Obsidian MCP (StevenStavrakis) not working in Claude Desktop? Fixes

Q: Why is Obsidian MCP (StevenStavrakis) not working in Claude Desktop?

It failed in our test on Oct 19, 2026. Errors we observed: no successful call to this server's tools; no tool result containing ['TP-VAULT-5150']; obsidian-mcp exited (code 1) on every start: error [VAULT_NOT_INITIALIZED] (see MIGRATING.md#vaul

Failed It failed in our test on Oct 19, 2026. Below is the exact setup we used in Claude Desktop (Claude Desktop 2.37337.1 (Linux beta, Electron 44.7.0)), every error we saw, and what to check, all from our own run log.

Date tested: Oct 19, 2026 · From our harness, not the maker’s claims · How we test

1. Use the install config we tested in Claude Desktop

{
 "command": "npx",
 "args": [
  "-y",
  "obsidian-mcp",
  "{SANDBOX}/vault"
 ]
}

Replace any <YOUR_…> placeholder and local test paths with your own. Every client’s tested snippet is on the Obsidian MCP (StevenStavrakis) page.

2. Check that Claude Desktop connects to it

In our run the connect check was failed. Our check output:

server exited with code 1 on every launch (VAULT_NOT_INITIALIZED), never connected

Errors we observed

agent task: read page: no successful call to this server's tools; no tool result containing ['TP-VAULT-5150']; obsidian-mcp exited (code 1) on every start: error [VAULT_NOT_INITIALIZED] (see MIGRATING.md#vault-configuration-errors); the model answered with another configured server (Turbovault)

Quoted from our run log. Secrets redacted. We list only what we saw.

More help

Obsidian MCP (StevenStavrakis): all results and setup · Full Claude Desktop run · General Claude Desktop MCP troubleshooting