markdown-frontmatter-mcp

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that queries Markdown files by front matter metadata. Designed for Obsidian vaults and other Markdown-based knowledge bases.

The Problem

You have a Markdown knowledge base (Obsidian, etc.) with front matter like:

You want to ask an AI: "What have I been thinking about [X] lately?"

Existing tools can search by keywords or do semantic search, but none let you query by front matter metadata — filtering by tags AND recency.

The Solution

This MCP server exposes one tool: query_recent_notes

Returns:

• File path

• Title (from H1 or filename)

• Tags

• Created/updated dates

• Excerpt (first ~200 chars)

Installation

From PyPI (coming soon)

From Source

Configuration

Environment Variable

Set KB_PATH to point to your knowledge base:

MCP Client Configuration

TypingMind

Add to your MCP config:

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

Usage Examples

Once configured, you can ask the AI:

"Get my recent thinking on AI systems"

The AI will call:

"What personal growth stuff have I been working on?"

"Catch me up on what's been on my mind"

Front Matter Requirements

For files to be queryable, they need YAML front matter with:

• created or date: When the note was created (YYYY-MM-DD)

• updated (optional): When last meaningfully edited (YYYY-MM-DD)

• tags (optional): List of tags for filtering

Example:

How It Works

1. Walks the specified folders in your knowledge base

2. Parses YAML front matter from each .md file

3. Filters by:

   • Date: created or updated within the days window

   • Tags: matches ANY of the specified tags

4. Returns results sorted by most recently touched

Skipped Directories

The server automatically skips:

• .obsidian

• .git

• .smart-env

• .versiondb

• node_modules

• Any directory starting with .

Development

Testing Locally

Then send JSON-RPC messages via stdin:

License

MIT