Obsidian MCP for Claude, Codex and Cursor

What is an Obsidian MCP server?

It's a small program that lets an AI app read, search and write your Obsidian notes through the Model Context Protocol, the standard Claude, Codex and Cursor use to connect outside tools.

Obsidian doesn't ship one itself. What it ships for agents is the Obsidian CLI, which gives command-line access to a vault and needs the Obsidian app running. Every Obsidian MCP server you'll find comes from someone else: plugins that run inside Obsidian, standalone servers that read the vault folder, and apps like Locul.

That includes the most popular option, the Local REST API with MCP plugin. It's built by a community developer, Adam Coddington, not by Obsidian. Its listing says third-party MCP servers are "no longer necessary", and for quick edits inside one open vault, that's a fair claim.

Do you need an MCP server at all?

Not always. If you work in Claude Code or Cursor, you can open the vault folder and let the agent read the files directly.

It's what the top answers in one r/ObsidianMD thread about Obsidian MCP servers recommend, and for one vault it works well. Claude Code and Cursor already read and edit files in whatever folder you open, so to them a vault is just another folder. If you go this way, the CLAUDE.md file in that folder shapes every answer, and the free CLAUDE.md analyzer checks it for conflicting rules and wasted tokens.

An MCP server earns its place once the folder trick stops working: in Claude Desktop and the ChatGPT app, which can't open a folder the way a coding agent can, when your notes are spread over several vaults, and when you want the AI to keep what it learned after the chat ends. Claude, Codex and Cursor all use MCP to connect outside tools today, so a setup built on it isn't a dead end.

What most Obsidian MCP setups can't do

They connect one vault to one chat, and the chat forgets everything when it ends.

• Plugin servers such as Local REST API with MCP and MCP Connector run inside Obsidian. Close the app and the connection goes with it.
• Most serve one vault. The plugins serve the vault they're installed in, and mcp-obsidian has an open request for multiple vaults. MCPVault handles more than one, but you add a separate server entry for each vault path.
• None of them turns a PDF into text. The Local REST API plugin's text tools refuse PDF files, and MCPVault reads markdown, text, Bases and Canvas files.
• Every conversation starts from zero. The AI rereads whole notes each time, and on a big vault that runs into token limits: one user with about 4,000 notes blamed them for poor summaries on the Obsidian forum.
• Setup is a developer job. Depending on the server, you copy an API key, trust a self-signed certificate, or install Node, Python or uv, then edit a JSON file by hand. mcp-obsidian needs a plugin and a Python server running at the same time.

How Locul reads your vault

It reads the markdown files on disk, the same files Obsidian keeps, and builds an index and a memory from them.

Locul understands what makes a vault a vault: [[wikilinks]] (aliases and heading links included), backlinks, inline #tags, and the title and tags fields in frontmatter. When your AI asks for notes related to the one it's reading, Locul returns notes with similar content, shared tags, links in either direction, and notes that mention the title without linking to it.

PDFs become searchable notes too. Each new PDF gets a markdown copy saved beside it, so report.pdf gets report.md, and Locul never overwrites a file that already exists. Scanned PDFs with no text layer can't be read.

On top of the index, Locul keeps memories: short facts, decisions and preferences pulled from your notes. When a fact changes, Locul marks the old one superseded and keeps it as history, so your AI answers from what your notes say now rather than what they said in March. While Locul is running it watches your files and picks up edits as you save them.

If you've tried the in-app route, our comparison of Obsidian AI plugins covers what each one does inside Obsidian. For the bigger picture, see how to turn an Obsidian vault into an AI second brain.

Obsidian MCP servers compared

Pick by what you need after the first chat, not by how many tools a server lists.

Checked on 24 September 2026 against each project's own page.

mcp-obsidian, a popular Python server, isn't a separate column because it's a Python server that talks to the Local REST API plugin. It shares that plugin's answers (Obsidian open, one vault) and adds Python, uv and an API key to the setup.

One thing is the same for all four: whatever your AI app reads from your vault goes to that app's own provider, the same as anything else you paste into a chat.

Which one should you use?

Use a free server for quick edits in one vault. Use Locul when your AI should keep what it learns.

• If you want Claude to tidy notes in one vault while Obsidian is open, use Local REST API with MCP. It's free, actively maintained, and it can reach Obsidian's own command palette.
• If semantic search inside one vault matters most, MCP Connector runs its embedding model on your machine.
• If you want a free server that works with Obsidian closed, MCPVault takes one command per vault and has a read-only mode.
• If you have several vaults and a folder of PDFs, and your chats keep starting from scratch, that's the case Locul is built for. One connection covers every vault, PDFs become notes, and memories carry over between chats and between apps.

What your AI can do with your notes, and what it can't

Your AI gets tools for searching, reading and adding notes and memories, and you decide which ones it may use.

The ones you'll see most are search_notes, read_note, related_notes, recent_notes, list_tags, recall_memories, get_memory_source (it opens the note a memory came from), ask_notes for an answer with numbered sources, and create_note. No tool edits or deletes your existing notes. create_note refuses to overwrite a file, and when your AI forgets a memory, the note it came from stays exactly as it was.

In Locul's AI access settings you can switch individual tools off, list blocked words your AI must never be shown, and mark private folders that connected AI apps can never search or read. One switch turns AI access off completely. For more on the memory side, read what a Claude memory MCP is. Guides for other apps are on the Locul MCP page.

Where your notes are processed

Locul reads your files on your computer. In the default mode, the memories are built on Locul's servers.

To turn notes into memories, Locul's AI has to read the note text. By default that happens on Locul's servers, and the memories are backed up to your Locul account. The account holds the memories themselves and the title and location of the note each one came from, not your full notes.

Local-only mode keeps Locul's part of the work on your computer. Nothing goes to Locul's servers, and a local model you run, such as Ollama, builds the memories. You can switch between the two modes whenever you like.

Private folders work on your AI apps, not on Locul's own memory building. A note in a private folder is hidden from Claude, Codex and Cursor, but in the default mode Locul still builds memories from it. If a folder must never be processed at all, keep it out of your home folder or use Local-only mode.

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