Obsidian CLI MCP server

by stonematt·io.github.stonematt/mcp-obsidian-cli·v2.1.0·2 stars

No reviews yet

Save chat notes from Claude Desktop to your vault — MCP on Obsidian CLI. Keep what matters.

A92/100grade A

Write a review Install

What users say

No reviews yet

Be the first

Safety scan

A92/100

full report

Adoption

Growing

2 stars91 downloads/wk

Reviews

Write one

Nobody has reviewed Obsidian CLI yet.

If you have run it, two minutes of your experience saves the next person an afternoon.

Obsidian CLI tools (1, 1 write)

write = sends, deletes, buys or posts

Read from the package source without running it. The installed server may list more.

obsidianwrite action
Run any Obsidian CLI command. Pass the full command string exactly as you would on the terminal (minus the leading 'obsidian' binary name). Leading `vault=NAME` overrides the active vault and is cached for subsequent calls. Intent -> verb cheatsheet. Use the canonical verb on the right; the convenience tools (`obsidian_*`) wrap the same verbs with typed args. PUT put new note from template -> temp

Public scan report

scanner v0.1.10 · 2026-10-15 · same rubric, same numbers if you re-run it

no findings

Code scan9 source files scanned25/25
–Live reliabilityno gateway calls yet and no remote to proben/a
–Tool poisoningtools not inspected (local package is not executed); not countedn/a
Auth qualitylocal package, no credentials required12/15
Maintenancelast push 3 days ago15/15
Maintainer identityregistry namespace matches repository owner; GitHub account older than a year8/10

Overall 92/100. Components that don't apply are left out of the denominator. Any critical finding is an F.Rubric Appeal a finding JSON

How Obsidian CLI compares

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

Safety score: 92/100; higher than 90% of 1,299 Productivity servers
Tools: 1; the typical Productivity server has 7
Tools that change things: 100%; typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break
GitHub stars: 2; more than 60% of 854 Productivity servers
Downloads a week: 91; more than 54% of 427 Productivity servers with a package

What its tools let an agent do: 1 change

Install Obsidian CLI in Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code

Runs npx -y mcp-obsidian-cli on your machine. Read the scan report first; the gateway never runs local packages.

claude mcp add mcp-obsidian-cli -- npx -y mcp-obsidian-cli

Add to Cursor

What the publisher says

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

mcp-obsidian-cli

Your thinking starts in Claude Desktop, not in Obsidian. You research, draft, argue with the model, and when something's worth keeping you say "save this to my vault." It lands in the right place: your template, your properties, today's daily note, wired into your link graph. No tab-switch, no copy-paste.

Installing this? Start at Install. One prompt in Claude Code handles the whole setup.

Two halves:

Capture — turn a conversation into a real note, filed where it belongs.
Augment — pull what's already in the vault (backlinks, full-text search) back into the chat to inform or update a note.

Needs Obsidian running. It can sit minimized, so you never switch to it.

Using this from Claude Code? The native obsidian-cli skill fits better there: direct CLI, no MCP layer. Installing is separate. The prompt below runs in Claude Code.

Install

Run the prompt below in Claude Code. It checks Node, enables the Obsidian CLI, writes your Claude Desktop config, and verifies the connection. Only hand-edit the config if that path fails.

Fetch https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stonematt/mcp-obsidian-cli/master/docs/INSTALL.md
and follow it end to end to install the mcp-obsidian-cli MCP server for my Claude Desktop.
Ask me for my Obsidian vault name and folder path, then handle everything else — check Node,
enable the Obsidian CLI, edit my Claude Desktop config, and verify it works.

Full walkthrough, including failure modes: docs/INSTALL.md.

Run the server directly. This starts the server in your terminal and installs nothing:

npx mcp-obsidian-cli

Requirements

The install prompt checks each of these. Listed here for reference:

Obsidian running with its command line interface enabled (Settings → General → Advanced → Command line interface). The CLI ships built into Obsidian — nothing extra to install.
obsidian-cli reachable. macOS auto-detects it inside the Obsidian app bundle, so there is nothing to configure. Linux and Windows have no auto-detection: point OBSIDIANCLIPATH at the binary yourself.
Node.js >= 18

How it works

The server exposes Obsidian CLI commands as MCP tools. A generic pass-through tool handles the full CLI surface (80+ commands), plus typed convenience tools for common operations:

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.

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

Obsidian CLI: common questions

Is Obsidian CLI MCP server safe?: Yes, by our scan: it is graded A (92/100). Read the Obsidian CLI safety report
How do I install Obsidian CLI?: It runs on your machine. Copy the Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Claude Desktop config from the install section.
Does Obsidian CLI need an API key?: No secret keys are declared. It reads 3 settings from the environment.
Is Obsidian CLI maintained?: The last commit was 23 days ago (2026-10-12). The latest release is v2.1.0.
What can I use instead of Obsidian CLI?: Servers from other publishers that do the same job: Obsidian Vault MCP server, Obsidian MCP server and Obsidian Hybrid Search MCP server. Compare all Obsidian CLI alternatives.
How does Obsidian CLI compare with other Productivity MCP servers?: safety score 92/100 (higher than 90% of 1,299 Productivity servers); tools 1 (the typical Productivity server has 7); tools that change things 100% (typical: 0%. Fewer write tools means less an agent can break). Full comparison.

Alternatives to Obsidian CLI

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

All Obsidian CLI alternatives →

Obsidian Vault MCP
Local Zotero, MinerU, Obsidian literature workflow with transactional Analysis notes.
not reviewed
Growing
A
Obsidian
Read, write, search, and surgically edit Obsidian notes, tags, and frontmatter via MCP.
not reviewed
Established
A
Obsidian Hybrid Search
Search Obsidian vaults with hybrid full-text, fuzzy, semantic, and graph retrieval.
not reviewed
Established
B
DocsAgent — Zotero, Obsidian & Apple Notes MCP Server
Instant, private access to your knowledge base: Zotero, Obsidian, Apple Notes (macOS).
not reviewed
Established
B
Seekstone
Filesystem-direct Obsidian MCP server — search and edit your vault with low context-tax.
not reviewed
Growing
A

Run it through the gateway

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

Rating: —
Safety grade: A · 92/100
Stars: 2
Downloads/wk: 91
Price: Free
Licence: MIT
Transport: Local · npm
Version: 2.1.0
Category: Productivity
Last release: 2026-10-12

Credentials it needs

OBSIDIAN_VAULTTarget vault name. If unset or unknown, the server prompts the caller on first tool use, listing the vaults Obsidian knows about.
OBSIDIAN_CLI_PATHPath to the obsidian-cli binary. Auto-discovered on macOS; set explicitly on Linux/Windows or if the binary is non-standard.
OBSIDIAN_TIMEOUT_MSPer-command timeout in milliseconds.

Own this server?

Claim it to keep the listing current and reply to reviews. Claiming never changes the grade or hides a review.

Claim listing

Badge for your README

Shows the safety grade and links back to this page. It updates itself after every scan and review.

[![mcp.market](https://mcp.market/badge/stonematt-mcp-obsidian-cli.svg)](https://mcp.market/server/stonematt-mcp-obsidian-cli)

How the badge works