obsidian-mcp

A high-performance MCP server that gives AI agents full read/write access to Obsidian vaults. Written in Rust. Ships as a single binary.

No Obsidian plugins. No REST API. No Obsidian running. Just your vault on disk.

Why?

Existing solutions for AI + Obsidian require the Obsidian app to be running with a community plugin (obsidian-local-rest-api) and an MCP wrapper (mcp-obsidian) on top. That's fragile, slow, and limited to what the REST API exposes.

obsidian-mcp talks directly to the filesystem. It understands the Obsidian format natively — wikilinks, frontmatter, tags, block references, periodic notes, the full graph. It builds fast in-memory indices on startup and keeps them synced via a filesystem watcher. The result is a single dependency-free binary that works whether Obsidian is open or not.

Quick Start

# Install
cargo install obsidian-mcp

# Run (stdio — for MCP clients that launch the process)
obsidian-mcp /path/to/your/vault

# Run (HTTP — shared server for multiple agents)
obsidian-mcp --http /path/to/your/vault

Add to your MCP client config (Cursor, Claude Desktop, etc.) and you're done — 18 tools are available immediately.

What It Can Do

Category	Capabilities
Navigate	List files, tree view, vault stats
Read & write	Create, read, overwrite, append, prepend, move, delete notes
Patch	Edit individual heading sections, block references, or frontmatter fields without touching the rest of the note
Search	BM25 full-text (Tantivy) with stemming, fuzzy matching, and per-field filtering. Semantic search via local embeddings. Regex. Tag and frontmatter queries.
Graph	Backlinks, outgoing links, broken link detection, orphan discovery
Frontmatter	Get/set/remove fields, query notes by metadata
Periodic notes	Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly — with Obsidian-compatible date formats and template expansion

All indices (metadata, BM25, embeddings) update in real time via a filesystem watcher.

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install obsidian-mcp

For semantic search local compatibility mode (OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MODE=local), build with embeddings:

cargo install obsidian-mcp --features embeddings

The embeddings feature adds ~60 MB to the binary (ONNX Runtime). In daemon mode, model/runtime cache is shared under semantic home; local mode keeps in-process embedding support in the MCP binary.

On Windows, local embeddings builds require a recent MSVC Build Tools toolset for ONNX Runtime. MSVC 14.44+ is known to work; older VS 2019-era 14.2x toolsets may fail to link with __std_find_trivial_8. Use --features embeddings-api instead if you want semantic search through an external /v1/embeddings server without bundling ONNX Runtime.

For API embedding backend (OpenAI, Ollama, vLLM, LM Studio, or any /v1/embeddings-compatible endpoint):

cargo install obsidian-mcp --features embeddings-api

This adds no model weight to the binary — embeddings are computed by an external server. Both features can be compiled simultaneously; OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER selects which runs.

API backend examples

# OpenAI
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDINGS=true
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=api
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_KEY=sk-...
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_MODEL=text-embedding-3-small

# Ollama (local, no auth)
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDINGS=true
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=api
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_BASE=http://localhost:11434/v1
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_MODEL=nomic-embed-text
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_KEY=unused

# vLLM / LM Studio
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDINGS=true
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=api
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_BASE=http://localhost:8000/v1
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_MODEL=BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_KEY=unused

# OpenRouter (25+ embedding models from multiple providers)
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDINGS=true
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=api
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_BASE=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_MODEL=openai/text-embedding-3-small
OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-...

Pre-built binaries

Grab the latest from GitHub Releases:

Platform	Archive
Linux x86_64	`obsidian-mcp-<version>-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz`
Linux ARM64	`obsidian-mcp-<version>-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz`
macOS Intel	`obsidian-mcp-<version>-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz`
macOS Apple Silicon	`obsidian-mcp-<version>-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz`
Windows x86_64	`obsidian-mcp-<version>-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip`

Semantic daemon release assets are also published per target:

obsidian-semanticd-<version>-<target>.tar.gz (Unix)
obsidian-semanticd-<version>-<target>.zip (Windows)

Install from source (edge)

If you have the repo cloned, you can install the latest main build locally:

./bin/install-edge

This pulls the latest main and runs cargo install --path . --features embeddings.

Semantic Runtime Compatibility

Current semantic daemon API version: 1 (DAEMON_API_VERSION in src/daemon/protocol.rs).

