Obsidian MCP Server

What it does

• 14 tools + 3 resources over the Obsidian Local REST API plugin: read/write/search/surgical-edit notes, tags, frontmatter
• Folder-scoped permissions, path-traversal guards, confirmation prompt on delete
• npx -y obsidian-mcp-server with OBSIDIAN_API_KEY; stdio or Streamable HTTP

When to use it

The serious option for 'Claude manages my Obsidian vault' — surgical edits (patch a heading section, set one frontmatter key) instead of whole-file rewrites. Best-in-class for PKM workflows.

Getting started

Prerequisites: Node.js 24+ (or Bun 1.4.0+), and the Obsidian Local REST API plugin (v4.0–5.x) installed with its HTTP service enabled — set OBSIDIAN_BASE_URL if you use its HTTPS port. Copy the plugin API key, then:

{
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["-y", "obsidian-mcp-server"],
  "env": { "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "your-api-key" }
}

Optional: OBSIDIAN_ENABLE_COMMANDS=true exposes command-palette execution.

Things to know

Depends on Obsidian actually running with the plugin — the server talks to the local REST API, not your files directly, so no Obsidian = no tools. Default writes refuse to clobber existing notes; overwrite:true is required.