Configuration¶

All configuration is via environment variables. Most use the MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_ prefix; embedding provider settings use their own conventions.

Core¶

Variable	Type	Default	Required	Description
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_SOURCE_DIR`	path	—	Yes	Path to the markdown vault directory
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_READ_ONLY`	bool	`true`	No	Set to `false` to enable write operations
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_INDEX_PATH`	path	in-memory	No	Path to the SQLite FTS5 index file; set for persistence across restarts
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_EMBEDDINGS_PATH`	path	disabled	No	Path to the numpy embeddings file; required to enable semantic search
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_STATE_PATH`	path	`{SOURCE_DIR}/.markdown_vault_mcp/state.json`	No	Path to the change-tracking state file
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_INDEXED_FIELDS`	csv	—	No	Comma-separated frontmatter fields to promote to the tag index for structured filtering
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_REQUIRED_FIELDS`	csv	—	No	Comma-separated frontmatter fields required on every document; documents missing any are excluded from the index
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_EXCLUDE`	csv	—	No	Comma-separated glob patterns to exclude from scanning (e.g. `.obsidian/,.trash/`)
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_TEMPLATES_FOLDER`	string	`_templates`	No	Relative folder path used by the `create_from_template` prompt to discover/read template files

Server Identity¶

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_SERVER_NAME`	string	`markdown-vault-mcp`	MCP server name shown to clients; useful for multi-instance setups
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS`	string	(auto)	System-level instructions injected into LLM context; defaults to a description that reflects read-only vs read-write state
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_HTTP_PATH`	path	`/mcp`	HTTP endpoint path for streamable HTTP transport (`serve --transport http`)

Search and Embeddings¶

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`EMBEDDING_PROVIDER`	string	auto-detect	Embedding provider: `openai`, `ollama`, or `fastembed`. Not `MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_`-prefixed
`OLLAMA_HOST`	url	`http://localhost:11434`	Ollama server URL. Not `MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_`-prefixed
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	string	—	OpenAI API key for the OpenAI embedding provider. Not `MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_`-prefixed
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_OLLAMA_MODEL`	string	`nomic-embed-text`	Ollama embedding model name
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_OLLAMA_CPU_ONLY`	bool	`false`	Force Ollama to use CPU only
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_FASTEMBED_MODEL`	string	`nomic-ai/nomic-embed-text-v1.5`	FastEmbed model name
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_FASTEMBED_CACHE_DIR`	path	FastEmbed default	FastEmbed model cache directory (in Docker, stored under `/data/state/fastembed`)

Embedding provider auto-detection

When EMBEDDING_PROVIDER is not set, the server tries providers in this order:

OpenAI — if OPENAI_API_KEY is set
Ollama — if OLLAMA_HOST is reachable
FastEmbed — if the fastembed package is installed

Git Integration¶

Git integration has three modes:

Managed (GIT_REPO_URL + GIT_TOKEN): server manages clone, pull, commit, and push.
Unmanaged / commit-only (no GIT_REPO_URL, repo already exists): server commits writes locally only; you manage pull/push externally.
No-git (default): plain directory; no git operations.

Backward compatibility: GIT_TOKEN without GIT_REPO_URL still works (legacy behavior) and logs a deprecation warning.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_GIT_REPO_URL`	string	—	HTTPS repo URL for managed mode. On startup, empty `SOURCE_DIR` is cloned from this URL
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_GIT_USERNAME`	string	`x-access-token`	Username for HTTPS auth prompts (`x-access-token` GitHub, `oauth2` GitLab, account name Bitbucket)
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_GIT_TOKEN`	string	—	Token/password for HTTPS auth via `GIT_ASKPASS`
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_GIT_PULL_INTERVAL_S`	int	`600`	Seconds between `git fetch` + ff-only update attempts; `0` disables periodic pull
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_GIT_PUSH_DELAY_S`	float	`30`	Seconds of write-idle time before pushing; `0` = push only on shutdown
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_GIT_COMMIT_NAME`	string	`markdown-vault-mcp`	Git committer name for auto-commits; set this in Docker where `git config user.name` is empty
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_GIT_COMMIT_EMAIL`	string	`noreply@markdown-vault-mcp`	Git committer email for auto-commits
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_GIT_LFS`	bool	`true`	Run `git lfs pull` on startup to resolve LFS pointers; set to `false` if git-lfs is not installed

Push delay

The push delay batches rapid writes into a single push. Set to 0 to disable automatic pushing — the server will push only on shutdown via close().

HTTPS remotes only with token auth

When GIT_TOKEN is used, SSH remotes are rejected. Use an HTTPS URL for origin or GIT_REPO_URL.

Attachments¶

Non-markdown file support for PDFs, images, spreadsheets, and more.

Variable	Type	Default	Description
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_ATTACHMENT_EXTENSIONS`	csv	(built-in list)	Comma-separated allowed extensions without dot (e.g. `pdf,png,jpg`); use `*` to allow all non-`.md` files
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_MAX_ATTACHMENT_SIZE_MB`	float	`10.0`	Maximum attachment size in MB for reads and writes; `0` disables the limit

Default allowed extensions: pdf, docx, xlsx, pptx, odt, ods, odp, png, jpg, jpeg, gif, webp, svg, bmp, tiff, zip, tar, gz, mp3, mp4, wav, ogg, txt, csv, tsv, json, yaml, toml, xml, html, css, js, ts

Hidden directories

Attachments inside hidden directories (.git/, .obsidian/, .markdown_vault_mcp/, etc.) are never listed, regardless of extension settings. MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_EXCLUDE patterns are also applied to attachments.

OIDC Authentication¶

Optional token-based authentication for HTTP deployments. OIDC activates when all four required variables are set. See OIDC deployment for setup details.

Variable	Type	Required	Description
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_BASE_URL`	url	Yes	Public base URL of the server (e.g. `https://mcp.example.com` or `https://mcp.example.com/vault` when mounted under a prefix)
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_OIDC_CONFIG_URL`	url	Yes	OIDC discovery endpoint (e.g. `https://auth.example.com/.well-known/openid-configuration`)
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_ID`	string	Yes	OIDC client ID registered with your provider
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET`	string	Yes	OIDC client secret
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_OIDC_JWT_SIGNING_KEY`	string	No	JWT signing key; required on Linux/Docker — the default is ephemeral and invalidates tokens on restart. Generate with `openssl rand -hex 32`
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_OIDC_AUDIENCE`	string	No	Expected JWT audience claim; leave unset if your provider does not set one
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_OIDC_REQUIRED_SCOPES`	csv	`openid`	Comma-separated required scopes
`MARKDOWN_VAULT_MCP_OIDC_VERIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN`	bool	`false`	Set `true` to verify the upstream access token as JWT instead of the id token. Only needed when your provider issues JWT access tokens and you require audience-claim validation on that token

Boolean Parsing¶

Boolean environment variables accept true, 1, or yes (case-insensitive) as truthy. Everything else is treated as false.

Example .env Files¶

File	Description
`examples/obsidian-readonly.env`	Obsidian vault, read-only, Ollama embeddings
`examples/obsidian-readwrite.env`	Obsidian vault, read-write with git auto-commit
`examples/obsidian-oidc.env`	Obsidian vault, read-only, OIDC authentication (Authelia)
`examples/ifcraftcorpus.env`	Strict frontmatter enforcement, read-only corpus