MCP Local Rag vs Smart Connections

In-depth architectural comparison of the MCP Local Rag 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 Local Rag 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).
• You have access to required keys: BASE_DIR.
• Primary tools included: sync_start, sync_status, ingest_file.

Explore MCP Local Rag 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 Local Rag shinpr Knowledge & Memory	Smart Connections Knowledge & Memory
Summary	Privacy-first document search server running entirely locally. Supports semantic search over PDFs, DOCX, TXT, and Markdown files with LanceDB vector storage and local embeddings - no API keys or cloud services required.	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": {
    "shinpr-mcp-local-rag": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-local-rag"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BASE_DIR": "YOUR_BASE_DIR_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

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

Related MCP Server Comparisons