Vault Cortex

What it is

A standalone MCP server that works directly with the .md files of an Obsidian vault on disk. One Docker container gives an agent search, note editing, task management and a memory layer; run it on a server with Obsidian Sync and the same vault is reachable from your phone or claude.ai over OAuth 2.1.

What you get

• Notes — vault_read_note, vault_write_note, vault_patch_note for heading-targeted edits, vault_replace_in_note, vault_delete_span, vault_list_notes, vault_delete_note, vault_move_note, which rewrites links across the vault
• Search — vault_search blends FTS5 keyword matching with vector similarity through RRF fusion and a cross-encoder reranker; plus vault_search_by_tag, vault_search_by_folder, vault_recent_notes, vault_list_tags
• Tasks — vault_list_tasks indexes the whole vault Kanban-aware, across six date fields, priority and folder; vault_update_task changes status, priority and lane in one call and stamps the completion date
• Memory — vault_update_memory appends dated entries, vault_memory_recall retrieves matching entries across memory files oldest-first, with vault_get_memory, vault_delete_memory and vault_list_memory_files
• Properties and links — vault_list_property_keys, vault_list_property_values, vault_search_by_property, vault_update_properties, vault_get_backlinks, vault_get_outgoing_links, vault_find_orphans
• Files and daily notes — vault_read_file returns images as images and canvases as readable outlines, vault_list_files browses attachments, vault_get_daily_note resolves today's or any date's note from your Obsidian daily-notes settings

Requirements

Docker (or a compatible runtime) and a vault folder. The fastest path is npx vault-cortex@latest init, which asks for the vault path, generates the auth token and config, and starts the container — that CLI needs Node.js >= 20.12, the server itself runs in Docker. Two settings are mandatory: MCP_AUTH_TOKEN, generated with openssl rand -hex 32, and the vault bind-mount path. The client connects to http://localhost:8000/mcp. Remote deployments additionally need PUBLIC_URL and an Obsidian Sync subscription. Feature switches let you cut the surface: EMBEDDING_ENABLED=false for keyword-only search, MEMORY_ENABLED=false, FILE_TOOLS_ENABLED=false, READONLY_MODE=true, and DISABLED_TOOLS to hide named tools. Image version 0.42.1.

Setup effort

One command plus a local token — npx vault-cortex@latest init, then supply the token

Tools you get

30 tools named in the project's documentation. READONLY_MODE=true hides every tool that changes the vault; MEMORY_ENABLED=false hides the five memory tools; FILE_TOOLS_ENABLED=false hides vault_read_file and vault_list_files; DISABLED_TOOLS hides any tool you name.

Requires

• Docker, or a Docker-compatible runtime such as OrbStack, Colima or Podman
• Node.js 20.12 or later, for the init CLI only
• An Obsidian vault, or any folder of .md files