OBSIDIANMCP Server

The Obsidian MCP Server bridges AI agents to your Obsidian vault through the Local REST API plugin. It turns your vault into a queryable, writable knowledge base — a natural fit for anyone using Obsidian as a personal wiki, research repository, or daily journal. The agent pulls context from your existing notes to give more grounded, personalized answers.

Two connection options:

• HTTP (recommended) — non-encrypted local server, typically at http://127.0.0.1:27123. Simplest setup.
• HTTPS — encrypted endpoint at https://127.0.0.1:27124 with a self-signed certificate. Requires OBSIDIAN_VERIFY_SSL=false.

What you can do:

• Read notes — retrieve content and metadata in markdown or JSON format
• Search vault — full-text and regex search across the entire vault with pagination and path filtering
• Create & update — write new notes or modify existing ones via append, prepend, or overwrite
• Search & replace — find-and-replace within a specific note using text or regex
• Frontmatter — get, set, or delete YAML frontmatter keys atomically
• Tags — add, remove, or retrieve tags from notes (frontmatter and inline)
• List directories — browse files and subdirectories with filtering by extension or name
• Delete notes — permanently remove files from the vault

Prerequisites

1. Obsidian installed with a vault open
2. Local REST API plugin enabled — go to Settings > Community plugins, search "Local REST API", install and enable it
3. API key — generated in the plugin settings (copy it for the next step)
4. Node.js v18+ with npm

Setup — Claude Code

1. Run:

   claude mcp add obsidian-server -e OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY -e OBSIDIAN_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:27123 -- npx obsidian-mcp-server
   

2. Start a new Claude Code instance
3. Use /mcp to verify the server is connected

Setup — Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["obsidian-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "YOUR_KEY",
        "OBSIDIAN_BASE_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:27123"
      }
    }
  }
}

Setup — Cursor / VS Code / Windsurf

Add to your MCP configuration (.mcp.json or editor settings):

{
  "servers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["obsidian-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "YOUR_KEY",
        "OBSIDIAN_BASE_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:27123"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example prompts

"Search my vault for everything I've written about microservices architecture and summarize it."

"Create a new note in Projects titled 'CLI Rewrite Plan' with sections for goals, timeline, and open questions."

"Read today's daily note and pull out all action items into a bullet list."

"Find all notes tagged #product-ideas and identify common themes across them."

Tips for better results

Keep your vault organized with clear folder structures and consistent tagging — the agent's search results improve dramatically with well-named notes and meaningful frontmatter. For large vaults, the built-in cache (enabled by default, refreshes every 10 minutes) keeps operations fast. If you're on HTTPS, set OBSIDIAN_VERIFY_SSL=false to avoid self-signed certificate errors.