What you can do with Obsidian

Built for

Personal knowledge management, research notes, daily notes, writing workflows, local-first automation

Example workflows

Summarize project notes

Uses search and note reads for knowledge synthesis.

Try this

Search my Obsidian vault for notes about the current project, read the most relevant files, and summarize open questions and next actions.

Append to today's daily note

Matches the most common daily-note workflow.

Try this

Open today's daily note and append a structured log entry with decisions, follow-ups, and links to related notes.

Clean up frontmatter

Uses document maps and patching for safe vault maintenance.

Try this

Find notes missing tags, aliases, or status frontmatter, then propose safe patch edits without overwriting the whole note.

Analyze vault structure

Uses tags, links, and search to improve knowledge graph quality.

Try this

List tags and linked notes around this topic, then identify clusters, orphan notes, and places where wikilinks should be added.

Context to know first

What can Obsidian do through MCPBundles?

It can list vault files, read notes, search content, inspect tags, work with daily notes, patch notes, read active notes, run commands, and handle vault images depending on local plugin capabilities.

Why is Obsidian a local proxy provider?

Obsidian runs on the user's machine. MCPBundles reaches it through the desktop proxy and the Local REST API plugin rather than a public cloud API.

Are writes immediate?

Yes. Writes mutate the real vault. Good prompts should ask the agent to read first, patch surgically, and avoid replacing whole notes unless intended.

Related editorial

Obsidian Vault Workflows with AI

How AI agents can read, search, and edit an Obsidian vault end-to-end — from daily notes to research synthesis.

Read article

AI Skill
SKILL.md

Domain knowledge for Obsidian — workflow patterns, data models, and gotchas for your AI agent.

Obsidian

Full read/write access to a user's Obsidian vault through the Local REST API community plugin. The vault is a folder of Markdown files with YAML frontmatter, wikilinks, and hierarchical tags.

Data Model

  • Notes are .md files at paths relative to the vault root (e.g. Projects/my-project.md).
  • Frontmatter is YAML at the top of a note between --- fences. Returned as parsed JSON. Contains metadata like tags, aliases, dates, and custom fields.
  • Tags use #tag syntax inline or tags: in frontmatter. Hierarchical: #project/active rolls up to #project.
  • Wikilinks ([[Note Name]]) create internal links. Always use wikilinks when referencing other notes in content you write.
  • Daily notes are the most common Obsidian workflow. GET /periodic/daily/ is the fast path. The Periodic Notes plugin supports weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly notes too.
  • Block references (^blockid) let you target specific paragraphs for PATCH operations.
  • Commands are any Obsidian action (open graph view, insert template, export to PDF, etc.) identified by an ID like graph:open.

Key Patterns

  • Read before write: Always read a note before modifying it to understand its structure.
  • PATCH for surgical edits: Patch a note to insert content at a specific heading, block reference, or frontmatter field without overwriting the whole note.
  • Document map: Read a note with format=map to discover available headings, block refs, and frontmatter fields before PATCHing.
  • Daily note append: The most common operation — append a thought, task, or log entry to today's daily note.
  • Search then act: Search for notes, then read/modify them.
  • Image reading: Read vault images (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP, SVG) into the AI conversation. The image is returned as visual content the AI can see and analyze — useful for describing diagrams, reading handwritten notes, or referencing screenshots.

Runtime requirements

  • Obsidian must be running on the user's machine with the Local REST API community plugin (by Adam Coddington) installed and enabled.
  • The plugin exposes an HTTPS server on port 27124 by default (self-signed cert, handled by the proxy).
  • The MCPBundles desktop proxy must be running (mcpbundles proxy start) so this bundle can reach the user's machine. Plugin install and credential setup are handled in the MCPBundles credential form, not by the agent.

Gotchas

  • Writes are live: Every write mutates the user's real vault immediately. There is no undo via the API.
  • Plugin must be running: Obsidian must be open with the Local REST API plugin enabled. If Obsidian is closed, all tools will fail with a connection error.
  • Paths are relative: All file paths are relative to the vault root. No leading slash.
  • Trailing slashes on directories: Directory listing paths must end with /.
  • Dataview requires plugin: Advanced search with DQL queries requires the Dataview community plugin installed in Obsidian.
  • Periodic Notes plugin: Weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly periodic notes require the Periodic Notes community plugin. Daily notes work with either Periodic Notes or the core Daily Notes plugin.

