Obsidian Self

An MCP server and CLI that gives you direct access to your Obsidian vault through CouchDB — the same database that Obsidian LiveSync uses to sync your notes.

No Obsidian app required. Works on headless servers, in CI pipelines, from AI agents, or anywhere you can run Python.

How it works

If you use Obsidian LiveSync, your vault is already stored in CouchDB. This tool talks directly to that CouchDB instance — reading, writing, searching, and managing notes using the same document/chunk format that LiveSync uses. Changes sync back to Obsidian automatically.

Who this is for

• Self-hosted LiveSync users who want programmatic vault access
• Homelab operators running headless servers with no GUI
• AI agent builders who need to give Claude, GPT, or other agents access to an Obsidian vault via MCP
• Automation pipelines that read/write notes (changelogs, daily notes, project docs)

How this differs from Obsidian's official CLI

Obsidian has an official CLI that requires the Obsidian desktop app running locally and a Catalyst license. This project requires neither — just a CouchDB instance with LiveSync data.

Feature	Official CLI	obsidian-self-mcp
Requires Obsidian app	Yes (must be running)	No
Requires Catalyst license	Yes ($25+)	No (MIT, free)
Read/write notes	Yes	Yes
Search	Yes	Yes
Frontmatter/properties	Yes	Yes
Tags	Yes	Yes
Backlinks	Yes (via app index)	Yes (content scanning)
Templates	Yes	No (planned)
Canvas	Yes	No
Graph view	No	No
Works headless/CI	No	Yes
MCP server	No	Yes
Transport	Local REST API	CouchDB (network)

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• A CouchDB instance with Obsidian LiveSync data
• The database name, URL, and credentials

Installation

pip install obsidian-self-mcp

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/suhasvemuri/obsidian-self-mcp.git
cd obsidian-self-mcp
pip install -e .

Configuration

Set these environment variables:

export OBSIDIAN_COUCH_URL="http://your-couchdb-host:5984"
export OBSIDIAN_COUCH_USER="your-username"
export OBSIDIAN_COUCH_PASS="your-password"
export OBSIDIAN_COUCH_DB="obsidian-vault"    # optional, defaults to "obsidian-vault"

MCP Server Setup

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian-self-mcp": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "obsidian_self_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_COUCH_URL": "http://your-couchdb-host:5984",
        "OBSIDIAN_COUCH_USER": "your-username",
        "OBSIDIAN_COUCH_PASS": "your-password",
        "OBSIDIAN_COUCH_DB": "obsidian-vault"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to your Claude Code settings (.claude/settings.json or global):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian-self-mcp": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "obsidian_self_mcp.server"],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_COUCH_URL": "http://your-couchdb-host:5984",
        "OBSIDIAN_COUCH_USER": "your-username",
        "OBSIDIAN_COUCH_PASS": "your-password",
        "OBSIDIAN_COUCH_DB": "obsidian-vault"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available MCP Tools

Tool	Description
list_notes	List notes with metadata, optionally filtered by folder
read_note	Read the full content of a note
write_note	Create or update a note
search_notes	Search note content (case-insensitive)
append_note	Append content to an existing note
delete_note	Delete a note and its chunks
list_folders	List all folders with note counts
read_frontmatter	Read frontmatter properties from a note
update_frontmatter	Set/update frontmatter properties (JSON input)
list_tags	List all tags in the vault with counts
search_by_tag	Find notes containing a specific tag
get_backlinks	Find notes that link to a given note
get_outbound_links	List wikilinks from a note

CLI Usage

The obsidian command provides the same operations from the terminal:

# List notes
obsidian list
obsidian list "Dev Projects" -n 10
obsidian ls                              # alias

# Read a note
obsidian read "Notes/todo.md"
obsidian cat "Notes/todo.md"             # alias

# Write a note
obsidian write "Notes/new.md" "# Hello"
obsidian write "Notes/new.md" -f local-file.md
echo "content" | obsidian write "Notes/new.md"

# Search
obsidian search "kubernetes" -d "Dev Projects" -n 5
obsidian grep "kubernetes"               # alias

# Append to a note
obsidian append "Notes/log.md" "New entry"

# Delete a note
obsidian delete "Notes/old.md"
obsidian rm "Notes/old.md" -y            # skip confirmation

# Frontmatter properties
obsidian props "Notes/todo.md"                      # read properties
obsidian props "Notes/todo.md" --set status=done     # set a property
obsidian props "Notes/todo.md" --set 'tags=["a","b"]' status=active

# Tags
obsidian tags                            # list all tags with counts
obsidian tags "Dev Projects"             # tags in a folder
obsidian tags --find "project"           # find notes with a tag

# Backlinks and links
obsidian backlinks "Notes/todo.md"       # notes linking to this note
obsidian links "Notes/todo.md"           # outbound wikilinks from this note

# List folders
obsidian folders
obsidian tree                            # alias

How LiveSync stores data

LiveSync splits each note into a parent document (metadata + ordered list of chunk IDs) and one or more chunk documents (the actual content). This tool handles all of that transparently — reads reassemble chunks in order, writes create proper chunk documents, and deletes clean up both the parent and all chunks.

Document IDs are lowercased vault paths. Paths starting with _ (like _Changelog/) get a / prefix since CouchDB reserves _-prefixed IDs.

License

MIT