obsidian-mcp copilot-instructions.md

A set of GitHub Copilot instructions for using Obsidian as a developer memory system, where notes are stored in a local Markdown vault.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to guide when Copilot should search project memory, read notes, record work sessions, save decisions, and update project state.
Why use it?
It helps Copilot recover earlier project context and decisions instead of guessing or asking for the same background again.

Instructions file for GitHub Copilot

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add instructions/jmjava/obsidian-mcp/copilot-instructions
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jmjava/obsidian-mcp

Made for: GitHub Copilot.

Per session 419 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 419 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00419 $0.00419
Opus 5 $0.00210 $0.00210
Sonnet 5 $0.00084 $0.00084
Haiku 4.5 $0.00042 $0.00042

Measured yesterday against content hash 7ba52635ee7f, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

obsidian-mcp copilot-instructions.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.github/copilot-instructions.md · 58 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 58 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub Copilot: Obsidian Developer Memory

Use the obsidian-dev-memory MCP tools to keep durable engineering memory in the local Obsidian vault. The same server is used by Cursor. Obsidian does not need to be running.

When to read memory

Call get_project_context before substantial work when prior project memory is likely to help: continuing a feature, debugging a known area, making an architecture change, or explaining why the code is the way it is.

Do not call it for trivial edits.

Call search_memory before guessing about prior decisions. Use read_note only when you already have a vault-relative Markdown path.

When to record sessions

Call capture_work_session after meaningful work:

  • an implementation
  • an investigation
  • a debugging session
  • a migration
  • an architecture change
  • a research task

Do not record:

  • typo fixes
  • formatting-only changes
  • trivial comments
  • one-line mechanical edits

Prefer updating today's session note over creating duplicate notes.

When to record decisions

Call record_decision for architectural or engineering decisions that future work should know about, such as:

  • selected authentication architecture
  • changed API boundaries
  • selected persistence mechanism
  • changed deployment strategy
  • chose one library over another for a durable reason

If a decision file with the same generated name already exists, the server adds a numeric suffix instead of overwriting.

When to update project state

Call update_project_state when the overall project state materially changes. Keep Project State.md concise. It is not a session log.

Daily notes

Use append_daily_note for short useful items on today's vault daily note. Do not overwrite existing daily-note contents.

Never store secrets

Never persist passwords, API keys, access tokens, refresh tokens, JWT values, private keys, .env contents, database credentials, production secrets, or sensitive customer data.

If a work summary contains secret-looking material, summarize it generically rather than persisting the literal value.

Read the full file on GitHub · 58 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 58 lines · 419 tokens per session scan A 7ba52635ee7f

Subscribe to this mod's changes

obsidian-mcp copilot-instructions.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository jmjava/obsidian-mcp (0 stars, last pushed 10d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 419 tokens to every session, about $0.0021 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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