Component	Compatibility contract	Enforcement
`obsidian-mcp`	Daemon API version must match exactly	MCP daemon `health` handshake validates `min_api_version`/`max_api_version` against current API version and fails fast on mismatch
`obsidian-semantic-search-plugin`	Daemon API version must match exactly	Plugin bootstrap performs daemon `health` handshake and surfaces explicit incompatibility notices

Release asset compatibility expectations:

Daemon auto-install clients expect release assets named obsidian-semanticd-<version>-<target>.{tar.gz|zip} plus checksums.sha256.
Plugin releases should publish main.js, manifest.json, and optional styles.css as GitHub release assets.

Upgrade guidance:

Prefer upgrading obsidian-mcp, obsidian-semanticd, and obsidian-semantic-search-plugin together.
If versions are skewed, startup/handshake fails with explicit API incompatibility errors rather than silent fallback.

Transport Modes

obsidian-mcp supports two transports. Both are always compiled in — choose the one that fits your workflow.

stdio (default)

The standard MCP transport. The AI client spawns the process and communicates over stdin/stdout.

Use when: your MCP client manages the server process (Cursor, Claude Desktop, most MCP clients).

obsidian-mcp /path/to/vault

Each client connection spawns its own process. Simple, zero-config, works everywhere.

Streamable HTTP

A persistent HTTP server that multiple clients can connect to simultaneously.

Use when: you run multiple headless agents (cursor agent -p, parallel Claude sessions, etc.) against the same vault and want to share a single server process instead of spawning one per agent.

# Foreground (for development / process managers like launchd, systemd)
obsidian-mcp --http /path/to/vault

# Background (ad-hoc daemonize — spawns child, parent exits)
obsidian-mcp serve /path/to/vault

The serve command daemonizes the server and redirects logs to a platform-specific file:

macOS: ~/Library/Logs/obsidian-mcp.log
Linux: $XDG_STATE_HOME/obsidian-mcp/obsidian-mcp.log
Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%/obsidian-mcp/obsidian-mcp.log

Default: http://127.0.0.1:37842. MCP tools are served at /mcp, health check at /health.

Benefits over stdio for multi-agent setups:

Shared index — one in-memory BM25/embedding index instead of N copies
Lower resource usage — single filesystem watcher, single process
Process independence — server stays up when agents come and go
Standard observability — HTTP health checks, logging, standard networking

Configure the address:

obsidian-mcp --http --port 9000 --host 0.0.0.0 /path/to/vault
# or via env vars
OBSIDIAN_TRANSPORT=http OBSIDIAN_HTTP_PORT=9000 obsidian-mcp /path/to/vault

Server Management

obsidian-mcp serve /path/to/vault    # Start HTTP server in background
obsidian-mcp stop                    # Stop running server (default port)
obsidian-mcp stop --port 9000        # Stop server on specific port
obsidian-mcp restart /path/to/vault  # Stop + start (picks up new binary after upgrade)

serve and restart wait for the server to pass a /health check before reporting success (up to 15s). If the server fails during startup, the exit code and log path are reported.

Client Setup

Cursor (stdio)

~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "obsidian-mcp",
      "args": ["/path/to/your/vault"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor (HTTP — shared server)

Start the server once:

obsidian-mcp serve /path/to/your/vault

Then point Cursor at it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:37842/mcp"
    }
  }
}

All Cursor agents (IDE, CLI, headless) share the same server.

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "obsidian-mcp",
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH": "/path/to/your/vault",
        "OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDINGS": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config file location:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Any MCP client

obsidian-mcp supports both stdio and Streamable HTTP MCP transports. Any MCP-compatible client can connect via either method. Pass the vault path as the first argument or via OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH.

Running as a Service

For always-on HTTP mode, use your OS process manager with --http (not serve). This lets the process manager handle restarts, logging, and lifecycle — serve daemonizes itself, which conflicts with process managers that expect to own the child process.

macOS (launchd)

Create ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.obsidian-mcp.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
  "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.obsidian-mcp</string>

  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Users/YOU/.cargo/bin/obsidian-mcp</string>
    <string>--http</string>
  </array>

  <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
  <dict>
    <key>OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH</key>
    <string>/path/to/your/vault</string>
    <!-- Add embedding env vars here if using API embeddings:
    <key>OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDINGS</key>
    <string>true</string>
    <key>OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER</key>
    <string>api</string>
    <key>OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_KEY</key>
    <string>sk-...</string>
    <key>OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_BASE</key>
    <string>https://api.openai.com/v1</string>
    <key>OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_MODEL</key>
    <string>text-embedding-3-small</string>
    -->
  </dict>

  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>

  <key>KeepAlive</key>
  <true/>

  <key>StandardOutPath</key>
  <string>/Users/YOU/Library/Logs/obsidian-mcp/launchd.out.log</string>

  <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
  <string>/Users/YOU/Library/Logs/obsidian-mcp/launchd.err.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Important: launchd does not source your shell profile (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc). All environment variables must be defined in the plist's EnvironmentVariables section.

