obx

obx is a fast, lightweight MCP server for Obsidian vaults written in Go. It exposes a multiplexed set of tools that allow an AI assistant or client to interact with your vault content—reading, searching, modifying, and organizing notes—without requiring the Obsidian REST API. You can run obx locally or expose it over HTTP for multi-client setups, enabling you to connect from various MCP clients to manage notes, templates, links, tasks, and more through a consistent tool interface. The server groups its capabilities into 16 MCP tool groups (e.g., manage-notes, read-batch, search-vault, manage-frontmatter, manage-links, manage-tasks, analyze-vault, and more), each accepting an action argument to perform specific operations against the vault. After starting the MCP server, point your MCP client to the proper endpoint and issue actions via the action parameter to route to the desired functionality.

Prerequisites:

• A supported environment (macOS, Linux, or Windows) with Go installed for building from source, or download pre-built binaries.
• Optional: Docker if you prefer containerized runs.

Choose an installation method:

1. Pre-built binaries (recommended)

• Download the appropriate binary from the releases page:
  • macOS Apple Silicon
  • macOS Intel
  • Linux x64
  • Linux ARM
  • Windows
• Make the binary executable and move it to a directory in your PATH, for example: curl -sSL https://github.com/zach-snell/obx/releases/latest/download/obx-linux-amd64 -o obx chmod +x obx sudo mv obx /usr/local/bin/obx

2. Go Install (build from source)

• Ensure Go is installed on your system.
• Install the binary: go install github.com/zach-snell/obx/cmd/obx@latest
• Move the binary to a convenient location (as shown in the repository): mv $(go env GOPATH)/bin/server $(go env GOPATH)/bin/obx

3. Build from source manually

• Clone the repository and build: git clone https://github.com/zach-snell/obx.git cd obx go build -o obx ./cmd/obx

4. Upgrade

• Re-run the install script to fetch the latest version: curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zach-snell/obx/main/install.sh | bash

Note: After installing, you can start the MCP server with a command like: obx mcp /path/to/vault You can also run the HTTP server variant for multi-client setups as described in the documentation.

Notes and tips:

• Paths passed to commands are relative to the vault root. Use relative paths like projects/todo.md rather than absolute filesystem paths.
• To enable HTTP access for multi-client setups, run the server with the --http flag and configure your MCP client to connect to the provided URL (e.g., http://localhost:8080/mcp).
• You can blacklist entire tool groups with --disabled-tools to restrict AI access to certain capabilities.
• Dynamic vault switching is available with --allow-vault-switching; you can further restrict allowed vaults with --allowed-vaults alias1,alias2.
• The MCP tool reference covers the 16 tool groups; each group accepts an action argument to perform specific tasks. Refer to the official docs for the complete list of actions.
• Ensure you run the server with appropriate permissions to access the vault path you specify.