Obsidian MCP Plugin

An Obsidian desktop plugin that runs an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, exposing vault operations as tools over Streamable HTTP. AI agents like Claude, Codex, and others can connect and interact with your vault programmatically.

Features

• 55 MCP tools across 8 modules (the exact, always-current breakdown is in docs/tools.generated.md)
• Vault Operations: Create, read, update, delete, move, copy files and folders
• Search & Metadata: Full-text search, frontmatter, tags, headings, links, backlinks
• Editor Operations: Access and manipulate the active editor
• Workspace: Manage panes, open files, navigate the workspace
• UI Interactions: Show notices, modals, and prompts
• Templates: List, create from, and expand templates
• Plugin Interop: List plugins, execute commands, Dataview/Templater integration
• Extras: Utility tools toggled per tool (e.g. get_date)
• Security: Bearer token authentication, CORS, path traversal protection
• Dynamic module toggles: Enable/disable feature categories with a single per-module switch

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (coming soon)

1. Open Settings > Community plugins
2. Search for "MCP Server"
3. Install and enable

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create folder <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/vault-mcp-server/
3. Copy the downloaded files into the folder
4. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin

Quick Start

1. Open plugin settings and click Generate to create an access key
2. The MCP server starts automatically on port 28741
3. Connect your MCP client using the configuration below

MCP Client Setup

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:28741/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add obsidian --transport http --url http://127.0.0.1:28741 --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
Server Address	127.0.0.1	IP address the server binds to (localhost only by default)
Port	28741	HTTP port for the MCP server
Access Key	(empty)	Bearer token for authentication
HTTPS	Off	Enable HTTPS with self-signed certificate
Debug Mode	Off	Verbose logging of requests/responses

Feature modules can be individually enabled or disabled in the settings tab. When a module is enabled, all of its tools are exposed.

Commands

• Start MCP Server — Start the server
• Stop MCP Server — Stop the server
• Restart MCP Server — Restart the server
• Copy Access Key — Copy the access key to clipboard

Security

• All requests require a valid Bearer token
• File operations are scoped to the vault directory (path traversal protection)
• Access key is never logged, even in debug mode
• CORS headers are restrictive by default
• HTTPS available with locally generated self-signed certificates

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

License

GPL-3.0-only