Obsidian

listing.by

Read, search and edit notes in an Obsidian vault through the Local REST API plugin.

state.local.long (state.local.title)listing.badge.runs_withstate.key.long

listing.install

listing.local.explain

uvx mcp-obsidian

listing.local.needs listing.local.note

  • OBSIDIAN_API_KEY listing.env.secret API key of the Obsidian Local REST API plugin.

listing.share.h

listing.share.p_local

mcp.tc/i/obsidian

listing.about

Connects an assistant to an Obsidian vault through the Obsidian Local REST API community plugin. It can list files and folders, read note contents, search across the vault, append or patch content in notes, and delete files.

Runs locally over stdio with uvx mcp-obsidian and needs Python 3.11 or newer. The Local REST API plugin must be installed and enabled in Obsidian, and the server needs the plugin's API key in OBSIDIAN_API_KEY. Host and port are optional and default to 127.0.0.1 and 27124.

listing.can

  • List files and directories in the vault
  • Read the contents of a note
  • Search for text across all vault files
  • Append content to new or existing notes
  • Insert content relative to a heading, block or frontmatter field
  • Delete files or directories from the vault

listing.tools

listing.notools.key

listing.prompts

  • Get the contents of my last architecture call note and summarize it

  • Search my vault for notes that mention Azure CosmosDB

  • Summarize the last meeting notes into a new note called summary meeting.md

  • Append a to-do list to my project plan note

listing.setup.h

listing.setup.local

Claude Code

  1. Run this in a terminal, in your project folder:
claude mcp add --transport stdio obsidian --env "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>" -- uvx mcp-obsidian
  1. Start Claude Code and type /mcp. obsidian should show as connected.

Add --scope user to make it available in every project. Replace the placeholders with your own values.

Claude Desktop

  1. Open Settings → Developer → Edit Config. It opens claude_desktop_config.json. Add:
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-obsidian"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop. Replace the placeholders with your own values.

Needs uv (Python) on your computer. The file lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS and %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows.

Cursor

Or add it by hand to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (all projects) or .cursor/mcp.json (this project):

mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-obsidian"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Needs uv (Python) on your computer. Replace the placeholders with your own values.

VS Code

Add it to .vscode/mcp.json. VS Code asks for the secret the first time and stores it securely:

.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "servers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-obsidian"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "${input:obsidian-api-key}"
      }
    }
  },
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "obsidian-api-key",
      "description": "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    }
  ]
}

Needs uv (Python) on your computer.

Devin Desktop

  1. Add it to ~/.config/devin/mcp_config.json (macOS and Linux) or %APPDATA%\devin\mcp_config.json (Windows):
mcp_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-obsidian"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. Refresh the MCP server list in Cascade. Replace the placeholders with your own values.

Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf.

Codex

codex mcp add obsidian --env "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>" -- uvx mcp-obsidian

Or edit ~/.codex/config.toml directly:

config.toml
[mcp_servers.obsidian]
command = "uvx"
args = ["mcp-obsidian"]
env = { OBSIDIAN_API_KEY = "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>" }

Needs uv (Python) on your computer. Replace the placeholders with your own values.

Gemini CLI

gemini mcp add -e "OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_API_KEY>" obsidian uvx mcp-obsidian

This adds it to the current project. Add -s user to use it everywhere.

Any client

Most clients that start local servers accept this shape:

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

Zed puts servers under context_servers in its settings, with the same command, args and env fields.

Needs uv (Python) on your computer. Replace the placeholders with your own values.

listing.faq

Can I paste mcp.tc/i/obsidian into my MCP client?

No. Obsidian runs on your own computer, started by your client, so it has no web address to connect to. The quick link is the page to share; the install command is uvx mcp-obsidian.

Does Obsidian need an API key?

Yes. It reads OBSIDIAN_API_KEY from its environment, and OBSIDIAN_API_KEY is a secret. Put the value in your client's config on your own machine, never in a shared file.

Is Obsidian a remote or a local server?

Local. Your client starts it as a process on your computer with uvx mcp-obsidian, which needs uv (Python).

What can Obsidian do?

You can list files and directories in the vault, read the contents of a note and search for text across all vault files.

Which clients can use it?

Any client that starts local servers: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Devin Desktop, Codex, Gemini CLI, Zed and others. claude.ai and ChatGPT only connect to remote servers.

Who wrote this page?

mcp.tc's robot read Obsidian's public metadata (its package and repository pages), and an AI model drafted the text from it. A person reviews anything the checks can't confirm. The text can still be wrong, so if you spot a mistake, use Report this listing on this page.

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Markdown
[![Obsidian on mcp.tc](https://mcp.tc/i/obsidian/badge.svg)](https://mcp.tc/i/obsidian)
HTML
<a href="https://mcp.tc/i/obsidian"><img src="https://mcp.tc/i/obsidian/badge.svg" alt="Obsidian on mcp.tc" height="20"></a>

listing.em.badge_note

listing.em.widget

HTML
<script src="https://mcp.tc/w/obsidian.js" async></script>

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iframe

HTML
<iframe src="https://mcp.tc/embed/obsidian" title="Obsidian on mcp.tc" width="420" height="200" loading="lazy" allow="clipboard-write" style="border:0;border-radius:8px;max-width:100%"></iframe>

listing.em.iframe_note

JSON

listing.em.json_local

https://mcp.tc/i/obsidian.json

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