Obsidian MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes an Obsidian vault as a structured interface for AI models. Connect Claude Desktop or Claude Code to your vault and interact with your notes in natural language.

What it does

Instead of manually navigating your vault, you can ask Claude:

"Read my weekly plan for W31"
"Search my notes for anything about HireRight"
"What are my 5 most recently modified notes?"
"What's the structure of my vault?"
"Create today's daily note"

Claude calls the appropriate tool, reads or writes the file, and responds naturally.

Tools

Tool	Description
`read_note(path)`	Read a note by path relative to vault root
`list_recent(n)`	List the N most recently modified notes
`search_vault(query, tag, folder)`	Full-text search with optional tag and folder filters
`get_vault_structure()`	Get the folder hierarchy and note counts
`create_note(path, content)`	Create a new note (refuses to overwrite existing)

Architecture

Claude Desktop / Claude Code
        │
        │  stdio (local)
        ▼
  MCP Server (server.py)
        │
        ▼
  Obsidian Vault (filesystem)

The server runs as a local process started by the MCP host (Claude Desktop or Claude Code). Communication happens over stdio — no network exposure, no auth required for local use.

Stack

Python 3.10+
mcp 2.0.0 — official MCP Python SDK
uv — package manager

Setup

1. Clone and install dependencies

git clone https://github.com/DusanMilic/obsidian-mcp-server.git
cd obsidian-mcp-server
uv sync

2. Set your vault path

Edit server.py and update VAULT_PATH:

VAULT_PATH = Path("/your/path/to/obsidian/vault")

3. Connect to Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "/path/to/uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory", "/path/to/obsidian-mcp-server",
        "run", "server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. The server starts automatically.

4. Connect to Claude Code

claude mcp add --scope user obsidian -- /path/to/uv --directory /path/to/obsidian-mcp-server run server.py

Security

All paths are validated to be within the vault root — no path traversal possible
create_note refuses to overwrite existing notes
No write tool overwrites existing content — create_note is append-safe by design
Local stdio transport only — no network exposure in default configuration

Project context

Built as Phase 1 of an AI engineering learning path — the goal is to move from AI consumer to AI builder. This server is used daily to give Claude structured access to a personal Obsidian vault containing journaling, planning, and project notes.

Phase 2 will extend this into a personal finance agent. Phase 4 targets a real estate agentic analyzer over Serbian property data.