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Quick Start Guide

Step 1: Configure Claude Desktop

  1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration file:

    open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

  2. Add the Smart Connections server configuration. If the file is empty or only has {}, replace it with:

    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "smart-connections": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "smart-connections-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SMART_VAULT_PATH": "/path/to/Vault One,/path/to/Vault Two"
      }
    }
  }
}

    npx fetches and runs the published package — no clone, no build. Point SMART_VAULT_PATH at the vault folder that contains your .smart-env directory. One vault or several — separate paths with commas.

    If you already have other MCP servers configured, just add the "smart-connections" entry to your existing mcpServers object.

Step 2: Restart Claude Desktop

  1. Quit Claude Desktop completely (Cmd+Q)
  2. Reopen Claude Desktop
  3. Look for the 🔌 icon in the interface (indicates MCP servers are connected)

Step 3: Test the Connection

Try these prompts in Claude:

  1. Get stats about your knowledge base:

    Use the Smart Connections server to show me statistics about my Obsidian vault

  2. Search for content (true semantic search):

    Search my notes for information about [your topic]

  3. Find similar notes:

    Find notes similar to "YourNoteName.md"

  4. Build a connection graph:

    Show me a connection graph starting from [your note name]

  5. List configured vaults (if you set up more than one):

    List my configured vaults

Troubleshooting

Server not showing up?

  1. Check Claude Desktop logs (if available in the app)
  2. Verify the configuration file is valid JSON (no trailing commas, proper quotes)
  3. Make sure SMART_VAULT_PATH points to a vault that contains a .smart-env directory
  4. Try running the server manually: 
    SMART_VAULT_PATH="/path/to/vault" npx -y smart-connections-mcp
    You should see log lines confirming the vault(s) loaded successfully. Press Ctrl+C to stop.

"Smart Connections directory not found"

Make sure your Obsidian vault has:

  • Smart Connections plugin installed
  • Embeddings generated (check the .smart-env/multi/ directory exists and has files)

Need help?

Check the full README.md and TROUBLESHOOTING.md for detailed documentation and troubleshooting steps.

What's Next?

Once connected, Claude can:

  • 🔍 Search your Obsidian notes semantically (whole notes and individual blocks)
  • 🕸️ Discover hidden connections between notes
  • 📊 Analyze your knowledge graph
  • 📝 Read and extract specific sections from notes
  • 💡 Answer questions using your entire knowledge base — across multiple vaults if configured

All of this happens locally — embeddings and the query model both run on your machine, nothing is sent to the cloud.