obsidian_get_frontmatter

Extract YAML frontmatter metadata like tags and creation dates from Obsidian notes without loading full content for classification and organization.

Instructions

Extract YAML frontmatter metadata from a note.

Read metadata like tags, creation date, and other properties from Zettelkasten
notes without loading the full content.

Args:
    params (GetFrontmatterInput): Contains:
        - filepath (str): Path to file

Returns:
    str: JSON object containing frontmatter fields
    
Example:
    Get tags and metadata from a note to understand its classification.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`params`	Yes

Implementation Reference

src/custom_obsidian_mcp/server.py:969-1010 (handler)

The handler function decorated with @mcp.tool that registers and implements the obsidian_get_frontmatter tool. It extracts frontmatter using the ObsidianClient and returns formatted JSON.

@mcp.tool(
    name="obsidian_get_frontmatter",
    annotations={
        "title": "Get Note Frontmatter",
        "readOnlyHint": True,
        "destructiveHint": False,
        "idempotentHint": True,
        "openWorldHint": False
    }
)
async def get_frontmatter(params: GetFrontmatterInput) -> str:
    """Extract YAML frontmatter metadata from a note.
    
    Read metadata like tags, creation date, and other properties from Zettelkasten
    notes without loading the full content.
    
    Args:
        params (GetFrontmatterInput): Contains:
            - filepath (str): Path to file
    
    Returns:
        str: JSON object containing frontmatter fields
        
    Example:
        Get tags and metadata from a note to understand its classification.
    """
    try:
        frontmatter = await obsidian_client.get_file_frontmatter(params.filepath)
        
        return json.dumps({
            "success": True,
            "filepath": params.filepath,
            "frontmatter": frontmatter
        }, indent=2)
        
    except ObsidianAPIError as e:
        return json.dumps({
            "error": str(e),
            "filepath": params.filepath,
            "success": False
        }, indent=2)

src/custom_obsidian_mcp/server.py:199-208 (schema)

Pydantic input schema for the tool, defining the required filepath parameter.

class GetFrontmatterInput(BaseModel):
    """Input for getting frontmatter."""
    model_config = ConfigDict(str_strip_whitespace=True, extra='forbid')
    
    filepath: str = Field(
        description="Path to the file",
        min_length=1,
        max_length=500
    )

src/custom_obsidian_mcp/obsidian_client.py:225-229 (helper)

Helper method in ObsidianClient that reads the file content and parses the YAML frontmatter using the frontmatter library.

async def get_file_frontmatter(self, filepath: str) -> Dict[str, Any]:
    """Extract frontmatter from a file."""
    content = await self.read_file(filepath)
    metadata, _ = self.parse_frontmatter(content)
    return metadata

src/custom_obsidian_mcp/obsidian_client.py:176-189 (helper)

Utility method that uses the 'frontmatter' library to parse YAML frontmatter from markdown content, returning metadata and body.

def parse_frontmatter(self, content: str) -> tuple[Dict[str, Any], str]:
    """
    Parse frontmatter from content.
    
    Returns:
        Tuple of (frontmatter_dict, body_content)
    """
    try:
        post = frontmatter.loads(content)
        return post.metadata, post.content
    except Exception:
        # No frontmatter found
        return {}, content

Obsidian MCP Server