aaronsb/obsidian-mcp-plugin

Install 'Semantic Notes Vault MCP' from Obsidian Settings → Community plugins (or via BRAT for beta: aaronsb/obsidian-mcp-plugin)
Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http obsidian http://localhost:3001/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
Other clients: add { mcpServers: { obsidian-vault: { transport: { type: "http", url: "http://localhost:3001/mcp", headers... } } } }

Usage

• •Download the .mcpb bundle from the plugin Settings tab and drag it onto Claude Desktop (or double-click), paste URL + API key
• •Trust the self-signed HTTPS cert (default.crt) for HTTPS connections; Claude Code/Bun needs NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS since Bun ignores the macOS keychain
• •Chat with your assistant: 'What are my recent thoughts on project X?', 'Find connections between my psychology and philosophy notes'

Key features

• ✓8 tools covering a family of operations: vault (list/read/create/search/move/split/combine), edit (window editing, append, patch), view, graph (traverse, find paths, analyze), workflow, dataview (DQL if installed), bases, system
• ✓Graph navigation across wiki-link edges, backlinks, tags; full-text search with tag: path: content: operators, regex, phrase matching, relevance ranking
• ✓Permission controls: read-only mode, per-operation controls, path allow/block lists — AI only does what you allow
• ✓HTTP server on port 3001, HTTPS on 3443; multi-vault per-port support; custom .mcpb per vault via node scripts/make-mcpb.mjs

Best for

Giving Claude Desktop / Claude Code / Cline graph-aware access to a personal Obsidian knowledge vault (research, notes synthesis, knowledge-base Q&A).

Caveats

• ⚠HTTPS uses an auto-generated self-signed certificate (stored under .obsidian/plugins/semantic-vault-mcp/certificates/) that must be explicitly trusted; re-trust whenever the cert regenerates (e.g. after 1-year validity)
• ⚠Claude Code runs on Bun, which does not read the macOS system keychain — must set NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS; avoid NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0
• ⚠Dataview and Bases features require those Obsidian plugins; .mcpb double-click behavior varies by OS (may need drag-and-drop or 'Open with')