The most capable
MCP server for Obsidian.

27 tools. Canvas auto-layout. BM25 smart search. Vault intelligence. Zero plugins required. 100% local.

BM25 SearchDagre CanvasTF-IDF Intelligence27 Tools
Install for Claude Desktop
$claude mcp add vaultforge -- npx -y @blacksmithers/vaultforge /path/to/vaultclick to copy
// Capabilities

Three engines. No wrappers.

Every feature exists because the alternatives didn't. Not a wrapper around Obsidian's API. Real engines built from scratch.

Canvas Engine

4 TOOLS · DAGRE (SUGIYAMA) LAYOUT

Create, read, patch, and relayout Obsidian Canvas files with automatic node positioning via the dagre algorithm. Returns semantic graphs — labels and connections, not raw JSON with hex coordinates. Your AI assistant gets structure, not noise.

Smart Search

8 TOOLS · BM25 VIA ORAMA

Ranked search across 26 languages with typo tolerance. The AI gets the top results with relevance scores — not a raw dump of 50 grep matches. Full-text, filename, content, and vault-wide search with a persistent local index.

Vault Intelligence

2 TOOLS · TF-IDF CLUSTERING

vault_themes maps your vault's knowledge topology using TF-IDF analysis. vault_suggest generates reorganization recommendations. One call replaces hundreds of file reads. Your AI sees the forest, not just the trees.

// Token efficiency

Less tokens. Better answers.

Traditional MCP servers dump raw data and let the AI figure it out. VaultForge returns intelligence — processed, ranked, structured. The result: 80-95% token reduction per operation.

Read a Canvas
Raw JSON with coordinates vs. semantic graph
Traditional MCP — full JSON dump
VaultForge — labels + connections
~80% fewer tokens
Search the Vault
Grep dump vs. BM25 ranked results
Traditional MCP — 50 unranked results
VaultForge — top results with scores
~90% fewer tokens
Understand Structure
File-by-file reads vs. one intelligence call
Traditional MCP — 100s of read_file calls
VaultForge — vault_themes()
~95% fewer tokens
// Comparison

Not all MCP servers are equal.

Feature comparison with every known Obsidian MCP server.

FeatureVaultForgemcp-obsidianmcpvaultobsidian-mcp-server
Tools27~10~8~6
Canvas (auto-layout)
BM25 Smart Search
Vault Intelligence
Regex find-replace
Batch rename + wikilinks
Backlink analysis
Frontmatter as datapartial
MCPB Desktop Extension
Token-efficient by design
No plugin requiredplugin neededplugin needed
// All 27 tools

The complete arsenal.

8 categories. Every tool your AI assistant needs to master your Obsidian vault.

Notes

6 TOOLS
  • read_note
  • write_note
  • edit_note
  • edit_regex
  • append_note
  • delete_note

Search & Discovery

8 TOOLS
  • smart_search
  • search_reindex
  • search_vault
  • search_content
  • list_dir
  • recent_notes
  • daily_note
  • vault_status

Files

3 TOOLS
  • batch_rename
  • delete_folder
  • prune_empty_dirs

Links

2 TOOLS
  • update_links
  • backlinks

Metadata

1 TOOL
  • frontmatter

Canvas

4 TOOLS
  • canvas_create
  • canvas_read
  • canvas_patch
  • canvas_relayout

Intelligence

2 TOOLS
  • vault_themes
  • vault_suggest

Batch

1 TOOL
  • batch
View full tool reference →
// Installation

Open the vault.

Choose your weapon. Four ways to install — pick the one that fits your workflow.

// One-click install via MCPB Desktop Extension

1. Download vaultforge.mcpb from the latest release
2. Open Claude Desktop → Settings Extensions
3. Click Install Extension → select the .mcpb file
4. Enter your vault path when prompted

// That's it. No terminal required.
// One-liner for Claude Code

$ claude mcp add vaultforge -- npx -y @blacksmithers/vaultforge /path/to/your/vault
// Add to your MCP config JSON

{ "servers": { "vaultforge": { "command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@blacksmithers/vaultforge", "/path/to/your/vault"]
} } }
// Global install via npm

$ npm install -g @blacksmithers/vaultforge

// Then run with your vault path
$ vaultforge /path/to/your/vault