Tools in this Server (35)

Obsidian Add Tags

Add tags to a note's frontmatter without removing existing tags. Creates the tags frontmatter field if it doesn't exist. Supports hierarchical tags (e...

Obsidian Advanced Search

Advanced search using Dataview DQL queries or JsonLogic expressions. Dataview DQL runs TABLE queries against notes (requires the Dataview plugin). Jso...

Obsidian Append Daily Note

Append content to today's daily note. Creates the note from template if it doesn't exist. The most natural way to add tasks, thoughts, and log entries...

Obsidian Append Note

Append content to the end of a note. Creates the file if it doesn't exist. Ideal for adding journal entries, task items, or log lines without replacin...

Obsidian Batch Read

Read multiple notes in a single tool call. More efficient than calling obsidian_read_note repeatedly. Returns each note's content, frontmatter, and me...

Obsidian Create Folder

Create a new folder in the vault by creating a placeholder .gitkeep file. All parent directories are created automatically. If the folder already exis...

Obsidian Date Search

Find notes by modification or creation date. Search for notes modified/created within the last N days. Useful for reviewing recent work or finding rec...

Obsidian Delete Note

Permanently delete a note from the vault. This cannot be undone via the API. The file is moved to Obsidian's trash (system trash or .trash folder, dep...

Obsidian Find Broken Links

Find all broken [[wikilinks]] across the vault — links that point to notes that don't exist. Reports each broken link with its source note and target....

Obsidian Find Orphans

Find orphan notes — notes that no other note links to via [[wikilinks]]. Useful for vault maintenance: orphans may be forgotten ideas, stale drafts, o...

Obsidian Get Active Note

Get the note currently open and focused in Obsidian. Returns the content, frontmatter, tags, and file stats of whatever note the user is looking at ri...

Obsidian Get Backlinks

Find all notes that link to a given note via [[wikilinks]]. Useful for exploring the knowledge graph, understanding note relationships, and finding no...

Obsidian Get Daily Note

Get today's daily note. This is the #1 Obsidian workflow — most users have a daily note for journaling, task tracking, and capturing thoughts. Creates...

Obsidian Get Outgoing Links

List all outgoing [[wikilinks]] from a given note. Checks each link target to determine if it exists in the vault (resolved) or is a broken link (unre...

Obsidian Get Periodic Note

Get a periodic note (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly). Returns the current period's note by default, or a specific date's note when year/...

Obsidian Graph Neighbors

Explore the knowledge graph around a note using breadth-first traversal. Returns all notes reachable within N hops via wikilinks. Supports outgoing li...

Obsidian List Commands

List all available Obsidian commands with their IDs and names. Use the command ID with obsidian_run_command to execute a command. Commands include cor...

Obsidian List Directory

List files and subdirectories in the vault. Returns file names (with .md extension) and directory names (with trailing /). Omit path to list the vault...

Obsidian List Tags

List all tags used across the vault with usage counts. Includes both inline #tags and frontmatter tags. Hierarchical tags (e.g. #project/active) contr...

Obsidian List Tasks

List and filter tasks (- [ ] and - [x] checkboxes) across all notes in the vault. Filter by completion status (open/completed), folder, tag, or search...

Obsidian List Templates

List available note templates in the vault. Templates are markdown files in the templates folder that can be used as starting points for new notes. Re...

Obsidian Move Note

Move or rename a note to a new location in the vault. When the filename changes, automatically updates all [[wikilinks]] across the vault that referen...

Obsidian Open Note

Open a note in the Obsidian application UI, bringing it into focus. Useful after creating or modifying a note so the user can see it. If the file does...

Obsidian Patch Note

Surgically insert, prepend, or replace content at a specific location in a note. Target a heading (including nested headings), block reference, or fro...

