Obsidian Semantic Search MCP Server

Name: Obsidian Semantic Search MCP Server
Author: io.github.DalecB

io.github.DalecB/obsidian-semantic-mcp

Repository Registry

What is the Obsidian Semantic Search MCP server?

Read-only semantic search MCP server for Obsidian vaults using local Ollama embeddings.

How to install Obsidian Semantic Search

Copy-paste configuration for popular MCP clients.

transport: stdio

Config generated by PluginBench — verify against the source before use.

Environment / auth

OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT
required
Absolute path to the local Obsidian vault.
OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME
Directory for the external SQLite index, logs, and cache.
OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL
Ollama embedding model name. Defaults to bge-m3.
OLLAMA_BASE_URL
Ollama API base URL. Defaults to http://localhost:11434.
OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX
Set to true to run incremental indexing when the server starts.
OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE
Set to true to allow include_sensitive tool calls.
OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE
Comma- or newline-separated folders to always exclude from indexing, search, and read.
OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS
Comma- or newline-separated folders treated as sensitive (blocked unless unlocked). Defaults to 08_PersonalInfo/.

Claude Desktop

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian-semantic-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@dalecb/obsidian-semantic-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME>",
        "OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL>",
        "OLLAMA_BASE_URL": "<YOUR_OLLAMA_BASE_URL>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian-semantic-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@dalecb/obsidian-semantic-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME>",
        "OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL>",
        "OLLAMA_BASE_URL": "<YOUR_OLLAMA_BASE_URL>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian-semantic-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@dalecb/obsidian-semantic-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME>",
        "OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL>",
        "OLLAMA_BASE_URL": "<YOUR_OLLAMA_BASE_URL>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS>"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "obsidian-semantic-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@dalecb/obsidian-semantic-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME>",
        "OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL>",
        "OLLAMA_BASE_URL": "<YOUR_OLLAMA_BASE_URL>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE>",
        "OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS": "<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add obsidian-semantic-mcp --env OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT> --env OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOME> --env OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODEL> --env OLLAMA_BASE_URL=<YOUR_OLLAMA_BASE_URL> --env OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEX> --env OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVE> --env OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDE> --env OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHS> -- npx -y @dalecb/obsidian-semantic-mcp