# Load
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.obsidian-mcp.plist

# Unload (stop)
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.obsidian-mcp.plist

# Restart (after upgrade)
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.obsidian-mcp.plist && \
  launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.obsidian-mcp.plist

Linux (systemd)

Create ~/.config/systemd/user/obsidian-mcp.service:

[Unit]
Description=obsidian-mcp MCP server
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=%h/.cargo/bin/obsidian-mcp --http
Environment=OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH=/path/to/your/vault
# Add embedding env vars if needed:
# Environment=OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDINGS=true
# Environment=OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=api
# Environment=OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_KEY=sk-...
# Environment=OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_BASE=https://api.openai.com/v1
# Environment=OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_MODEL=text-embedding-3-small
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now obsidian-mcp

# Check status
systemctl --user status obsidian-mcp

# Restart (after upgrade)
systemctl --user restart obsidian-mcp

# View logs
journalctl --user -u obsidian-mcp -f

Upgrading

# Install new version
cargo install obsidian-mcp --force
# With features:
cargo install obsidian-mcp --features embeddings,embeddings-api --force

# Restart the running server to pick up the new binary
obsidian-mcp restart /path/to/vault

# Or if using a process manager:
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.obsidian-mcp.plist && \
  launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.obsidian-mcp.plist
# systemd: systemctl --user restart obsidian-mcp

cargo install --force replaces the binary on disk but does not restart any running server. You must restart manually — otherwise the old version continues serving.

Search

Three tiers, each suited to different needs.

BM25 Full-Text — `search_text`

On by default. Powered by Tantivy, rebuilt in-memory on startup (< 100 ms for 5k notes).

Stemming — "deploy" matches "deployment", "deployed", "deploying"
Field boosts — title 5x, tags 4x, headings 3x, frontmatter 2x, body 1x
Fuzzy matching — fuzzy: true tolerates single-character typos (edit distance 1)
Field filtering — fields: ["title", "tags"] to restrict scope
Returns ranked results with context snippets and match offsets

Semantic — `search_semantic`

Uses the shared local semantic daemon by default (OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MODE=auto). Results keep the same MCP schema while backend execution can run through daemon or local compatibility mode.

Semantic runtime modes:

auto (default): prefer daemon, fallback to local in-process embeddings when daemon is unavailable and local embeddings are enabled.
daemon: daemon-only path; semantic calls fail clearly if daemon is unavailable.
local: force legacy in-process embeddings path.

Daemon startup policy:

MCP only initializes/starts the daemon when OBSIDIAN_WATCH=true.
When OBSIDIAN_WATCH=false, MCP skips daemon initialization and semantic search must use local mode (if enabled) or returns a clear error.
Finds notes by meaning, not keywords — "making money from software" surfaces notes about monetization
Hybrid mode — lexical_prefetch: true combines BM25 candidate retrieval with semantic re-ranking
Tunable blending — alpha controls the weight between lexical and semantic scores (default 0.25)
Daemon cache migration is one-way and non-destructive: legacy .obsidian/obsidian-mcp/embeddings.bin is copied into daemon namespace store when available, and never deleted automatically

Regex — `search_regex`

Always available. Full regex syntax for pattern matching across all notes.

When to Use What

Need	Tool
Known keyword or phrase	`search_text`
Keyword with possible typo	`search_text` + `fuzzy: true`
Conceptual — "notes about X"	`search_semantic`
Best precision + recall	`search_semantic` + `lexical_prefetch: true`
Structural pattern (URLs, IDs)	`search_regex`
By tag or metadata	`search_metadata`

Tool Reference

Navigation

Tool	Parameters	Description
`vault_list`	`path?`, `recursive?`, `glob?`, `format?`, `max_depth?`	List files (`format: "list"`) or tree view (`format: "tree"`)
`vault_info`	—	Aggregate vault statistics

