Obsidian MCP server

This MCP server integrates your Obsidian vault with Claude Desktop, giving Claude the ability to search, read, and interact with your Obsidian notes. By setting up this connection, Claude can help you find information in your knowledge base, reference your notes during conversations, and even create new notes.

Prerequisites

Before installing the MCP Obsidian server, you'll need:

• Node.js 18 or newer (brew install node on macOS)
• An existing Obsidian vault
• Claude Desktop installed (available from https://claude.ai/desktop)

Installation and Setup

There are two ways to set up the MCP Obsidian server:

Quick Method (Recommended)

1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration file located at: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

   You can easily access this through Claude Desktop:

   • Open Claude Desktop
   • Click "Claude" in the Mac menu bar
   • Select "Settings"
   • Click "Developer"

2. Add the following configuration to your file:

{
  "tools": {
    "obsidian": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@kazuph/mcp-obsidian"],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH": "/path/to/your/obsidian/vault"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Replace /path/to/your/obsidian/vault with the actual path to your Obsidian vault folder.

Using Claude with Your Obsidian Vault

After configuration, Claude Desktop will automatically connect to your Obsidian vault. You can now ask Claude to:

• Search your notes: "Can you search my Obsidian vault for notes about project management?"
• Read specific notes: "Please read my note about coffee brewing techniques"
• Browse directory structure: "What notes do I have in my 'Work Projects' folder?"
• Create new notes: "Create a new note called 'Meeting Minutes' with today's date"

Available Features

The MCP Obsidian server provides Claude with these capabilities:

• Read notes: Access and display the contents of multiple notes, with each note's path included for reference
• Search notes: Find notes by name with support for partial matches and case-insensitive searching
• Browse directories: List the directory structure under a specified path in your vault
• Create notes: Generate new notes at a specified path in your vault

Simply ask Claude to perform these actions in natural language, and it will use the appropriate MCP command behind the scenes.

How to add this MCP server to Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.