for each note

• For vaults >1000 notes, this may take 10-30 seconds

Returns: List of orphaned notes with paths, reasons, and metadata. Results are sorted by modification date (oldest first).

Example response: { "count": 23, "orphaned_notes": [ { "path": "Random Thoughts/Old Idea.md", "reason": "No incoming links", "modified": "2023-06-15T10:30:00Z", "size": 245, "word_count": 42 } ], "stats": { "total_notes_scanned": 500, "excluded_folders": ["Templates", "Archive", "Daily"], "orphan_type": "no_backlinks" } }