MCP server for Obsidian

MCP server to interact with Obsidian via the Local REST API community plugin.

Components

Tools

The server implements multiple tools to interact with Obsidian:

• list_files_in_vault: Lists all files and directories in the root directory of your Obsidian vault
• list_files_in_dir: Lists all files and directories in a specific Obsidian directory
• get_file_contents: Return the content of a single file in your vault.
• search: Search for documents matching a specified text query across all files in the vault
• patch_content: Insert content into an existing note relative to a heading, block reference, or frontmatter field.
• append_content: Append content to a new or existing file in the vault.
• delete_file: Delete a file or directory from your vault.

Example prompts

Its good to first instruct Claude to use Obsidian. Then it will always call the tool.

The use prompts like this:

• Get the contents of the last architecture call note and summarize them
• Search for all files where Azure CosmosDb is mentioned and quickly explain to me the context in which it is mentioned
• Summarize the last meeting notes and put them into a new note 'summary meeting.md'. Add an introduction so that I can send it via email.

Configuration

Obsidian REST API Key

There are two ways to configure the environment with the Obsidian REST API Key.

1. Add to server config (preferred)

{
  "mcp-obsidian": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": [
      "mcp-obsidian"
    ],
    "env": {
      "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "<your_api_key_here>",
      "OBSIDIAN_HOST": "<your_obsidian_host>",
      "OBSIDIAN_PORT": "<your_obsidian_port>"
    }
  }
}

Sometimes Claude has issues detecting the location of uv / uvx. You can use which uvx to find and paste the full path in above config in such cases.

2. Create a .env file in the working directory with the following required variables:

OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
OBSIDIAN_HOST=your_obsidian_host
OBSIDIAN_PORT=your_obsidian_port

Note:

• You can find the API key in the Obsidian plugin config
• Default port is 27124 if not specified
• Default host is 127.0.0.1 if not specified

Quickstart

Install

Obsidian REST API

You need the Obsidian REST API community plugin running: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api

Install and enable it in the settings and copy the api key.

Claude Desktop

On MacOS: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Development/Unpublished Servers Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-obsidian": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "<dir_to>/mcp-obsidian",
        "run",
        "mcp-obsidian"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "<your_api_key_here>",
        "OBSIDIAN_HOST": "<your_obsidian_host>",
        "OBSIDIAN_PORT": "<your_obsidian_port>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Published Servers Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-obsidian": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-obsidian"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>",
        "OBSIDIAN_HOST": "<your_obsidian_host>",
        "OBSIDIAN_PORT": "<your_obsidian_port>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Development

Building

To prepare the package for distribution:

1. Sync dependencies and update lockfile:

uv sync

Debugging

Since MCP servers run over stdio, debugging can be challenging. For the best debugging experience, we strongly recommend using the MCP Inspector.

You can launch the MCP Inspector via npm with this command:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory /path/to/mcp-obsidian run mcp-obsidian

Upon launching, the Inspector will display a URL that you can access in your browser to begin debugging.

You can also watch the server logs with this command:

tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-mcp-obsidian.log

---

Fork additions — privacy layer

This fork (FelixIsaac/mcp-obsidian) adds a content privacy layer on top of the upstream server. Two additions to tools.py:

1. %%private%% block stripping

Obsidian's %%...%% comment syntax marks content as hidden — it is excluded from Reading View, PDF exports, and Obsidian Publish. This fork extends that contract to MCP context.

strip_private_blocks() strips blocks that begin with %%private before file content reaches the model. This is intentionally narrower than stripping all %%...%% comments (upstream PR #148 proposes stripping all of them): local/on-device models are permitted to see non-private %% annotations; only blocks explicitly marked %%private are withheld from frontier AI.

Example note:

My meeting notes from today.

%%private
I'm not comfortable sharing this part with an AI assistant.
%%

The %%private ... %% block never reaches the model.

2. Frontmatter-gated redaction

redact_if_classified() checks a file's YAML frontmatter before returning any content. If the file is marked as classified, it returns a redaction notice instead of the content — no body text is forwarded.

Trigger conditions (either field):

Frontmatter field	Value	Effect
ai_scope	none	File fully redacted
sensitive	HIGH	File fully redacted

Example frontmatter:

---
ai_scope: none
sensitive: HIGH
---

Redaction notice returned to model:

[REDACTED: 2026-04-19.md is classified (ai_scope: none / sensitive: HIGH). Content not available to AI.]

Both get_file_contents and batch_get_file_contents run through this gate.

Privacy contract summary

Vault file
  → redact_if_classified()    # Tier 3 gate — returns notice if classified
    → strip_private_blocks()  # strips %%private...%% blocks
      → model context

Upstream relationship

The %%private%% stripping and frontmatter-gate are not part of upstream MarkusPfundstein/mcp-obsidian. They are maintained in this fork. If upstream PR #148 merges (strip all %%...%%), this fork will rebase and narrow its own stripping accordingly.