mcp-obsidian-cli

Trademark Notice: "Obsidian" is a trademark of Obsidian Publishing, Inc. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Obsidian Publishing.

MCP server that wraps the Obsidian CLI, giving AI assistants full access to Obsidian's native API — search index, wikilink resolution, tasks, properties, daily notes, backlinks, and 80+ commands — through the Model Context Protocol.

Why this exists

Every existing Obsidian MCP server takes one of two approaches: the Local REST API plugin (requires API keys, HTTP overhead, limited command surface) or raw filesystem access (no Obsidian awareness — no search index, no wikilink resolution, no task queries). Both miss the point.

mcp-obsidian-cli wraps the Obsidian CLI plugin, which talks directly to the running Obsidian instance via IPC. This means full access to Obsidian's internal APIs with zero configuration — no API keys, no REST plugins, no token management.

Quick start

npx mcp-obsidian-cli

Claude Desktop config

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-obsidian-cli"],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT": "my-vault"
      }
    }
  }
}

Requirements

• Obsidian running with the CLI plugin active
• obsidian on your PATH
• Node.js >= 18

How it works

The server exposes Obsidian CLI commands as MCP tools. A generic pass-through tool handles the full CLI surface (80+ commands), plus typed convenience tools for common operations:

The generic obsidian tool means the MCP server never falls behind the CLI — new CLI commands work immediately without a server update.

Environment variables

Config file

The server can read settings from a YAML config file:

• Default: ~/.config/mcp-obsidian-cli/config.yaml
• With XDG_CONFIG_HOME: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mcp-obsidian-cli/config.yaml

Config file format:

vault: "my-vault"
cliPath: "obsidian"
timeoutMs: 15000

Config precedence: env vars > config file > hardcoded defaults

Compared to alternatives

License

MIT

Maintained by @stonematt Licensed under the MIT License