Note CRUD

Tool	Parameters	Description
`note_read`	`path`	Read full note content
`note_create`	`path`, `content?`, `frontmatter?`	Create a new note
`note_write`	`path`, `content`	Overwrite note content
`note_insert`	`path`, `content`, `position?`	Insert at end (`"end"`, default) or beginning (`"beginning"`)
`note_patch`	`path`, `operation`, `target_type`, `target`, `content`	Patch a heading section, block ref, or frontmatter field
`note_delete`	`path`, `confirm`	Delete a note (requires `confirm: true`)
`note_move`	`from`, `to`	Move or rename a note

Search

Tool	Parameters	Description
`search_text`	`query`, `fuzzy?`, `fields?`, `context_length?`, `max_results?`	BM25 full-text search with stemming
`search_semantic`	`query`, `top_k?`, `include_content?`, `lexical_prefetch?`, `alpha?`	Semantic similarity search
`search_regex`	`pattern`, `context_length?`, `max_results?`	Regex pattern search
`search_metadata`	`type`, `tag?`, `include_nested?`, `field?`, `value?`, `operator?`	Find by tag (`type: "tag"`) or frontmatter (`type: "frontmatter"`)

Introspection & Frontmatter

Tool	Parameters	Description
`note_inspect`	`path`, `view?`	Metadata (`"metadata"`, default) or patchable targets (`"targets"`)
`frontmatter`	`action`, `path`, `key?`, `value?`	Get (`"get"`), set (`"set"`), or remove (`"remove"`) frontmatter fields

Graph & Links

Tool	Parameters	Description
`wikilinks`	`query`, `path?`	Backlinks, outgoing, broken, or orphans (`query: "backlinks"/"outgoing"/"broken"/"orphans"`)

Periodic Notes

Tool	Parameters	Description
`periodic`	`action`, `period`, `date?`, `content?`, `limit?`	Get, create, or list periodic notes (`action: "get"/"create"/"list"`)

Utility

Tool	Parameters	Description
`open_in_obsidian`	`path`, `new_leaf?`	Open note in Obsidian via `obsidian://` URI

Tool Filtering

Control which tools are exposed via the OBSIDIAN_TOOLS environment variable or per-session X-Obsidian-Tools HTTP header.

Value	Effect
`full` (or unset)	All 18 tools
`core`	14 tools — drops `search_semantic`, `search_regex`, `periodic`, `open_in_obsidian`
`read`	10 tools — read-only (no create/write/insert/patch/delete/move)
`minimal`	6 tools — `vault_list`, `vault_info`, `note_read`, `note_create`, `note_write`, `search_text`
`tool1,tool2,...`	Allow-list — only the named tools
`!tool1,!tool2,...`	Deny-list — all tools except the named ones

