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Obsidian MCP

MCP server for git-backed Obsidian vaults. Access and manage notes through Claude, ChatGPT, and other LLMs with automatic git sync. Supports local (stdio/HTTP) and remote (AWS Lambda) deployment.

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Obsidian MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for git-backed Obsidian vaults. Access and manage your notes through Claude, ChatGPT, and other LLMs by syncing changes via git.

Overview
Quick Start
How It Works
Prerequisites
Deployment Options
Usage Examples
Tool Reference
Resources
Documentation
License

Overview

This MCP server provides 18 tools and 1 resource to interact with your Obsidian vault through LLMs:

Tool Categories:

File Operations (9) - Read, create, edit, delete, move, append, and patch notes
Directory Operations (3) - Create directories and list files
Search (1) - Fuzzy search with relevance scoring and exact matching
Tag Management (4) - Add, remove, rename, and manage tags
Journal Logging (1) - Auto-log LLM activity to daily journals

Deployment Modes:

Stdio - Local deployment for Claude Desktop, Cursor
HTTP - Local/remote with OAuth for ChatGPT, Claude web
AWS Lambda - Serverless deployment with DynamoDB sessions

Quick Start

Get started with Claude Desktop in 3 steps using Docker:

# 1. Download the example environment file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eddmann/obsidian-mcp/main/.env.example
mv .env.example obsidian-mcp.env

# 2. Edit obsidian-mcp.env with your vault repo and git token
# Required fields:
#   VAULT_REPO=https://github.com/username/vault-repo.git
#   VAULT_BRANCH=main
#   GIT_TOKEN=your_token_here

3. Add to Claude Desktop config:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-v",
        "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/obsidian-mcp.env:/app/.env",
        "ghcr.io/eddmann/obsidian-mcp:latest",
        "stdio"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-v",
        "C:\\ABSOLUTE\\PATH\\TO\\obsidian-mcp.env:/app/.env",
        "ghcr.io/eddmann/obsidian-mcp:latest",
        "stdio"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop and start chatting with your vault!

Prefer npm? Click here for npm-based setup

# 1. Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/eddmann/obsidian-mcp
cd obsidian-mcp
npm install

# 2. Configure credentials
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your vault repo and git token

3. Add to Claude Desktop config:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "npm",
      "args": ["run", "--prefix", "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/obsidian-mcp", "dev"]
    }
  }
}

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "npm",
      "args": ["run", "--prefix", "C:\\ABSOLUTE\\PATH\\TO\\obsidian-mcp", "dev"]
    }
  }
}

How It Works

This server is designed for git-backed Obsidian vaults managed by plugins like obsidian-git.

graph LR
    A[Git Repository] -->|1. Clone/Pull| B[MCP Server]
    B -->|2. LLM Modifies| C[Local Vault Copy]
    C -->|3. Auto Commit & Push| A
    A -->|4. Sync| D[Obsidian Clients]

    style B fill:#4a9eff
    style C fill:#7c3aed

Workflow:

Server clones/pulls your vault from git
LLM makes changes through MCP tools
Server automatically commits and pushes changes
Your Obsidian clients pull to stay synchronized

This enables LLM access without Obsidian being open, with all changes synchronized via git.

Prerequisites

System Requirements

Docker (recommended), OR Node.js 22+ and npm
AWS Account (only for Lambda deployment)

Vault Requirements

Git-initialized Obsidian vault - Your vault must be a git repository
Pushed to a remote - Supports GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or self-hosted
Git Personal Access Token - See Git Providers documentation
Sync-enabled (recommended) - Use obsidian-git plugin for automatic sync

Deployment Options

Claude Desktop (Local)

Using Docker:

See Quick Start above for the recommended Docker-based setup.

Prefer npm? Click here for npm-based setup

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/eddmann/obsidian-mcp
cd obsidian-mcp
npm install

# Configure credentials
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your vault repo and git token

Claude Desktop config:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "npm",
      "args": ["run", "--prefix", "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/obsidian-mcp", "dev"]
    }
  }
}

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "npm",
      "args": ["run", "--prefix", "C:\\ABSOLUTE\\PATH\\TO\\obsidian-mcp", "dev"]
    }
  }
}

ChatGPT & Remote Clients

Run the server in HTTP mode with OAuth authentication:

Using Docker:

docker run -p 3000:3000 --rm \
  -v "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/obsidian-mcp.env:/app/.env" \
  ghcr.io/eddmann/obsidian-mcp:latest \
  http

Using npm:

# First clone the repo if you haven't already
git clone https://github.com/eddmann/obsidian-mcp
cd obsidian-mcp
npm install

# Configure all environment variables (including OAuth)
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env

# Run HTTP server
npm run dev:http

Required environment variables:

All core variables (see .env.example)
OAuth variables: OAUTH_CLIENT_ID, OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET, PERSONAL_AUTH_TOKEN, BASE_URL

See Deployment Guide for detailed configuration and ChatGPT integration.

