obsidian-mcp-server

Overview

Obsidian vault notes over the Local REST API plugin. Read, search, and write notes, edit single headings, blocks, and frontmatter fields in place, and manage tags, with folder-scoped read/write permissions built in. Runs as a stdio process or a local Streamable HTTP server.

Tools

Resources

Note and tag data are also reachable through tools (obsidian_get_note, obsidian_list_tags); obsidian://status has no tool equivalent.

Capability reference

obsidian_get_note tool

• target is a vault path, the active file, or a periodic note (daily through yearly, optional date); format is content, full, document-map, or section, and full takes includeLinks: true for vault-internal outgoing links
• result.format discriminates the payload; a section read that matches several headings returns the first and lists every full path in candidates

obsidian_list_notes tool

• Walks from path (default vault root) to depth 1–20 (default 2), filtered by extension and nameRegex (≤256 chars); a folder that fails nameRegex is not walked
• Returns entries[] (file / directory), totals, and appliedFilters; the walk stops at 1,000 entries with excluded.reason: "entry_cap", and a folder the depth limit or path policy kept out carries truncated: true

obsidian_list_tags tool

• nameRegex (≤256 chars) and minCount narrow the set, then tags are ranked by count and capped at limit (default 200, max 10000); hierarchical parents count (work/tasks adds to work)
• When the cap withholds tags, the response carries truncated, shown, and cap

obsidian_search_notes tool

• mode: "text" requires every whitespace-split token of query as a case-insensitive substring of the filename or body (quotes are literal), shaped by contextLength (default 100), pathPrefix, and maxMatchesPerHit (default 10); mode: "jsonlogic" evaluates a logic tree over path, content, frontmatter.<key>, tags, and stat, with glob / regexp taking [PATTERN, VALUE]
• result.mode discriminates the payload; every mode reports totalCount and pages via nextCursor, and a text hit clipped to maxMatchesPerHit carries truncated and totalMatches
• mode: "omnisearch" (BM25 ranking, quoted phrases, -exclusion, path: / ext: filters) is offered only when the Omnisearch plugin answered at startup; its 50-hit upstream cap sets truncated: true

obsidian_write_note tool

• target and content, with optional section and contentType (markdown / json); a whole-file write to an existing note fails with file_exists unless overwrite: true
• With section, replaces only that heading, block, or frontmatter field and keeps the heading line; output reports created, sectionTargeted, and the resolved sectionTarget

obsidian_append_to_note tool

• Without section, appends to the file or creates it (created: true); with section, appends to that heading, block, or frontmatter field of an existing note, and createTargetIfMissing: true creates the section
• A section append whose content is already at the target fails with content_preexists; block targets add no separator, so start content with a newline if you want one

obsidian_patch_note tool

• operation: "append" | "prepend" | "replace" against one section of an existing note; patchOptions takes createTargetIfMissing, applyIfContentPreexists, and trimTargetWhitespace (plugin v4.x only)
• Echoes the resolved section and operation; a repeat of content already at the target fails with content_preexists unless applyIfContentPreexists: true

obsidian_replace_in_note tool

• replacements[] run in order, each over the previous one's output; each takes useRegex (≤1024 chars), caseSensitive (default true), wholeWord, flexibleWhitespace (literal mode only), and replaceAll (default true)
• Returns totalReplacements and perReplacement[] with bodyCount / frontmatterCount
• scope: "body" (default) leaves frontmatter byte-identical; "frontmatter" and "both" re-parse the YAML afterward and write nothing if it breaks (frontmatter_invalid)

obsidian_manage_frontmatter tool

• operation: "get" | "set" | "delete" on one key; set requires a JSON-typed value
• get returns exists and value (null when absent); set and delete return the full frontmatter after the change, and a delete against unparseable YAML fails with frontmatter_invalid without writing

obsidian_manage_tags tool

• operation: "add" | "remove" | "list" with tags; location: "frontmatter" (default, the tags: array), "inline" (body #tag; add appends at end of file), or "both"
• add / remove report applied, skipped, and the resulting tags; list returns frontmatter, inline, and all
• Inline detection follows Obsidian's tag grammar: code, wikilinks, images, link destinations, HTML, and math are skipped, and %% … %% comments are read

obsidian_delete_note tool

• Takes a target; the first call answers with a confirmation request naming the path and byte size, and the note is deleted only after the user accepts
• Declining fails with cancelled, and a client without elicitation support cannot delete; there is no API-level undo, only Obsidian's local trash
• An answer counts only against the single-use consent record stored when the prompt was shown, bound to the caller, the path, and the note's content then. A pre-supplied or replayed answer, or one given after the note changed, gets a fresh prompt instead
• Consent records live in the server's storage provider (STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPE, default in-memory, process-local). That works for stdi