Obsidian iCloud MCP server

The Obsidian iCloud MCP server allows you to connect Obsidian vaults stored in iCloud Drive to AI assistants through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This integration enables AI models like Claude to access and interact with your Obsidian notes directly.

Installation

No separate installation is required when using the production method, as the server will be automatically downloaded via npx. For development or debugging purposes, you'll need to clone the repository and build it locally.

Configuration

Setting up with Claude Desktop

To integrate your Obsidian vaults with Claude Desktop, you need to modify the Claude Desktop configuration file.

1. Locate or create your Claude Desktop configuration file at the path specified by the MCP documentation
2. Add the MCP server configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json file

Production Configuration

For regular use, add the following configuration to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "obsidian-mcp",
        "/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_1>",
        "/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_2>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Be sure to replace:

• <USERNAME> with your system username
• <VAULT_NAME_1>, <VAULT_NAME_2>, etc. with the names of your Obsidian vaults

You can add multiple vault paths as additional arguments to provide access to multiple vaults.

Development/Debugging Configuration

If you're developing or need to debug the server, use this configuration instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/path/to/obsidian-mcp/build/index.js",
        "/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_1>",
        "/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_2>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/obsidian-mcp/build/index.js with the actual path to your local build of the server.

Testing and Debugging

You can inspect the MCP server's operation using the MCP inspector tool:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node path/to/server/index.js arg1 arg2 arg3

This tool helps diagnose issues with your MCP server configuration.

Platform Support

The Obsidian iCloud MCP server has been fully tested on macOS. Windows and Linux support may work but has not been thoroughly tested.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "obsidian-mcp" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","obsidian-mcp","/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_1>","/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_2>"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For 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 > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

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

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "obsidian-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "obsidian-mcp",
                "/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_1>",
                "/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_2>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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 explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "obsidian-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "obsidian-mcp",
                "/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_1>",
                "/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Mobile\\ Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/<VAULT_NAME_2>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect