Obsidian Semantic Search MCP
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT | Yes | Path to your Obsidian vault root directory. Required. | |
| OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL | No | Ollama embedding model to use. Defaults to bge-m3 if not set. | |
| OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE | No | Comma- or newline-separated list of folder patterns to always exclude from indexing. | |
| OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME | No | Directory for SQLite index, logs, and cache. Defaults to ~/.obsidian-semantic-mcp if not set. | |
| OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX | No | Set to 'true' to automatically index vault on server startup. Defaults to 'false'. | |
| OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE | No | Set to 'true' to allow agents to access sensitive folders. Defaults to 'false'. | |
| OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS | No | Comma- or newline-separated list of folders considered sensitive. Defaults to '08_PersonalInfo'. |
Instructions
Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.
This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
Protocol revision2025-11-25
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| search_notesB | Read-only hybrid semantic/keyword search over the Obsidian vault. Returns file-level results with matched sections. |
| read_noteA | Read-only markdown note reader by vault-relative path and optional line range. |
| index_vaultB | Index or reindex the Obsidian vault into the external semantic index. Does not modify the vault. |
| index_statusA | Return semantic index status and safety settings. |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No resources | |
TDQS
Scored across 4 tools
Each tool has a clearly distinct purpose: searching, reading, indexing, and checking index status. No overlap or ambiguity between them.
All tool names follow a consistent verb_noun pattern in snake_case, e.g., search_notes, read_note, index_vault, index_status.
Four tools is well-scoped for a read-only semantic search server, covering search, reading, indexing, and status without redundancy.
Core workflow is covered: search, read, index, status. Minor gaps like missing file listing or vault navigation, but these are not essential for the stated purpose.