Obelisk MCP server

Obelisk

Inline comments and GitHub-style suggested edits for Obsidian.

Select a passage, leave a comment on it, and optionally propose a replacement that can be applied with one click. Comments are stored in the note's own frontmatter, so they travel with the file through sync, git, export and rename.

An obelus (†) was the mark ancient editors drew in the margin of a

manuscript to say: this passage is disputed.

Status

Early. Anchoring, decoration, the sidebar, suggested edits and the agent integration are implemented. The plugin is in the Obsidian community plugin directory, and the CLI and the MCP server are on npm as obelisk-mcp. None of it has been exercised against a large vault.

Install

Search for Obelisk in Settings → Community plugins → Browse, install it, and enable it. Updates come from the same panel.

The plugin can also be added via the Add to Obsidian button in its directory listing.

Features

Write/Preview pair while you type. Links, lists, callouts, embeds and math render in the sidebar exactly as they would in a note.

• Comment on any passage. Select text, right-click, Add comment.
• Markdown everywhere. Comments and replies are ordinary markdown, with a

the comment, the way GitHub does it. It renders as a diff against the quoted passage with an Apply button, so one comment can explain itself and propose a change, and a reply can offer a counter-proposal. Applying is refused if the underlying text has changed since. It also resolves the comment, and Reopen is there if the comment asked something the edit did not answer.

• Suggested edits. A proposal is a fenced suggestion block inside

the sort toggle. Click one to scroll the editor to it. Chips filter to open comments, to comments carrying a suggestion, or to one agent's review pass. Resolved comments stay in the list, grayed rather than hidden, since they are still highlighted in the note.

• Sidebar. All of a note's comments in document order, or newest first from

marker that opens the comment in the sidebar.

• In-text highlighting. Commented passages are highlighted, with a †

diffable, portable.

• Stored in frontmatter. Plain YAML under an obelisk key. Readable,

keeps up with edits anywhere else in the note, including ones made outside Obsidian. Edit or delete the quoted passage itself and the comment detaches: flagged in the sidebar, highlighting nothing, never moved onto a different passage and never dropped. Restore the text and it reattaches. Resolved comments are exempt from the flag, because a resolved comment usually detaches when the edit it asked for is made.

• Survives editing. A comment is anchored to the text it quotes, so it

markdown editor, so Cmd+B, list continuation, [[ autocompletion and live preview work in a comment exactly as they do in a note.

• The editor you already use. Comments are written in Obsidian's own

the way down.

• Threaded replies. On any comment, stored alongside it, and markdown all

it, suggestion button and all, from the card's Edit button or by right-clicking the passage. Edited bodies are marked as such. The anchor is left alone, so changing what you said never changes what you said it about.

• Editable. Rewrite a comment or a reply in the same composer that wrote

from the trash icon in its header, so striking one remark out of a thread does not take the conversation with it. Both offer an undo rather than a confirmation dialog.

• Deletable. A whole comment from the card's Delete, or a single reply

same comments from outside Obsidian, so a model can review a note into the sidebar, or answer the comments left for it. Its comments are badged, and a whole review pass is one chip in the header with a dismiss all

• Open to agents. A command-line tool and an MCP server read and write the

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.