mcp-obsidian-cli MCP Server
Save chat notes from Claude Desktop to your vault — MCP on Obsidian CLI. Keep what matters.
Publisher claimed. No tool list reported, and Pod has not connected to this server.
Status
Pod has not dialled mcp-obsidian-cli yet, so everything on this page is what its publisher reported rather than what we observed. Registries describe servers; they do not connect to them. Until a check runs, treat the tool list below as a claim.
Connect
Published as mcp-obsidian-cli on npm. Runs locally.
Known issues
31 problems reported by people outside the maintainer team. Issues filed by the project's own owners, members and collaborators are excluded — those are release checklists and internal refactors, not things that will go wrong for you. Showing 12.
Most discussed
Smithery distribution: package as .mcpb bundle for stdio publishing
Smithery is an MCP catalog (smithery.ai) with two publishing paths:
- URL — for streamable-HTTP servers. Not applicable; this server is stdio.
- Local (MCPB Bundle) — for stdio servers. Smithery distributes a pre-built
.mcpbbundle that clients download and run locally.
To list on Smithery, we need to ship an MCPB bundle.
What MCPB requires
Per Anthropic's Build a desktop extension with MCPB docs and the [MCPB spec](https://github.com/modelc
Read the thread · 2026-05-17 · open · 2 comments
README lede rewrite: lead with the Claude Desktop capture workflow
Source: "Grill resolutions (2026-05-21)" in docs/ideas/discoverability-positioning.md.
What to build
Replace the implementation-first README opening (currently "MCP server that wraps the Obsidian CLI…") with a workflow-first lede aimed at the hero audience: Claude Desktop users who want chat-to-vault capture.
Hook: "Start in Claude Desktop, not Obsidian." Do your thinking in chat; when something's worth keeping, say "save this to my vault" and Claude lands it in the right place u
Read the thread · 2026-05-22 · closed · 1 comment
Vault switch: first verb call after vault=NAME change can return 'command not found' for an existing verb
Found in
Wave 3 sniff test (PR #55 / #14), test T13.
Symptom
After routing vault=tyee then cleaning up, the first vault=scarp create path=... content=... returned:
Error: Command "create" not found. Did you mean: base:create, templater:create-from-template?
But vault=scarp help immediately after lists create. Retrying the identical create command then succeeded. The scarp Obsidian window was not open when the test started — the first route appears to have opened/woken it
Read the thread · 2026-05-20 · open · 1 comment
obsidian_help: 'bases' doc slug unreachable — verb-wins collision swallows it
Found in
Wave 3 sniff test (PR #55 / #14), test T3.
Symptom
obsidian_help({ topic: "bases" }) returns the live CLI verb help for bases (bases — List all base files in vault) instead of the Kepano Bases reference doc. The reference doc (comparison operators, filter/formula functions, view types, .base YAML example) is unreachable through obsidian_help.
Cause
bases is both a live CLI verb AND a doc slug. The documented collision rule (docs/briefs/deepen-architecture.md
Read the thread · 2026-05-20 · closed · 1 comment
manifest parser over-collects English words as verbs under Discover
What
Cosmetic. obsidian_help() no-arg returns a category-grouped verb index. Under the Discover category, capitalized English words like Most, Quote, Use appear as verb entries. They are not real verbs — the parser in `lib/manifest.js` is picking up sentence-leading words from `obsidian help` blurb text.
Surfaced during Gate C sniff test (T1, happy path).
Expected
Verb index contains only real CLI verbs. Blurb prose is skipped.
Likely cause
`parseHelpOutput` rege
Read the thread · 2026-05-19 · open · 1 comment
Most recent
README recipes: 3-4 canonical Claude Desktop conversations
Source: "Grill resolutions (2026-05-21)" in docs/ideas/discoverability-positioning.md.
