MCP Obsidian vs Smart Connections

In-depth architectural comparison of the MCP Obsidian and Smart Connections MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose MCP Obsidian when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: Local stdio MCP access to an Obsidian vault, Note reading, writing, patching, moving, and deletion, Multi-word search with BM25 reranking.

Explore MCP Obsidian Details

Choose Smart Connections when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Knowledge & Memory domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: search_by_text, search_similar, search_by_embedding.

Explore Smart Connections Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	MCP Obsidian bitbonsai Knowledge & Memory	Smart Connections Knowledge & Memory
Summary	Universal AI bridge for Obsidian vaults using MCP. Provides safe read/write access to notes with 11 comprehensive methods for vault operations including search, batch operations, tag management, and frontmatter handling. Works with Claude, ChatGPT, and any MCP-compatible AI assistant.	MCP server for Obsidian Smart Connections. Semantic search using your vault's embeddings.
Category & Scope	Knowledge & Memory

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bitbonsai-mcp-obsidian": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/inspector"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "smart-connections": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/inspector"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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