Vault Cortex MCP server

by aliasunder·io.github.aliasunder/vault-cortex·v0.56.2·23 stars

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Standalone MCP server for Obsidian vaults — hybrid search, notes & files, memory, tasks, OAuth 2.1

B73/100grade B

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B73/100

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Growing

23 stars

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Vault Cortex tools

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How Vault Cortex compares

Against every graded Productivity MCP server, from our own scans and uptime checks. Updated after each scan run.

Safety score: 73/100; higher than 35% of 1,299 Productivity servers
GitHub stars: 23; more than 84% of 854 Productivity servers

Release history: 19 versions in the registry since 2026-09-17, latest 2026-11-03, typically one every 3 days.

Install Vault Cortex in Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code

claude mcp add vault-cortex -- docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/aliasunder/vault-cortex:0.56.2

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What the publisher says

From the Vault Cortex repository's README, as published. We do not edit it. Read it on GitHub

Vault Cortex is a standalone MCP server that gives any AI agent hybrid search, task management, structured memory, and read/write access to your Obsidian vault. No plugins, no running Obsidian, no separate bridge. One Docker container, your vault folder, a full tool suite + guided prompts. Run it on a remote server with Obsidian Sync, and the same vault is accessible from your phone, claude.ai, or any remote MCP client, secured with OAuth 2.1. Deploy it with one click or self-host it; either way, the vault is always yours.

Contents — What you get · Quick Start · How It Works · Hybrid Search · Memory · Tasks · Files · Tools · Prompts · Properties · Config · Daily Notes · Data Integrity · Auth · Deployment · One-click Deploy · Community Deployments

What you get

Search the vault Reason over notes Write back to Obsidian

All three demos run on Claude mobile. The vault is on a remote server, not the phone.

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.

Nothing above is checked by us. What we check is on the safety report.

Vault Cortex: common questions

Is Vault Cortex MCP server safe?: Mostly: it is graded B (73/100). Read the Vault Cortex safety report
How do I install Vault Cortex?: It runs on your machine. Copy the Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop config from the install section.
Does Vault Cortex need an API key?: Yes. The registry entry asks for MCP_AUTH_TOKEN.
Is Vault Cortex maintained?: The last commit was 33 days ago (2026-10-02). The latest release is v0.56.2.
What can I use instead of Vault Cortex?: Servers from other publishers that do the same job: Obsidian Hybrid Search MCP server, Exomem MCP server and loci MCP server. Compare all Vault Cortex alternatives.
How does Vault Cortex compare with other Productivity MCP servers?: safety score 73/100 (higher than 35% of 1,299 Productivity servers); github stars 23 (more than 84% of 854 Productivity servers). Full comparison.

Alternatives to Vault Cortex

Same job from other publishers: the closest match first, then the best rated.

All Vault Cortex alternatives →

Obsidian Hybrid Search
Search Obsidian vaults with hybrid full-text, fuzzy, semantic, and graph retrieval.
not reviewed
Established
B
Exomem
Local Markdown/Obsidian knowledge substrate for MCP agents with governed memory and hybrid search.
not reviewed
Established
A
loci
Cross-session memory and hybrid RAG over your notes and docs. Local-first, with cited answers.
not reviewed
Established
A
Obsidian Vault MCP
Local Zotero, MinerU, Obsidian literature workflow with transactional Analysis notes.
not reviewed
Growing
A
Obsidian Turbocharged
Governed Obsidian vault access: hybrid retrieval, Markdown-native memory, HITL confirmations.
not reviewed
Growing
B

Run it through the gateway

Local package. It runs on your machine, not through the gateway.

Rating: —
Safety grade: B · 73/100
Stars: 23
Downloads/wk: –
Price: Free
Licence: MIT
Transport: Local · oci
Version: 0.56.2
Category: Productivity
Last release: 2026-10-02

