Obsidian × MCPVault: The Project Kickoff Generator
Hand Claude your goals and constraints and have it scaffold a whole project folder from what your vault already knows.
Run this workflow
CI-verified, 3/3 fixtures passing.
Build this with your agent
One copy-paste hands Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor the full recipe, steps included, nothing to fetch.
Intended Use
Obsidian users who want a blank-page project kickoff turned into a populated folder (overview, tasks, knowledge-gaps, weekly-update) wired into existing notes, via MCPVault's search_notes + write_note.
Not for
- People who won't install Claude Desktop
- Vaults you haven't backed up, MCPVault writes to them
The Stack
Tested Against
mcpvault@latestclaude-desktopnode@20.xobsidian@1.7.xSide effects & data flow
- Network
- Anthropic API, only in the non-CI Claude step
- Writes
- ./vault/Projects/, claude_desktop_config.json
- Credentials
- Claude Desktop login, for the planning step only
Data privacy
- Anthropic (Claude), only in the non-CI agent step ← the project brief and matched notes (retention: per Anthropic's API/data policy)
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
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
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.
Eval, 3 fixtures
Last passed: verified todayconfig-validcontainstimeout 30s · max $0Expected:
config OK: npx -> @bitbonsai/mcpvaultscaffoldcontainstimeout 30s · max $0Expected:
scaffold OK: vault/Projects/Acme-Redesignclean-exitexit_codetimeout 30s · max $0Expected:
0
Results
From the WebAfterAI guide: 5 more Obsidian + Claude workflows (Part 2).
Did this work for you?
Our CI checks the setup runs. You tell us if the whole thing worked. Tell us straight.
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