obsidian_search_notes
Search the vault by text, JSONLogic, or BM25-ranked Omnisearch (when the plugin is reachable). Results paginate via opaque cursors.
How to use it
obsidian_search_notes is exposed by the Obsidian MCP Server MCP server. Add the server to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf and others), and the obsidian_search_notes tool becomes available to the model automatically. See the full listing for setup details and every tool this server provides.
Install Obsidian MCP Server
docker run --rm -e OBSIDIAN_API_KEY=your-key -p 3010:3010 obsidian-mcp-serverOther tools in Obsidian MCP Server (21)
when false, match case-insensitively
substitute any run of whitespace in search with \s+. Literal mode only — has no effect when useRegex: true (express it directly).
JSONLogic tree evaluated against path, content, frontmatter.<key>, tags, and stat.{ctime,mtime,size}; custom glob and regexp operators
Append content to a note. Without section, creates the file if missing. With section, appends to a specific heading, block, or frontmatter field (file must exist).
Permanently delete a note. Elicits human confirmation when the client supports it.
Execute an Obsidian command-palette command by ID. Opt-in via OBSIDIANENABLECOMMANDS=true.
Read a note as raw content, full structured form (content + frontmatter + tags + stat, with optional outgoing links), structural document map, or a single section.
List Obsidian command-palette commands, optionally filtered by nameRegex on display name. Opt-in via OBSIDIANENABLECOMMANDS=true (paired with obsidianexecutecommand).
List notes and subdirectories under a vault path. Recursive walk (default depth 2, max depth 20; 1000-entry cap) with optional extension and nameRegex filters.
List every tag found across the vault with usage counts, including hierarchical parents. Optional nameRegex post-filters the result set.
Atomic get / set / delete on a single frontmatter key.
Add, remove, or list tags. Defaults to the frontmatter tags: array; location: 'inline' or 'both' opts into mutating the note body.
Open a file in the Obsidian app UI, with failIfMissing and newLeaf toggles.
Surgical append / prepend / replace against a heading, block reference, or frontmatter field.
Body-wide search-replace inside a single note. Literal or regex matching with whole-word, whitespace-flexible, and case-sensitivity options; supports capture-group replacement.
Create a note, replace a single section in place, or — with overwrite: true — clobber an existing file. Refuses whole-file writes against an existing path by default.
BM25-ranked search via the community Omnisearch plugin. Supports quoted phrases, -exclusion, path: / ext: filters, typo tolerance, and PDF + OCR coverage (via Text Extractor). Only present in the mode enum when the plugin's HTTP server is reachable at startup; the upstream hard-caps results at 50 —
when false, only the first match is replaced
substring match with surrounding context windows. contextLength controls characters of context per side of each match (default 100; bump it for more context per hit). Optional pathPrefix filter (text mode only — passing pathPrefix in any other mode is rejected with pathprefixinvalidmode).
treat search as an ECMAScript regex. With useRegex: true, the replacement honors $1 / $& capture-group references.
wrap the pattern in \b…\b; works in both literal and regex modes