# Obsidian Hybrid Search (MCP server)

> Obsidian Hybrid Search is an MCP server that adds productivity tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Search Obsidian vaults with hybrid full-text, fuzzy, semantic, and graph retrieval. It has 109 GitHub stars, is released under the MIT license and runs locally with npx -y obsidian-hybrid-search.

Your Obsidian vault already contains your best thinking. Obsidian Hybrid Search makes that thinking easier to find, reuse, and bring into AI-assisted work.

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | https://github.com/flowing-abyss/obsidian-hybrid-search |
| GitHub stars | 109 |
| License | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript |
| Transport | stdio |
| Packages | npm: obsidian-hybrid-search |
| Remote URL | none |
| Needs API key | no |
| Official | no |
| Works with | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code |
| Category | Productivity |
| Latest release | v0.16.1 (Oct 5, 2026) |
| Last commit | Oct 5, 2026 |
| MCP registry name | io.github.flowing-abyss/obsidian-hybrid-search |

## Install

### Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian-hybrid-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "obsidian-hybrid-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH": "your-value",
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

### Claude Code

```sh
claude mcp add --env OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH=your-value --env OPENAI_API_KEY=your-value --transport stdio obsidian-hybrid-search -- npx -y obsidian-hybrid-search
```

### Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "obsidian-hybrid-search": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "obsidian-hybrid-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH": "your-value",
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

### VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json)

```json
{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "openai_api_key",
      "description": "OPENAI_API_KEY",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "obsidian-hybrid-search": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "obsidian-hybrid-search"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH": "your-value",
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "${input:openai_api_key}"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Config formats checked against the official docs on 2026-10-07.

## Environment variables

- `OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH` (required): Absolute path to the Obsidian vault to index and search.
- `OBSIDIAN_PREFIX`: Optional prefix for MCP tool names when configuring multiple vaults.
- `OBSIDIAN_IGNORE_PATTERNS`: Comma-separated glob patterns to exclude from indexing.
- `OBSIDIAN_RESPECT_GITIGNORE`: Read root and nested .gitignore files when indexing; set to false, 0, or no to disable.
- `OBSIDIAN_INCLUDE_PATTERNS`: Comma-separated patterns to re-include notes ignored only by .gitignore.
- `OPENAI_API_KEY` (secret): Optional API key for OpenAI-compatible remote embeddings; omit to use local embeddings.
- `OPENAI_BASE_URL`: Optional OpenAI-compatible API base URL for OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio, or similar providers.
- `OPENAI_EMBEDDING_MODEL`: Remote embedding model name when using an OpenAI-compatible API.
- `LOCAL_EMBEDDING_MODEL`: Local embedding model used when no remote embedding API is configured.
- `RERANKER_MODEL`: Optional ONNX cross-encoder reranker model used when reranking is requested.

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