Search your entire vault
in milliseconds.
Seekstone is the fastest way to connect Claude to Obsidian — a filesystem-direct Obsidian MCP server, no plugins, no app required. Searches return in single-digit ms — even on a 10,000-note vault — with up to 47,000× smaller payloads, so Claude reads your whole note library without burning its context.
Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP client.
npx -y seekstone init The only Obsidian MCP server
with published numbers.
Measured against 5 other popular servers — 6 servers total — across 1,000 / 5,000 / 10,000-note vaults — public-domain content, fully reproducible, 20 runs each. The harness and the vaults are open source; clone the repo and verify every figure.
One broad search via a REST-proxy server (mcp-obsidian) returns 97.8 million tokens at 10,000 notes — about 489× larger than Claude's entire ~200K-token context window. The result can't even be sent. Seekstone returns the same search in ~570 tokens.
No plugin. No app.
No context tax.
What each architecture demands of you — and what it costs your model. Same queries, same committed vaults, 20 runs each.
| Requirement | Seekstone | obsidian-mcp-server #1 by downloads | REST-proxy servers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local REST API plugin | Not needed | Required | Required |
| Obsidian app running | Not needed — works with Obsidian closed | Required | Required |
| Search payload @ 10k notes | 2.0 KB | 47 KB | up to 95 MB |
| Warm search latency @ 10k notes | 6.2 ms | 732 ms (~118× slower) | up to 1,550 ms |
| Structured frontmatter queries | Built-in (query_notes) — property/date/size predicates, ~350 B answers | JSONLogic via REST | Varies |
Full methodology and the six-server comparison on the benchmarks page — reproducible from the open-source harness.
Ask in plain English.
Answers from your vault.
Claude Desktop on a real vault — one ranked full-text search, one structured
query_notes frontmatter query. Tool-call waits are time-lapsed 6×;
prompts and answers play in real time.
Everything Claude needs
to work your vault.
Everything an Obsidian AI assistant needs — read and write, link-graph and periodic notes, the broadest toolset of any Obsidian MCP server. Four capabilities no other tested server even ships.
search Full-text search returning ranked excerpts (~120 chars, tunable) — not full notes.
query_notes Structured queries — frontmatter, date & size predicates. Whole-vault answers in ~350 B.
read_note Read a note by path. Return a single section, block, or line range.
list_notes List notes, optionally filtered by folder prefix or tag.
list_tags Every tag in the vault, sorted by usage count or alphabetically.
outline_note Heading & block structure — cheap navigation before a targeted read.
get_backlinks Find all notes that link to a given note.
get_links List all outgoing wikilinks and markdown links from a note.
get_periodic_note Read any date's daily / weekly / monthly note — Obsidian closed.
create_note Create a note with optional frontmatter; parent dirs made for you.
append_note Append text to a note body without ever touching frontmatter.
patch_frontmatter Edit YAML in place — key order, quote style and comments preserved.
patch_note Insert text immediately after a heading, frontmatter untouched.
replace_in_note Replace the first occurrence of a phrase, with a dry-run preview.
move_note Move or rename a note; destination directories created automatically.
append_periodic_note Append to today's periodic note, creating it from a template.
delete_note Permanently delete a note. Irreversible — only when you ask.
Your context is precious.
Most servers return full note content for every hit — megabytes your model has to read. Seekstone returns short ranked excerpts, so a query that cost 872,000 tokens via the REST plugin costs about 740.
Your vault stays yours.
No Obsidian app, no Local REST API plugin, no cloud. Seekstone reads files straight from disk, makes zero network calls, and sends no telemetry. Writes only ever happen when you ask.
Your files, forever.
Plain Markdown on your machine — nothing to lock you in. Frontmatter edits are byte-identical by design: key order, quote style and comments preserved, proven by the test harness.
Pick your way in.
One npm package, one server. Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf — any MCP-over-stdio client.
- 1Download
seekstone.mcpbfrom GitHub Releases. - 2Open it with Claude Desktop — double-click in Finder.
- 3Pick your Obsidian vault when prompted. Done.
Auto-detects your vault, validates it, and patches Claude Desktop for you.
npx -y seekstone init --write to patch in place, or --vault to choose. One command auto-detects your vault and configures Claude Code end-to-end.
npx -y seekstone init --client code --write Install from your browser, then set SEEKSTONE_VAULT to your vault path in Cursor's MCP settings.
~/.cursor/mcp.json (with a backup): npx -y seekstone init --client cursor --write Install from your browser, then set SEEKSTONE_VAULT to your vault path when VS Code opens the server config.
Paste into claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer).
Using Windsurf, Cline, or another client? Read the full install guide →