mdvault

CLI and MCP Server for Markdown Vault Management

mdvault is a Rust-based CLI tool and MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for managing markdown vaults. It's designed for knowledge workers who need structure without friction—particularly those who excel at capturing information but struggle with retrieval and maintenance.

Design Philosophy

Pull-Optimised, Not Push-Optimised: Notes get created correctly during hyperfocus but go stale without maintenance. Retrieval is the primary failure mode, so mdvault focuses on finding information when you need it rather than optimising capture.

Opinionated Structure: Rather than maximising flexibility, mdvault enforces structure through required frontmatter fields, automatic scaffolding, validation workflows, and enforced linking patterns.

ADHD-Friendly Principles:

• Reduce cognitive load with smart defaults
• Progressive capture—quick entry, structured cleanup later
• Automated maintenance—proactive detection of stale/broken/orphaned content
• Passive surfacing—don't wait for searches, show relevant context

Current Status

mdvault is undergoing a significant expansion. The core templating and capture system is functional, while the indexing, search, and MCP integration are in development.

Working Now

• Templates: Create notes from templates with variable substitution
• Type-Aware Scaffolding: mdv new task "My Task" creates notes with schema-based frontmatter
• Interactive Task Creation: mdv new task prompts to select a project from existing ones
• Task Management: mdv task list shows tasks by project, mdv task done marks complete
• Project Overview: mdv project list shows projects with open/done task counts
• Captures: Quick append to existing notes (daily logs, project notes)
• Macros: Multi-step workflow automation
• Date Math: Expressions like {{today + 1d}} or {{today + monday}}
• Template Filters: {{title | slugify}}, {{name | lowercase}}, etc.
• TUI: Interactive palette for templates, captures, and macros
• Vault Indexing: SQLite-based index with note metadata, link graph, and incremental updates
• Index Queries: List notes, find backlinks/outlinks, detect orphans via CLI
• Lua Scripting: Sandboxed Lua runtime with access to date math and template engines
• Type System: Lua-based type definitions with schemas, validation, and lifecycle hooks
• Validation: mdv validate checks notes against type schemas with auto-fix support
• MCP Server: Basic vault browsing and note operations

In Development

• Contextual search (graph neighbourhood + temporal signals)
• Daily logging integration for task completion

Installation

Pre-built Binaries (Recommended)

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page.

# macOS/Linux: Extract and move to PATH
tar xzf mdv-*.tar.gz
sudo mv mdv /usr/local/bin/

# Verify installation
mdv --version

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install agustinvalencia/tap/mdvault

Cargo (Rust)

cargo install mdvault

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/agustinvalencia/mdvault.git
cd mdvault
cargo build --release
# Binary is at target/release/mdv

Quick Start

1. Create a configuration file:

mkdir -p ~/.config/mdvault
cat > ~/.config/mdvault/config.toml << 'EOF'
version = 1
profile = "default"

[profiles.default]
vault_root = "~/Notes"
templates_dir = "{{vault_root}}/.mdvault/templates"
captures_dir  = "{{vault_root}}/.mdvault/captures"
macros_dir    = "{{vault_root}}/.mdvault/macros"

[security]
allow_shell = false
allow_http  = false
EOF

2. Verify your setup:

mdv doctor

3. Launch the TUI:

mdv

Commands

See mdv --help for full options.

Note Types

mdvault enforces note types via frontmatter. Types can be customized with Lua definitions in ~/.config/mdvault/types/:

MCP Integration

mdvault has a sister project being developed for an MCP server for AI-assisted vault interaction

This enables Claude and other MCP clients to:

• Browse and search vault contents
• Create properly structured notes
• Surface relevant context automatically
• Prompt for maintenance tasks

Documentation

• Architecture and Design — Full design philosophy and technical details
• Development Plan — Implementation phases and roadmap
• Lua Scripting — Using the Lua scripting layer

Legacy Documentation

The original markadd documentation (templates, captures, macros, configuration) is preserved in docs/markadd-legacy/.

Compatibility

Works with any markdown-based vault system:

• Obsidian
• Logseq
• Dendron
• Foam
• Plain markdown folders

License

See LICENSE.