Recent Notes
vault_recent_notesList recently modified or created Obsidian notes sorted by timestamp to catch up on vault changes, find recent work, or reorient after a break.
Instructions
List recently modified or created notes, sorted by timestamp — a time-ordered window into the vault, not a date-range filter.
Example: vault_recent_notes({ limit: 10 }) Example: vault_recent_notes({ sort_by: "created", limit: 5 })
When to use: Catching up on vault changes, finding recent work, or orienting after a break. Prefer vault_search for content-based discovery, including a text query limited to a date range (its created and modified filters). Prefer vault_search_by_folder for browsing a specific folder.
Parameters:
sort_by "modified" uses filesystem mtime. Any file write counts (content edits, property changes, sync touches), so recently-synced notes appear recent even without user edits.
sort_by "created" uses the created property; notes where it is missing or not an ISO date sort after every dated note, so a small limit can leave them out — use "modified" to see them.
Behavior: Results can lag a file change by a few seconds.
Errors:
An empty vault returns an empty array, not an error.
"[SqliteError]: …" / "[IndexIntegrityError]: …" — the index failed, not the call; the message says what to do
Returns: JSON array of note metadata: path, title (the title property; file name without .md when missing or not text), tags (the tags property; vault_update_properties edits it), body_tags (#tags in the note's text, one per spelling; vault_replace_in_note edits them; absent when none), related ([] when missing), folder (top-level, "" at the root), type (null when missing or not text), created (null when missing or not an ISO date), modified (ISO 8601 file time), bytes (on-disk size), and when present leading_callout (the opening callout, { type, title, body }) and additional_properties (every property but title, type, created, related and tags). Newest first by the sort_by timestamp.
Tool call template
This tool declares no required parameters. Add optional parameters from the input schema as needed.
{
"id": 1,
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"arguments": {},
"name": "vault_recent_notes"
}
}Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| limit | No | Max results (default 20) | |
| sort_by | No | Timestamp to sort by (default "modified") | modified |