What to build
Add a Recipes section to the README: 3-4 end-to-end Claude Desktop conversations (SEO bait + onboarding). Candidates:
- Research a topic and save findings as a project note
- Daily journal append from a conversation
- Find related notes and update one
- Pull project context into a new strategy doc
Each recipe shows the actual chat phrasing and what lands in the vault, coverin
Read the thread · 2026-05-22 · open · 0 comments
List in awesome-mcp-servers (top acquisition lever)
Source: "Grill resolutions (2026-05-21)" in docs/ideas/discoverability-positioning.md.
What to build
Submit a PR adding mcp-obsidian-cli to the awesome-mcp-servers list. Per the grill, directories are the acquisition lever — repo-page views (8 uniq) prove installs come from snippet-copy in directories/blogs/Discord, not the README. The entry uses the final positive positioning (capture chat → Obsidian vault) and the new one-line description, in the correct category, following th
Read the thread · 2026-05-22 · open · 0 comments
Rewrite npm + registry description: lead with "Capture", keep keywords, fit registry byte ceiling
Source: "Grill resolutions (2026-05-21)" in docs/ideas/discoverability-positioning.md.
What to build
Update the package.json description and the server.json registry description to lead with the capture outcome while keeping obsidian + mcp as the search terms people actually type. Direction:
Capture chat notes to your Obsidian vault — MCP server via the official CLI: templates, daily notes, backlinks
The MCP Registry description has a **≤100-character ceiling — count BYT
Read the thread · 2026-05-22 · closed · 0 comments
Clarify OBSIDIAN_NOT_RUNNING message: backgrounded Obsidian is fine
Context
The Discoverability positioning hook is "start in Claude Desktop — no context-switch to Obsidian." That pitch is honest only if users understand Obsidian still has to be running — it just doesn't need focus. A first-run user who reads "no need to open Obsidian" literally, has the app quit, and hits OBSIDIAN_NOT_RUNNING, bounces. That's a funnel leak on the hero path.
The current messages don't say backgrounded/minimized is fine:
- Runtime, per-tool-call:
server.js:88
Read the thread · 2026-05-22 · closed · 0 comments
Discoverability: package metadata + README badges + MCP Registry refresh (v1.3.3)
Umbrella issue for the v1.3.3 discoverability push. Brief covers external-surface fixes plus a few metadata tweaks so the package is findable on npm, the MCP Registry, and community catalogs.
Scope (single PR, branch chore/discoverability)
package.json
- Add
homepage(https://github.com/stonematt/mcp-obsidian-cli#readme) andbugs(https://github.com/stonematt/mcp-obsidian-cli/issues) - Rewrite description (94 chars, ≤100 limit): `Obsidian MCP server via the official CLI plugi
Read the thread · 2026-05-17 · closed · 0 comments
Docs drift: OBSIDIAN_CLI_PATH default disagrees across CLAUDE.md vs README/server.json/code
Project CLAUDE.md documents OBSIDIAN_CLI_PATH default as obsidian, but the actual default in server.js, server.json, and README.md is obsidian-cli.
Sources
CLAUDE.md(root) →OBSIDIAN_CLI_PATH | obsidian | Path to CLI binaryREADME.md→OBSIDIAN_CLI_PATH | obsidian-cli | Path to CLI binaryserver.json→"default": "obsidian-cli"
Resolution
Update CLAUDE.md to match the real default (obsidian-cli). Confirm code in server.js agrees, then close.
Read the thread · 2026-05-17 · closed · 0 comments
MCP resources for vault metadata (vault name, file count, tag list)
Problem
The server exposes verbs as MCP tools but nothing as MCP resources. Clients that browse resources (Claude Desktop's resource picker, IDE integrations) have no read-only view of what vault they're connected to or what's in it. Discovery happens only after a tool call.
Proposed change
Register MCP resources backed by the ObsidianCli + VerbManifest for:
obsidian://vault— vault name and root pathobsidian://vault/files— file count + sample listing- `obsidian://vau
Read the thread · 2026-05-17 · closed · 0 comments
See all 16 reports Pod holds for mcp-obsidian-cli — of 31 qualified upstream.
Firsthand observations
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For agents
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- 16 reported issues below
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