Configuration

Variable	Required	Default	Description
`OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH`	Yes*	—	Absolute path to your Obsidian vault
`OBSIDIAN_TRANSPORT`	No	`stdio`	Transport mode: `stdio` or `http`
`OBSIDIAN_HTTP_PORT`	No	`37842`	HTTP listen port
`OBSIDIAN_HTTP_HOST`	No	`127.0.0.1`	HTTP bind address
`OBSIDIAN_WATCH`	No	`true`	Filesystem watcher for live index updates
`OBSIDIAN_LOG_LEVEL`	No	`info`	`trace`, `debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`
`OBSIDIAN_TANTIVY`	No	`true`	BM25 full-text index
`OBSIDIAN_TOOLS`	No	`full`	Tool filtering: profile name, comma-separated allow-list, or `!`-prefixed deny-list
`OBSIDIAN_MCP_DATA`	No	`{vault}/.obsidian-mcp`	External obsidian-mcp data directory. When set, cache/config data is stored under `{value}/vaults/{vault_slug}/` and merged with vault-local config
`OBSIDIAN_EXCLUDE_PATHS`	No	(empty)	Comma-separated glob patterns excluded from indexing, search, graph, and stats. Merged with `.obsidian-mcp/ignore`; restart after changing ignore files
`OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDINGS`	No	`false`	Semantic embedding search (requires `embeddings` or `embeddings-api` feature)
`OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDINGS_MODEL`	No	`BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5`	HuggingFace model for embeddings
`OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER`	No	(infer)	Embedding backend: `local` (fastembed) or `api` (OpenAI-compatible)
`OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_KEY`	When api	Fallback: `OPENAI_API_KEY`	API authentication key
`OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_BASE`	No	`https://api.openai.com/v1`	Embedding API base URL (fallback: `OPENAI_BASE_URL`)
`OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_API_MODEL`	When api	Fallback: `OPENAI_MODEL`	Model name for embedding API
`OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_DIM`	No	(probed)	Override embedding dimension (skips API probe)
`OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_CA_CERT`	No	—	Path to PEM CA certificate for API TLS
`OBSIDIAN_EMBEDDING_TLS_VERIFY`	No	`true`	Set to `false` to skip TLS verification
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MODE`	No	`auto`	Semantic backend mode: `auto`, `daemon`, `local`
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_HOME`	No	OS data-dir default	Shared semantic runtime home for daemon bin/model/cache state
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_DAEMON_PATH`	No	unset	Override daemon binary path used by bootstrap
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_DAEMON_DOWNLOAD_URL`	No	`https://github.com/lstpsche/obsidian-mcp/releases/download/v<version>/obsidian-semanticd-<version>-<target>.<ext>`	Override daemon download URL when binary is missing
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MODEL`	No	`BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5`	Default model used by semantic daemon runtime
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ENDPOINT`	No	`<semantic-home>/ipc/...`	Daemon-only endpoint override (internal/runtime use)
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MS`	No	`2000`	Per-call daemon timeout in milliseconds
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_CONNECT_RETRIES`	No	`2`	Daemon retry attempts after the first failed call
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_RETRY_BACKOFF_MS`	No	`250`	Base retry backoff in milliseconds
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_PREFETCH`	No	`50`	Default lexical prefetch candidate count for hybrid daemon queries
`OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALPHA`	No	`0.25`	Default hybrid blend weight (`alpha * BM25 + (1-alpha) * semantic`)
`OBSIDIAN_HYBRID_ALPHA`	No	alias	Backward-compatible alias for `OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALPHA`
`FASTEMBED_CACHE_DIR`	No	`<semantic-home>/model/fastembed-cache`	Daemon-internal shared fastembed cache root

* Also accepted as the first CLI argument: obsidian-mcp /path/to/vault

Architecture

AI Client(s)
 │
 ├─ stdio (1:1 process)       ←  default, single-client
 │     OR
 ├─ HTTP POST /mcp (N:1)      ←  shared server, multi-client
 │
 ▼
obsidian-mcp
 ├─ tools/          MCP handlers — translate protocol into vault ops
 ├─ vault/
 │  ├─ index        In-memory metadata (tags, links, headings)
 │  ├─ tantivy      BM25 full-text search
 │  ├─ embeddings   Semantic vectors (optional)
 │  └─ watcher      Filesystem events → index sync
 ├─ models.rs       Shared types
 └─ error.rs        VaultError → MCP ErrorData
 │ fs
 ▼
Vault directory (.md files + .obsidian/)

The vault layer is a pure Rust library with no knowledge of MCP. The tools layer is a thin adapter. This separation means the vault code is independently testable and reusable.

In HTTP mode, each MCP session gets its own handler instance, but all sessions share a single Vault (thread-safe via Arc<RwLock<...>>). One filesystem watcher, one BM25 index, one embedding store — regardless of how many agents are connected.

Development

cargo build                          # default build
cargo build --features embeddings    # with local semantic search (fastembed)
cargo build --features embeddings-api  # with API semantic search (OpenAI-compatible)

# stdio mode (default)
OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH=~/vault cargo run

# HTTP mode
OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH=~/vault cargo run -- --http

cargo fmt --check && cargo clippy && cargo test

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector cargo run   # interactive testing (stdio)

License

MIT

obsidian-mcp 2.2.1

obsidian-mcp

Why?

Quick Start

What It Can Do

Installation

From crates.io

API backend examples

Pre-built binaries

Install from source (edge)

Semantic Runtime Compatibility

Transport Modes

stdio (default)

Streamable HTTP

Server Management

Client Setup

Cursor (stdio)

Cursor (HTTP — shared server)

Claude Desktop

Any MCP client

Running as a Service

macOS (launchd)

Linux (systemd)

Upgrading

Search

BM25 Full-Text — search_text

Semantic — search_semantic

Regex — search_regex

When to Use What

Tool Reference

Navigation

Note CRUD

Search

Introspection & Frontmatter

Graph & Links

Periodic Notes

Utility

Tool Filtering

Configuration

Architecture

Development

License

BM25 Full-Text — `search_text`

Semantic — `search_semantic`

Regex — `search_regex`