list_files_in_vault: Lists all files and directories in the root directory of your Obsidian vault
- Takes no arguments
- Returns a JSON list of files and directories
list_files_in_dir: Lists all files and directories in a specific Obsidian directory
- Takes "dirpath" as a string argument
- Returns a JSON list of files and directories in the specified path

Example prompts

List all files in my vault
List all files in the XYZ directory
Get the contents of the last architecture call note

Configuration

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory with the following required variable:

OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Without this API key, the server will not be able to function.

Quickstart

Install

Claude Desktop

On MacOS: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Development/Unpublished Servers Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-knowledge-base": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "<dir_to>/mcp-knowledge-base",
        "run",
        "mcp-knowledge-base"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Published Servers Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-knowledge-base": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-knowledge-base"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Development

Building and Publishing

To prepare the package for distribution:

Sync dependencies and update lockfile:

uv sync

Build package distributions:

uv build

This will create source and wheel distributions in the dist/ directory.

Publish to PyPI:

uv publish

Note: You'll need to set PyPI credentials via environment variables or command flags:

Token: --token or UV_PUBLISH_TOKEN
Or username/password: --username/UV_PUBLISH_USERNAME and --password/UV_PUBLISH_PASSWORD

Debugging

Since MCP servers run over stdio, debugging can be challenging. For the best debugging experience, we strongly recommend using the MCP Inspector.

You can launch the MCP Inspector via npm with this command:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory /path/to/mcp-knowledge-base run mcp-knowledge-base

Upon launching, the Inspector will display a URL that you can access in your browser to begin debugging.

You can also watch the server logs with this command:

tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-mcp-knowledge-base.log