Vault Cortex is a standalone MCP server that gives any AI agent hybrid search, task management, structured memory, and read/write access to your Obsidian vault. No plugins, no running Obsidian, no separate bridge. One Docker container, your vault folder, a full tool suite + guided prompts. Run it on a remote server with Obsidian Sync, and the same vault is accessible from your phone, claude.ai, or any remote MCP client, secured with OAuth 2.1. Deploy it with one click or self-host it; either way, the vault is always yours.
Contents — What you get · Quick Start · How It Works · Hybrid Search · Memory · Tasks · Files · Tools · Prompts · Properties · Config · Daily Notes · Data Integrity · Auth · Deployment · One-click Deploy · Community Deployments
What you get
| Search the vault | Reason over notes | Write back to Obsidian |
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All three demos run on Claude mobile. The vault is on a remote server, not the phone.
- Remote access — works from your phone, a remote server, or any MCP client via OAuth 2.1. One click on Render or Railway gets you there with no server to manage; a VPS works too.
- Plugin-free — Obsidian doesn't need to be running. The server works directly with
.mdfiles on disk. Headless sync keeps the vault current. - Hybrid search — FTS5 keyword matching + vector semantic similarity via RRF fusion, refined by cross-encoder reranking for intent-heavy queries. Keywords stay precise on exact terms and jargon; vectors find notes even when your words differ from the vault's.
- Structured memory — dated, append-only entries accumulate into a personal knowledge layer, auto-initialized for AI personalization. Topic recall answers "what do I think about X?" with the current take and the dated history behind it — evolution included.
- Tasks — Kanban-aware task queries and updates: triage by status, dates, or priority, then complete, reprioritize, or move tasks between lanes in one call. Completing a recurring task spawns its next occurrence. Parses both Tasks plugin emoji and Dataview inline-field formats.
- Link graph — backlinks, outgoing links, and orphan detection across the vault
- Files — read the vault's non-markdown files too: images arrive as actual images (shrunk to fit when needed), PDFs as structured text or rendered pages, canvases as readable outlines, data files as text
- Obsidian-native — understands frontmatter, wikilinks, tags, headings, and daily notes
- Guided workflows — built-in prompts for vault health, memory review, and daily reconciliation — assembled from live vault data each time