Credentials it needs

MCP_AUTH_TOKENsecretBearer token for MCP client authentication. Must match the Authorization header sent by clients. Generate with: openssl rand -hex 32
PUBLIC_URLPublic URL clients use to reach this server. Used as the OAuth issuer URL in discovery metadata. Override when exposing the server outside localhost or on a non-default port.
EMBEDDING_ENABLEDEnable or disable the embedding pipeline. When false, no ONNX model is downloaded, no vector tables are created, and search uses FTS5 only.
RERANK_MODECross-encoder reranking mode: blended (position-aware score blending after RRF fusion) or none (skip reranking). Only takes effect when EMBEDDING_ENABLED is true.
WINDOWS_MODEWindows bind-mount mode: enables filesystem polling for the file watcher and rename-based moves across the Docker Desktop/WSL2 bridge. Set to true when the vault lives on a Windows drive.
MEMORY_ENABLEDEnable or disable the structured memory layer. When false, memory tools are hidden, bootstrap is skipped, and server metadata omits memory references.
FILE_TOOLS_ENABLEDEnable or disable file tools (vault_read_file, vault_list_files). When false, file tools are hidden and server metadata omits file tool references.
READONLY_MODERun the server read-only: every vault-writing tool is hidden, the memory folder is not auto-created, and server metadata omits write references.
DISABLED_TOOLSHide individual tools by name, comma-separated. Subtractive only — it cannot re-enable a tool another setting hides; an unknown tool name stops the server at startup.
MEMORY_DIRVault folder for structured memory files (About Me-style notes). Memory tools are hidden when MEMORY_ENABLED is false, but this value still feeds the defaults for PROTECTED_PATHS and ORPHAN_EXCLUDE_FOLDERS.
DAILY_NOTES_FOLDERVault folder for daily notes. Overrides the folder configured in Obsidian's daily-notes plugin. When unset, read from the vault's .obsidian/daily-notes.json (an empty folder there follows Obsidian's new-note location), falling back to "Daily Notes" when that file is missing or unreadable. Set to / for the vault root.
DAILY_NOTES_FORMATFilename date format for daily notes (Moment.js tokens). Overrides the format configured in Obsidian's daily-notes plugin. When unset, read from the vault's .obsidian/daily-notes.json, falling back to "YYYY-MM-DD".
TRUST_PROXY_HOPSNumber of trusted reverse-proxy hops used to derive the client IP from X-Forwarded-For for OAuth rate limiting and request logs. With 0, injected forwarding headers are ignored.
TRUST_FORWARDED_HOPSHow many entries from the end of the RFC 7239 Forwarded header's for= list to count to reach the client IP for OAuth rate limiting and request logs. 0 ignores the header; 1 when the proxy in front writes it (e.g. AWS API Gateway); 2 when a CDN fronts that proxy and is the only way to reach it.
TZIANA timezone for timestamps and daily note resolution.
LOG_LEVELLogging verbosity.
LOG_DIRDirectory for log files that survive container re-creation. The container's own log is always written but discarded when the container is recreated; date-stamped files under LOG_DIR persist on the data volume. Default: /data/logs (remote image), $STORAGE_ROOT/data/logs (single-volume mode), none (local image). none keeps only the container log.
LOG_RETENTION_DAYSDays to keep log files before automatic cleanup on startup; only applies when LOG_DIR is a path.
PROTECTED_PATHSComma-separated vault folder names blocked from vault_delete_note and vault_move_note. Default: MEMORY_DIR plus the daily notes folder, read from DAILY_NOTES_FOLDER or .obsidian/daily-notes.json (default Daily Notes; none when that setting is the vault root or empty). When set, overrides the default entirely.
ORPHAN_EXCLUDE_FOLDERSComma-separated vault folder names excluded from vault_find_orphans. Default: the daily notes folder, "Templates", and MEMORY_DIR. DAILY_NOTES_FOLDER wins; otherwise .obsidian/daily-notes.json is read per query (fallback "Daily Notes"; no daily folder when that setting is the vault root or empty). When set, replaces the defaults entirely. Set to a comma (,) to exclude nothing; an empty value uses the defaults.
SERVICE_DOCUMENTATION_URLOverride the OAuth service documentation URL exposed via discovery metadata.
MAX_FILE_BYTESLargest file vault_read_file will read, in bytes. Reading a larger file returns an error instead of content.
MAX_IMAGE_OUTPUT_BYTESByte budget for images returned by vault_read_file, in binary bytes before base64 encoding. Images exceeding the budget are downscaled/recompressed server-side to fit; raise for clients that accept larger tool responses.
MAX_PDF_RENDER_PAGESMaximum PDF pages to render as images when raw: true is set on vault_read_file. The per-page byte budget is MAX_IMAGE_OUTPUT_BYTES divided evenly across the rendered pages.

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