Co-written with Claude Desktop + Obsidian MCP
Updated: Aug 9, 2025 8:35am

The Problem

I wanted Claude to open my daily note in Obsidian. Sounds simple, right? Claude could create files and search my vault through the MCP tools, but it couldn't invoke the "Daily notes: Open today's daily note" command that respects my plugin settings and templates.

When Claude tried the obvious approach - creating a file with today's date - it used the wrong naming format and put it in the wrong folder. My daily notes live in DailyNotes/ with YYYY.MM.DD.md format, not the root folder with YYYY-MM-DD.md.

The Hunt

I had this hunch: if I can run commands in Obsidian's developer console, maybe Claude could too. We tested it manually:

app.commands.executeCommandById("daily-notes")

It worked. The command exists, it's accessible, and it respects all my settings.

But here's the catch: Claude was trying to execute JavaScript in Chrome, not Obsidian. Different apps, different contexts. The MCP tools can read and write files, but they can't execute commands within Obsidian itself.

The Insight

This revealed a fundamental gap. The Obsidian MCP integration can manipulate files but can't invoke the rich command ecosystem that makes Obsidian powerful. Every plugin command, every template action, every workflow automation - all inaccessible to external tools.

The solution isn't a workaround. It's extending the MCP tools to include command execution. The API exists (app.commands.executeCommandById), it just needs to be exposed through the MCP interface.

What I Learned About Claude

Claude doesn't learn between conversations. I pointed out a formatting error (missing newlines when appending to files), Claude fixed it, but it won't remember this lesson tomorrow. Each conversation starts fresh. If you want consistent behavior, create reference materials or give explicit reminders.

Claude is methodical when it has the right tools. It systematically explored the vault structure, identified the naming patterns, and proposed a solid technical solution. But when the tools don't exist, it can't magic them into being.

Integration gaps are valuable discoveries. What started as "help me open a daily note" became a clear project plan for enhancing Obsidian's automation capabilities.

The Discovery Method That Actually Works

Here's something crucial I learned: don't read the code to understand what an MCP server provides - talk to it directly.

I could have spent hours parsing TypeScript files trying to figure out what tools were available. Instead, one JSON-RPC call told me everything:

echo '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "tools/list", "params": {}}' | mcp-server | jq -r '.result.tools[].name'

This revealed 18 available tools - the actual runtime capabilities, not what the code suggested might exist. MCP servers are dynamic systems. They assemble their tool manifests at runtime based on:

• Which plugins are loaded
• What APIs are available
• Environmental conditions
• Dynamic capability detection

The available tools aren't a static list in the code - they're the result of all the registration code executing. Runtime introspection beats static analysis every time for understanding dynamic systems.

The Takeaway

Sometimes the best outcome isn't solving the original problem - it's understanding why it can't be solved and what needs to be built. I now have a roadmap for adding command execution to Obsidian's MCP tools, which will unlock much richer automation possibilities.

But more importantly: when working with dynamic systems, talk to them directly. The runtime truth is the only truth that matters.

The daily note thing? I'll just press Cmd+P and run the command manually. For now.

This morning, I stumbled upon something important. KALW's "Your Call" program hosted by Rose Aguilar featured an interview with Dr. VJ Periyakoil about the Stanford Letter Project, an initiative that provides templates to help people communicate their end-of-life wishes to loved ones and healthcare providers.

The conversation was both powerful and practical. Dr. Periyakoil explained how these structured letter templates help people express who matters most to them, what they value, and their healthcare preferences in a way that's accessible across cultural and language barriers. Rose Aguilar shared her own experience with her father's quick passing from pancreatic cancer, highlighting how these conversations are often postponed until it's too late.

As I explored the Stanford Letter Project website (https://med.stanford.edu/letter), I was excited to see they offered templates in multiple languages including Chinese, which would be particularly useful for my family. However, I quickly hit a roadblock: the links to these multilingual resources were broken.

Rather than just moving on, I spent this morning doing what I could to help. I crafted an email to both Dr. Periyakoil and the "Your Call" team, explaining the broken links and how I'd found archived versions on Archive.org that showed what should be there. To my surprise, I was quickly cc'd on an email from Dr. Periyakoil to her assistant requesting the links be fixed. Fingers crossed this small intervention helps make these valuable resources accessible again.

I've also been spreading the word through various channels:

• Sharing the episode on social media (Facebook, X.com, and Bsky)
• Bringing the idea to my fellow Ashby Village Tech Committee volunteers
• Considering organizing a workshop around these letters, possibly connecting it to National Healthcare Decisions Day on April 16

There's something deeply satisfying about these small acts of digital maintenance and community connection. The web is full of broken links and forgotten resources, but tools like Archive.org help us recover what's been lost. Similarly, end-of-life conversations are often overlooked until crisis strikes, but resources like the Stanford Letter Project provide a structure to recover those essential connections before it's too late.

I may be a proud Cal Bear, but I can certainly appreciate this valuable Stanford initiative. Some things transcend rivalries, and helping families have meaningful conversations about what matters most is certainly one of them.

Has anyone else used letter-writing or structured templates to facilitate difficult family conversations? I'd love to hear your experiences.