| FMRS | 59 / 100 · C | 79 / 100 · B |
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| Reliability | 7 / 20 | 12 / 20 |
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| Security and permissions | 11 / 20 | 18 / 20 |
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| Maintenance | 13 / 20 | 15 / 20 |
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| Documentation | 15 / 20 | 19 / 20 |
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| Setup experience | 13 / 20 | 15 / 20 |
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| Best for | - Users already managing a personal or team knowledge base in Obsidian
- Scenarios where the AI needs to understand link structure between notes, not just isolated files
- Users of Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or other local MCP clients
| - Serious Obsidian users who want AI agents reading and writing their vault
- Users wanting self-hosted, plugin-free operation with no external APIs
- Mobile/multi-device workflows accessing the vault remotely
- Security-conscious users (OAuth 2.1, atomic writes, container hardening)
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| Not for | - Users who don't use Obsidian
- Setups requiring a cloud-hosted MCP service with no local server to run
- Scenarios requiring official support from the Obsidian team (this is a third-party community plugin)
| - Users unwilling to run Docker or self-host a server
- Non-Obsidian note tools (Notion, Logseq, etc.)
- Scenarios requiring only a stdio local process without an HTTP server
- Remote multi-device sync without an Obsidian Sync subscription (the remote image requires one)
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| Required permissions | - API key authentication (Bearer token) to access the local HTTP/HTTPS server port
- Read, write, create, move, split, and combine permissions on vault files
- Configurable to read-only mode, per-operation authorization, and path allow/block lists
| - Read/write access to the Obsidian vault folder (bind mount /vault, rw)
- Persistent /data volume (search index, OAuth token DB, logs)
- MCP_AUTH_TOKEN as Bearer token (also the JWT signing key)
- Obsidian Sync token for headless sync in remote mode
- Local download of embedding/reranker models (~45MB total), no external API calls
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| Risks and side effects | - In default (non-read-only) mode, the AI can modify, move, or merge notes in the vault; misuse could cause data loss or structural disruption
- HTTPS relies on a self-signed certificate that must be trusted carefully — avoid globally disabling certificate verification via NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0
- This is a third-party community plugin (not maintained by the Obsidian team), so updates and long-term support depend on the maintainer
| - The server can read and write personal notes — guard MCP_AUTH_TOKEN carefully; leaking it exposes the whole vault
- Writes to real note files; despite atomic writes and protected paths, misconfiguration can alter data
- OAuth token DB lives on the /data volume; container compromise could expose valid sessions
- Remote deployments expose a public port — set PUBLIC_URL and reverse proxy correctly
- The remote image bundles proprietary obsidian-headless (not MIT-licensed); requires an active Obsidian Sync subscription
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| Supported clients | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cline, Continue | Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Claude.ai, Cursor, OpenCode, MCP Inspector |
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| Tools | 8 | 30 |
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