Obsidian Diary MCP Server

AI-powered journaling with local processing, automatic backlinks, and smart prompts.

Features

AI-generated reflection prompts based on past 3 calendar days
Day citations with automatic [[YYYY-MM-DD]] backlinks
Brain dump prioritization (analyzes your writing, not prompts)
Smart #tag extraction using theme similarity
Todo extraction to organized checklists
Memory trace analysis with theme evolution
Sunday synthesis (weekly reflection prompts)

Requirements

uv (Python package manager)
Ollama (llama3.1 or compatible model)
MCP client (e.g., GitHub Copilot CLI)
Obsidian vault (for markdown files)

Setup

1. Clone and install:

git clone https://github.com/madebygps/obsidian-diary-mcp.git

cd obsidian-diary-mcp

uv sync

chmod +x start-server.sh

2. Configure:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env: set DIARY_PATH and PLANNER_PATH (required)

3. Add to MCP client config (e.g., GitHub Copilot CLI):

Name: diary
Command: /full/path/to/obsidian-diary-mcp/start-server.sh

Configuration (.env):

Required: DIARY_PATH, PLANNER_PATH

Optional: OLLAMA_MODEL (default: llama3.1:latest), OLLAMA_TIMEOUT (60s), OLLAMA_TEMPERATURE (0.7), OLLAMA_NUM_PREDICT (1000 tokens)

Usage

Create: "create a memory log for today" → AI prompts based on past 3 days
Write: Open in Obsidian, write freely in Brain Dump section
Extract: "extract todos from today's entry" → Action items to planner
Link: "link today's memory log" → Auto-generates [[YYYY-MM-DD]] & #tags
Explore: Use Obsidian's backlinks panel and graph view

More Commands: "show themes from last week", "create memory trace for 30 days", "refresh memory links for 30 days"

Debugging

Logs in logs/ directory: server-YYYY-MM-DD.log (protocol), debug-YYYY-MM-DD.log (operations)

tail -f logs/debug-$(date +%Y-%m-%d).log  # Watch in real-time
grep ERROR logs/debug-*.log                # Find errors
grep "similarity" logs/debug-*.log         # Debug backlinks

Troubleshooting

Server issues: Check .env exists with DIARY_PATH and PLANNER_PATH set. Run ./start-server.sh directly to test.

Ollama issues: Verify running with curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags. Pull model: ollama pull llama3.1:latest

No backlinks: Need 2+ entries with similar themes (>8% overlap). Ensure Brain Dump section has substantial content (>50 chars). Check: grep "Brain Dump" logs/debug-*.log

Timeouts: Increase OLLAMA_TIMEOUT (90+) and OLLAMA_NUM_PREDICT (2000+) for reasoning models.

How It Works

Local AI: Ollama processes entries locally—content never leaves your machine
Calendar-Based: Analyzes past 3 calendar days (not just last 3 entries)
Brain Dump Focus: Prioritizes your writing over answered prompts for themes
Day Citations: AI cites [Day 1]/[Day 2] → converts to [[2025-10-07]] backlinks
Smart Linking: Jaccard similarity connects entries with >8% theme overlap
Sundays: 5 weekly synthesis prompts (vs 3 daily)
Todo Extraction: AI identifies action items from brain dumps

Entry Format

Each entry (YYYY-MM-DD.md) has plain text headers:

## Reflection Prompts
**1. Question with [[2025-10-06]] backlink (reason)...**

---

## Brain Dump
Your thoughts, experiences, observations...

---

## Memory Links
**Temporal connections:** [[2025-10-05]] • [[2025-10-04]]
**Topic tags:** #career-growth #self-reflection

License

MIT • Python 3.13+ • FastMCP 2.12.4+ • Ollama

Obsidian Diary