Obsidian Property Search

Search notes by frontmatter property values with comparison operators. Finds all notes where a specific property matches your criteria. Supports equal...

Obsidian Read Image

Read an image from the Obsidian vault and return it so the AI can see it. Pass the path to any image file (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP, SVG). The image ...

Obsidian Read Note

Read a note from the Obsidian vault by file path. Returns the note content, parsed frontmatter, tags, and file stats by default. Use format='map' to d...

Obsidian Regex Search

Search notes using regular expressions for complex pattern matching. Finds code patterns, URLs, tasks, structured data, and more. Returns matching not...

Obsidian Remove Tags

Remove specific tags from a note's frontmatter. Other tags are preserved. Silently ignores tags that don't exist on the note.

Obsidian Rename Tag

Rename a tag across all notes in the vault. Updates both frontmatter tags and inline #hashtags. Useful for reorganizing your tagging system.

Obsidian Run Command

Execute any Obsidian command by its ID. Commands can open views (graph, outline), trigger plugins (insert template, export to PDF), toggle settings, a...

Obsidian Search

Full-text search across all notes in the Obsidian vault. Returns matching notes with relevance scores and surrounding context for each match.

Obsidian Search Replace

Search and replace text within a single note. Supports plain text or regex patterns. When using regex, backreferences ($1, $2) work in the replacement...

Obsidian Vault Stats

Get statistics about the Obsidian vault: total notes, folders, tags, and a breakdown by directory. Useful for understanding vault structure.

Obsidian Write Note

Create a new note or completely replace an existing one in the vault. Provide the full markdown content including any frontmatter. WARNING: This overw...

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Obsidian MCP server?

Connect AI to your Obsidian vault via the Local REST API plugin. Read, write, search, and organize notes — including daily notes, tags, frontmatter, Dataview queries, graph analysis, and image reading. Images are returned as visual content AI models can see and analyze. Requires: Obsidian Local REST API plugin + mcpbundles proxy start It provides 35 tools that AI agents can use through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

How do I connect Obsidian to my AI agent?

Add the MCPBundles server URL to your MCP client configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, etc.). The URL format is: https://mcp.mcpbundles.com/bundle/obsidian. Authentication is handled automatically.

How many tools does Obsidian provide?

Obsidian provides 35 tools that can be called by AI agents, along with a SKILL.md that gives your AI agent domain knowledge about when and how to use them.

What authentication does Obsidian require?

Obsidian uses API Key. Obsidian requires credentials. Connect via MCPBundles and authentication is handled automatically.

What can Obsidian do through MCPBundles?

It can list vault files, read notes, search content, inspect tags, work with daily notes, patch notes, read active notes, run commands, and handle vault images depending on local plugin capabilities.

Why is Obsidian a local proxy provider?

Obsidian runs on the user's machine. MCPBundles reaches it through the desktop proxy and the Local REST API plugin rather than a public cloud API.

Are writes immediate?

Yes. Writes mutate the real vault. Good prompts should ask the agent to read first, patch surgically, and avoid replacing whole notes unless intended.

What makes Obsidian useful for agents?

Agents can connect private notes, daily logs, tags, frontmatter, and wikilinks into summaries or safe edits without moving the vault to a cloud service.

Setup Instructions

Connect Obsidian to any MCP client in minutes

https://mcp.mcpbundles.com/bundle/obsidian

One-click install:

The link prefills the Add custom connector dialog — you still review the values and click Add, then Connect to complete OAuth.

Or add manually

  1. Open claude.ai → Settings → Connectors.
  2. Click the + button and choose Add custom connector.
  3. Set Name to Obsidian and paste the MCP URL into Remote MCP server URL.
  4. Click Add. Obsidian will appear under Not connected — select it and click Connect to complete OAuth.
Name: Obsidian
Remote MCP server URL: https://mcp.mcpbundles.com/bundle/obsidian
Authentication: OAuth

Custom connectors at claude.ai require a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise).

Ready to use Obsidian?

Sign in to connect your credentials and start running tools from the chat.

Obsidian MCP Server & Skill — 35 Tools