# DocsAgent — Zotero, Obsidian & Apple Notes MCP Server

Provides local AI agents with fast search and read access across Zotero libraries, Obsidian vaults, and macOS Apple Notes.

- MCP server · `type=mcp` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf (Devin Desktop), Cline, Zed, Gemini CLI · ★ 578
- Author: docsagent
- License: not stated · policy=link-only · description only; the file stays with the author
- Source: https://github.com/docsagent/docsagent
- Updated: 2026-09-28
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/docsagent-zotero-obsidian-apple-notes-mcp-server

## What it does

DocsAgent links your desktop knowledge repositories directly to AI assistants. It indexes papers in Zotero, markdown files in Obsidian, and Apple Notes databases on macOS using a native C++ engine. BM25 search and reciprocal rank passage retrieval run on your own hardware without uploading documents outside.

The package exposes 8 MCP tools covering search and content retrieval. The shell never launches the background core process on its own. You have to start the resident core with `npx @docsagent/docsagent start` beforehand, or every tool invocation fails immediately.

## Requirements
- Needs: Node.js (commands run via npx)
- Environment variables: `DOCSAGENT_CONFIG` — keys and tokens: ask the human for the values, never commit them or put them in shared files.
- Works with: Obsidian

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

**Platform CLI**
```bash
claude mcp add --env DOCSAGENT_CONFIG=<DOCSAGENT_CONFIG> --transport stdio docsagent-zotero-obsidian-apple-notes-mcp-server -- npx -y @docsagent/docsagent
```
Replace <…> with your own values

### Codex

**Platform CLI**
```bash
codex mcp add docsagent-zotero-obsidian-apple-notes-mcp-server --env DOCSAGENT_CONFIG=<DOCSAGENT_CONFIG> -- npx -y @docsagent/docsagent
```
Replace <…> with your own values

### Cursor

**Config file**
File `.cursor/mcp.json`:
```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "docsagent-zotero-obsidian-apple-notes-mcp-server": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@docsagent/docsagent"
            ],
            "env": {
                "DOCSAGENT_CONFIG": "<DOCSAGENT_CONFIG>"
            }
        }
    }
}
```
Replace <…> with your own values

### GitHub Copilot

**Config file**
File `.vscode/mcp.json`:
```json
{
    "servers": {
        "docsagent-zotero-obsidian-apple-notes-mcp-server": {
            "type": "stdio",
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@docsagent/docsagent"
            ],
            "env": {
                "DOCSAGENT_CONFIG": "<DOCSAGENT_CONFIG>"
            }
        }
    }
}
```
Replace <…> with your own values

### Gemini CLI

**Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini mcp add -e DOCSAGENT_CONFIG=<DOCSAGENT_CONFIG> docsagent-zotero-obsidian-apple-notes-mcp-server npx -y @docsagent/docsagent
```
Replace <…> with your own values

## When to use it
- search local Zotero PDFs and annotations with BM25 ranking
- inspect notes inside an Obsidian vault without external sync
- query Apple Notes records on macOS devices
- export citations and bibliography metadata in BibTeX format

## Example prompts
- Search my Zotero library for recent papers on reinforcement learning.
- Get the contents and tags from my Obsidian note about deployment architecture.
- List available knowledge sources and their current document counts.

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