obsidian_update_links

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• src/tools.ts:585-595 (registration)

  Registration of the obsidian_update_links tool in the MCP server with its Zod schema and handler that delegates to updateLinksAcrossVault.

  tool(
    "obsidian_update_links",
    "Rewrite incoming wiki-links and Markdown links from one target path to another. Dry-run by default.",
    {
      vault: vaultArg,
      from: pathArg,
      to: pathArg,
      dryRun: z.boolean().optional().default(true),
    },
    async (args) => ({ rewrites: await updateLinksAcrossVault(vaults, args.vault, vaults.notePath(args.from), vaults.notePath(args.to), { dryRun: args.dryRun }) }),
  );

• src/ops.ts:55-91 (handler)

  Core handler that iterates all Markdown files in the vault, rewrites wiki-links ([[...]]) and Markdown links ([...](...)) from the old path to the new path, with dry-run support.

  export async function updateLinksAcrossVault(
    vaults: VaultManager,
    vault: string | undefined,
    fromPath: string,
    toPath: string,
    options: { dryRun?: boolean } = {},
  ): Promise<Array<{ path: string; changed: number; preview?: string }>> {
    const files = await vaults.markdownFiles(vault);
    const fromNoExt = fromPath.replace(/\.md$/i, "");
    const fromBase = path.posix.basename(fromNoExt);
    const toNoExt = toPath.replace(/\.md$/i, "");
    const rewrites: Array<{ path: string; changed: number; preview?: string }> = [];
    for (const file of files) {
      const read = await vaults.readText(file, vault);
      let changed = 0;
      let next = read.text.replace(/(!?)\[\[([^\]\n]+)\]\]/g, (full, embed: string, inner: string) => {
        const [targetAndSection, display] = inner.split("|", 2);
        const sectionMatch = /([#^].*)$/.exec(targetAndSection);
        const section = sectionMatch?.[1] ?? "";
        const target = targetAndSection.replace(/[#^].*$/, "").trim().replace(/\.md$/i, "");
        if (target !== fromNoExt && target !== fromBase && target !== fromPath) return full;
        changed += 1;
        return `${embed}[[${toNoExt}${section}${display ? `|${display}` : ""}]]`;
      });
      next = next.replace(/\[([^\]\n]+)\]\(([^)\n]+)\)/g, (full, label: string, target: string) => {
        const clean = decodeURIComponent(target).replace(/^\.\//, "");
        if (clean !== fromPath && clean !== fromNoExt && clean !== `${fromNoExt}.md`) return full;
        changed += 1;
        return `[${label}](${encodeURI(toPath)})`;
      });
      if (changed > 0) {
        rewrites.push({ path: read.path, changed, preview: options.dryRun ? previewDiff(read.text, next) : undefined });
        if (!options.dryRun) await vaults.writeText(read.path, next, vault, { overwrite: true });
      }
    }
    return rewrites;
  }

• src/ops.ts:195-207 (helper)

  Helper used by updateLinksAcrossVault to generate a preview diff of changed lines for dry-run mode.

  function previewDiff(before: string, after: string): string {
    const beforeLines = before.split("\n");
    const afterLines = after.split("\n");
    const out: string[] = [];
    const max = Math.max(beforeLines.length, afterLines.length);
    for (let i = 0; i < max && out.length < 20; i += 1) {
      if (beforeLines[i] !== afterLines[i]) {
        if (beforeLines[i] !== undefined) out.push(`-${beforeLines[i]}`);
        if (afterLines[i] !== undefined) out.push(`+${afterLines[i]}`);
      }
    }
    return out.join("\n");
  }

• src/tools.ts:588-594 (schema)

  Zod input schema for obsidian_update_links: vault (optional), from (path), to (path), dryRun (boolean, default true).

  {
    vault: vaultArg,
    from: pathArg,
    to: pathArg,
    dryRun: z.boolean().optional().default(true),
  },
  async (args) => ({ rewrites: await updateLinksAcrossVault(vaults, args.vault, vaults.notePath(args.from), vaults.notePath(args.to), { dryRun: args.dryRun }) }),

• src/tools.ts:28-28 (registration)

  Import of updateLinksAcrossVault from ops.ts into tools.ts registration file.

  import { batchRename, deleteFolder, pruneEmptyDirs, regexReplaceAcrossVault, updateLinksAcrossVault } from "./ops.js";