Obsidian

The RushDB plugin for Obsidian indexes the notes of a vault into RushDB: their text, properties (frontmatter), tags, headings and [[links]]. Your Markdown files stay the source of truth: the plugin writes only to RushDB, never to your vault.

Once a vault is indexed you can:

• search it from Obsidian, by keyword or, with semantic search on, by meaning;
• open a sidebar that shows the open note's links, backlinks, notes two links away, similar notes and notes that share its tags;
• point the MCP server at the same data, so an AI agent can filter notes by property, follow links and search by meaning.

It works with RushDB Cloud and with self-hosted RushDB, and needs Obsidian 1.13 or later.

Install

In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for RushDB, install it and enable it.

Connect

Open Settings → RushDB and choose a server.

RushDB Cloud

1. Create a project at app.rushdb.com and create an API key in it.
2. Keep Server on RushDB API (Cloud or self-hosted) and API URL on https://api.rushdb.com.
3. Under API key, add the key. Obsidian keeps it in its secret storage, not in the plugin's data file.

Self-hosted

A self-hosted RushDB platform takes an API key like RushDB Cloud: set API URL to your platform's URL and add one of its API keys.

To use a standalone engine instead, start it with a data directory so the index survives restarts:

Shell

rushdb serve --port 3999 --data-dir ~/.local/share/rushdb-obsidian

Then set Server to Standalone engine, Engine URL to http://127.0.0.1:3999, and fill in Engine token if the engine runs with --token, and Tenant if it runs with --multitenant.

Select Check next to Check connection to confirm the plugin reaches the server.

Choose what to index

Under Folders to index, list the folders whose notes are sent to RushDB, one per line, or / for the whole vault. List folders to leave out, such as journals or templates, under Folders to skip.

warning

Nothing is sent until you choose at least one folder. Everything in the folders you choose is sent to the server you configured, so leave out anything that should not leave your device.

Close the settings to start the first sync; the status bar shows its progress. Later edits, renames and deletions are sent a couple of seconds after they happen. A large vault is sent in batches, and an interrupted first sync resumes where it stopped.

Setting	Default	Description
Folders to index	none	Folders whose notes are indexed, one per line; / for the whole vault
Folders to skip	none	Folders inside them to leave out
Semantic search	off	Embed note text with the server's managed embedding model, for search by meaning and similar notes
Text per note	32000	Characters of each note that are sent; longer notes are cut

Semantic search uses RushDB Cloud's managed embeddings, or those of a self-hosted platform configured with an embedding model. A standalone engine has no embedding model, so the plugin searches by keyword and finds similar notes by their titles and headings.

Search and related notes

Command	What it does
RushDB: Search notes	Keyword search, or hybrid keyword and semantic search with semantic search on
RushDB: Show related notes	Opens the related-notes sidebar for the active note
RushDB: Resync the vault	Compares the vault with RushDB and sends whatever differs

Give an agent your notes

Point the MCP server at the same project or engine as the plugin:

RushDB Cloud

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rushdb": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@rushdb/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RUSHDB_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Self-hosted

JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rushdb": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@rushdb/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "RUSHDB_MODE": "direct",
        "RUSHDB_ENGINE_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:3999",
        "RUSHDB_ENGINE_TOKEN": "your-engine-token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then ask, for example:

Which notes tagged project link to notes whose fm_status is draft?

What lands in RushDB

Vault	RushDB
A note	One NOTE record
Path, file name, folder	path, title, folder
Note text, without frontmatter	body, up to Text per note characters
Tags (in the text and in properties)	tags
Aliases, headings	aliases, headings
Property status	fm_status: properties are prefixed fm_, with spaces and dashes as _
Last modified	modifiedAt
A [[link]] to another indexed note	A LINKS_TO relationship with kind: "wikilink"

Each record also holds vaultId, which identifies the vault, and linkKey and linksTo, which the plugin uses to write links. Several vaults can share a project; links never connect notes of different vaults.

To remove a vault from RushDB, select Remove next to Remove this vault from RushDB in the plugin's settings. It deletes every note and link the vault sent, and leaves your notes untouched.

Privacy

• Only notes in the folders you choose are sent, and only to the server you configure. Attachments and other files are never sent.
• The plugin walks only the folders you chose; it does not list the rest of the vault.
• The API key and engine token are kept in Obsidian's secret storage.
• The plugin has no telemetry or analytics. Its source is on GitHub, and each release carries a GitHub artifact attestation.

See also

• MCP server
• Keyword search
• Semantic search
• Relationships