Obsidian × MCPVault: The Project Kickoff Generator

The Stack

Tested Against

Prerequisites

• Claude Desktop, https://claude.ai/download
• Node 20+ (MCPVault runs via npx, no plugin needed)
• Back up your vault (git ideal), MCPVault can write to it

Steps

1. 1

   Validate the MCPVault config and scaffold the project folder

   CI writes the exact Claude Desktop config from the guide, proves it parses and points npx at @bitbonsai/mcpvault, and creates the Projects/ scaffold the agent fills.

   cat > claude_desktop_config.json <<'EOF'
   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "obsidian": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["@bitbonsai/mcpvault@latest", "/Users/you/Documents/MyVault"]
       }
     }
   }
   EOF
   node -e 'const c=JSON.parse(require("fs").readFileSync("claude_desktop_config.json","utf8"));const o=c.mcpServers.obsidian;if(o.command==="npx"&&o.args.some(a=>a.indexOf("@bitbonsai/mcpvault")===0)){console.log("config OK: npx -> @bitbonsai/mcpvault")}else{console.log("BAD");process.exit(1)}'
   mkdir -p vault/Projects/Acme-Redesign
   test -d vault/Projects/Acme-Redesign && echo "scaffold OK: vault/Projects/Acme-Redesign"

2. 2

   Generate the project (the Claude step, not checked by CI)

   With MCPVault connected, tell Claude to start the project: it uses search_notes to find relevant existing notes and write_note to scaffold overview.md, tasks.md, knowledge-gaps.md and weekly-update.md in Projects/. Non-deterministic and key-gated, so CI doesn't run it.