Obsidian MCP Server by cyanheads

Append content to a note. Without section: appends to the end of the file, or creates the file if it does not exist (your content becomes the full file). With section: appends to the end of that heading/block/frontmatter — use obsidian_get_note with format: "document-map" to discover available targets. A nested heading may be named either by its full Parent::Child path or by a bare leaf name that matches exactly one heading; a leaf shared by several headings is rejected with ambiguous_section. For block-reference targets, content is concatenated adjacent to the block line without inserting a separator — include a leading newline in content if you want one. Set createTargetIfMissing to bring the target section into existence rather than failing when it does not exist.

Permanently delete a note from the vault. Confirms with the user before deleting when the client supports interactive confirmation. Recovery requires the local trash in Obsidian — there is no API-level undo.

Read a note from the vault — by path, the active file, or a periodic note. Choose a format projection: raw body, full object, structural document map, or a single section.

List notes and subdirectories at a vault path. Defaults to the vault root when path is omitted. Tune recursion with depth, or filter the walk with extension / nameRegex. Capped at 1000 entries per call — when reached, walking stops and excluded is set; narrow path or tighten filters to surface the rest.

List every tag found across the vault, with usage counts. Includes hierarchical parents — work/tasks contributes to both work and work/tasks. Filter to a subset with the optional nameRegex. To find notes by tag, use obsidian_search_notes in jsonlogic mode (e.g. {"in": ["work", {"var": "tags"}]}).

Get, set, or delete a single frontmatter key on a note, atomically. set requires a JSON-typed value (string, number, boolean, array, or object).

Add, remove, or list a note's tags. Defaults to the frontmatter tags: array — set location to inline or both to mutate the note body. add ensures the tag is present in the requested location(s); remove strips it; both reconciles across both representations. Inline #tag occurrences inside fenced code blocks are intentionally left alone, and inline-location additions append the new tag at end-of-file. list ignores the input tags array.

Open a file in the Obsidian app UI. By default fails when the path does not exist; the failIfMissing flag controls the open-or-create behavior. Opening an existing file needs read access; opening a missing one creates it, so that case needs write access to the path.

Edit a heading, block reference, or frontmatter field in place — append to, prepend to, or replace the target's body. Use obsidian_get_note with format: "document-map" to discover available targets first. A nested heading may be named either by its full Parent::Child path or by a bare leaf name that matches exactly one heading; a leaf shared by several headings is rejected with ambiguous_section.

Search and replace inside a single note, literally or by regex. Replacements run in array order, each over the previous one's output. Use for edits that don't fit obsidian_patch_note's structural targets — e.g., body-wide find-and-replace.

Search the vault by text substring or JSONLogic predicate. Pick the mode that matches the query shape. Results paginate via opaque cursors: omit cursor for the first page, then pass nextCursor from the prior response. Text-mode hits additionally clip per file at maxMatchesPerHit.

Create or overwrite a note. With section, replaces just that heading/block/frontmatter section in place — use obsidian_get_note with format: "document-map" to discover available targets. A nested heading may be named either by its full Parent::Child path or by a bare leaf name that matches exactly one heading; a leaf shared by several headings is rejected with ambiguous_section. Whole-file writes fail with file_exists against an existing note unless overwrite: true — for in-place edits, prefer obsidian_patch_note (sections), obsidian_append_to_note (append), or obsidian_replace_in_note (find-and-replace). For heading sections, content is the new body; the heading line is preserved automatically.