AWS Lambda

Deploy to AWS Lambda for remote access with DynamoDB session storage:

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/eddmann/obsidian-mcp
cd obsidian-mcp

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Configure all environment variables (including OAuth)
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env

# 4. Deploy to AWS
npm run cdk:deploy

What gets deployed:

Lambda function (ARM64, 2GB memory, 10GB storage)
DynamoDB table with TTL-based sessions
Function URL with CORS enabled
CloudWatch logs (1-week retention)

Cleanup:

npm run cdk:destroy

See Deployment Guide for complete setup instructions.

Usage Examples

Ask your LLM to interact with your vault using natural language:

File Operations

"Can you read my project note at Projects/MCP-Server.md?"
"Read all my daily notes from the past week"
"Create a new meeting note in Work/Meetings for today's standup"
"Add a task list to my project plan under the Action Items section"

Directory Operations

"Set up a new folder structure for my research papers"
"What markdown files do I have in my vault?"
"Show me all the PDFs in my Resources folder"

Search

"Find all my notes about machine learning"
"Where did I write about TODO items?"
"Search my Projects folder for anything about deployment"

Tag Management

"Tag my meeting note with work and urgent"
"I want to consolidate my todo tags into a single task tag"
"What tags am I using the most?"

Journal Logging

"Log today's work: I implemented OAuth for the MCP server using TypeScript and AWS"
"Add a journal entry about my Rust research - I learned about async patterns and tokio"
"Journal this: spent time learning TypeScript generics and created some helper utilities"

Tool Reference

File Operations (9 tools)

View all file operation tools

Tool	Description
`read-note`	Read the contents of a note file
`read-notes`	Read multiple notes in a single request for improved efficiency (accepts array of paths, handles partial success)
`create-note`	Create a new note with content (automatically creates parent directories if needed)
`edit-note`	Replace the entire content of an existing note
`delete-note`	Permanently delete a note file from the vault
`move-note`	Move a note to a different directory or rename it
`append-content`	Append content to the end of an existing note, or create a new note if it doesn't exist
`patch-content`	Insert or update content at specific locations: headings, block identifiers, text matches, or YAML frontmatter
`apply-diff-patch`	Apply a unified diff patch to a file using standard diff format (strict matching, precise line-based changes)

See Tool Documentation for detailed usage and examples.

Directory Operations (3 tools)

View all directory operation tools

Tool	Description
`create-directory`	Create a new directory in the vault (supports nested paths)
`list-files-in-vault`	List all markdown files and directories in the vault root
`list-files-in-dir`	List all files and subdirectories within a specific directory path

See Tool Documentation for detailed usage and examples.

Search (1 tool)

View search tool

Tool	Description
`search-vault`	Search vault filenames and content using fuzzy matching (powered by fuse.js) or exact string matching with context lines

See Tool Documentation for detailed usage and examples.

Tag Management (4 tools)

View all tag management tools

Tool	Description
`add-tags`	Add hashtags to a note's YAML frontmatter or inline within the note content
`remove-tags`	Remove specified hashtags from a note's frontmatter and/or inline content
`rename-tag`	Rename a tag across all notes in the vault (updates both frontmatter and inline)
`manage-tags`	List all tags with usage counts, or merge multiple tags into a single unified tag

See Tool Documentation for detailed usage and examples.

Journal Logging (1 tool)

View journal logging tool

Tool	Description
`log-journal-entry`	Log timestamped activity entries to daily journal files (auto-creates journal from template)

See Tool Documentation for detailed usage and examples.

Resources

MCP resources provide contextual information that LLMs can access on-demand.

Vault README

Resource	URI	Description
`vault-readme`	`obsidian://vault-readme`	Provides access to the README.md file from your vault root containing organization guidelines and vault-specific conventions

If your vault contains a README.md file in its root directory, LLMs can access it to understand how your vault is organized.

Documentation

Tool Reference - Detailed documentation for all 18 tools with usage examples
Deployment Guide - Complete deployment instructions for all modes
Git Providers - Setup instructions for GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and self-hosted providers

License

MIT

Obsidian MCP

Installation

Reviews

Documentation

Obsidian MCP Server

Table of Contents

Overview

Quick Start

How It Works

Prerequisites

Deployment Options

Claude Desktop (Local)

ChatGPT & Remote Clients

AWS Lambda

Usage Examples

Tool Reference

File Operations (9 tools)

Directory Operations (3 tools)

Search (1 tool)

Tag Management (4 tools)

Journal Logging (1 tool)

Resources

Vault README

Documentation

License

Security Checklist