TurboVault

The ultimate Rust SDK and high-performance MCP server for Obsidian-flavored Markdown (.ofm) and standard .md vaults.

TurboVault is a dual-purpose toolkit designed for both developers and users. It provides a robust, modular Rust SDK for building applications that consume markdown directories, and a full-featured MCP server that works out of the box with Claude and other AI agents.

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Two Ways to Use TurboVault

1. As a Rust SDK (For Developers)

Build your own applications, search engines, or custom MCP servers using our modular crates. TurboVault handles the heavy lifting of parsing .md and .ofm files, building knowledge graphs, and managing multi-vault environments.

• Modular Architecture: Use only what you need (Parser, Graph, Search, etc.).
• High Performance: Sub-100ms operations for most tasks.
• Extensible: Easily build your own specialized MCP servers on top of our core logic.
• SOTA Standards: Fully supports Obsidian-flavored Markdown (wikilinks, embeds, callouts).

2. As a Ready-to-Use MCP Server (For Users)

Transform your Obsidian vault into an intelligent knowledge system immediately. Connect TurboVault to Claude Desktop or any MCP-compatible client to gain 74 specialized tools for your notes.

• Zero Coding Required: Install the binary and point it at your vault.
• 74 Specialized Tools: Searching, link analysis, atomic Git-backed writes, SQL frontmatter queries, health checks, and more.
• Multi-Vault Support: Switch between personal and work notes seamlessly at runtime.

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Core Crates (The SDK)

TurboVault is a modular system composed of specialized crates. You can depend on individual components to build your own tools:

Crate	Purpose	Docs
turbovault-core	Core models, MultiVault management & types
turbovault-parser	High-speed .md & .ofm parser
turbovault-graph	Link graph analysis & relationship discovery
turbovault-vault	Vault management, file I/O & atomic writes
turbovault-tools	74 MCP tool implementations
turbovault-plugin-api	Stable facade, provider contract & bounded hooks for compiled-in plugins
turbovault-sql	SQL frontmatter queries (GlueSQL)
turbovault-batch	Validated fail-fast operation batches
turbovault-export	Export & reporting (JSON/CSV/MD)
turbovault	Main MCP server binary / SDK orchestrator

Why TurboVault?

Unlike basic note readers, TurboVault understands your vault's knowledge structure:

• Full-text search across all notes with BM25 ranking
• Link graph analysis to discover relationships, hubs, orphans, and cycles
• Vault intelligence with health scoring and automated recommendations
• Validated operation batches for fewer round trips and fail-fast execution
• Multi-vault support with instant context switching
• Runtime vault addition — no vault required at startup, add them as needed

Powered by TurboMCP

TurboVault is built on TurboMCP, a Rust framework for building production-grade MCP servers. TurboMCP provides:

• Type-safe tool definitions — Macro-driven MCP tool implementation
• Standardized request/response handling — Consistent envelope format
• Transport abstraction — HTTP, WebSocket, TCP, Unix sockets (configurable features)
• Middleware support — Logging, metrics, error handling
• Zero-copy streaming — Efficient large payload handling

This means TurboVault gets battle-tested reliability and extensibility out of the box. Want to add custom tools? TurboMCP's ergonomic macros make it straightforward.

Quick Start

Installation

From crates.io

# Minimal install (7.0 MB, STDIO only - perfect for Claude Desktop)
cargo install turbovault

# With HTTP server (~8.2 MB)
cargo install turbovault --features http

# With all cross-platform transports (~8.8 MB)
# Includes: STDIO, HTTP, WebSocket, TCP (Unix sockets only on Unix/macOS/Linux)
cargo install turbovault --features full

# With SQL frontmatter queries (adds GlueSQL-powered query_frontmatter_sql tool)
cargo install turbovault --features sql

# Binary installed to: ~/.cargo/bin/turbovault

From source:

git clone https://github.com/epistates/turbovault.git
cd turbovault
make release
# Binary: ./target/release/turbovault

Option 1: Static Vault (Recommended for Single Vault)

turbovault --vault /path/to/your/vault --profile production

Then add to ~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "turbovault": {
      "command": "/path/to/turbovault",
      "args": ["--vault", "/path/to/your/vault", "--profile", "production"]
    }
  }
}

Option 2: Runtime Vault Addition (Recommended for Multiple Vaults)

Start the server without a vault:

turbovault --profile production

Then add vaults dynamically:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "turbovault": {
      "command": "/path/to/turbovault",
      "args": ["--profile", "production"]
    }
  }
}

Once connected to Claude:

You: "Add my vault at ~/Documents/Notes"
Claude: [Calls add_vault("personal", "~/Documents/Notes")]

You: "Search for machine learning notes"
Claude: [Uses search() across the indexed vault]

You: "What are my most important notes?"
Claude: [Uses get_hub_notes() to find key concepts]

Atomic Git-Backed Writes

For vaults already managed by Git, enable the transactional backend in the TurboVault YAML config:

vaults:
  - name: personal
    path: ~/Documents/Notes
    is_default: true
    write_backend: git
    git:
      include_ignored: false
      require_commit_message: false

Start with turbovault --config ~/.turbovault/config.yaml. Every mutation is then a Git commit. Multi-operation batches build one isolated tree and advance the branch with compare-and-swap, so a stale path aborts the entire batch and concurrent TurboVault processes cannot interleave commit/materialization. The backend also refuses to overwrite dirty or untracked touched paths and refuses to reset an index containing staged changes.

What Can Claude Do?

Search & Discovery

You: "Find all notes about async Rust and show how they connect"
Claude: search() -> recommend_related() -> get_related_notes() -> explain relationships

Vault Intelligence

You: "What's the health of my vault? Any issues I should fix?"
Claude: quick_health_check() -> full_health_analysis() -> get_broken_links() -> generate fixes

Knowledge Graph Navigation

You: "What are my most important notes? Which ones are isolated?"
Claude: get_hub_notes() -> get_isolated_clusters() -> suggest connections

Structured Note Creation

You: "Create a project note for the TurboVault launch with status tracking"
Claude: list_templates() -> create_from_template() -> write auto-formatted note

Batch Content Operations

You: "Move my 'MLOps' note to 'AI/Operations' and identify links to update"
Claude: get_backlinks() -> move_note() -> edit_note() for each affected reference

Link Suggestions

You: "Based on my vault, what notes should I link this to?"
Claude: suggest_links() -> get_link_strength() -> recommend cross-references

74 MCP Tools Organized by Category

File Operations & Batch (8)

• read_note — Get note content with hash for conflict detection
• write_note — Create/overwrite notes (auto-creates directories)
• edit_note — Surgical edits via SEARCH/REPLACE blocks
• delete_note — Safe deletion with link tracking
• move_note — Rename/relocate a note; Git-backed vaults atomically rewrite incoming wikilinks
• move_file — Move/rename non-note files (e.g. attachments, images)
• get_notes_info — Metadata for multiple notes in a single call
• batch_execute — One all-or-nothing commit with write_backend: git; direct stays sequential

Git Fanout (4)

• begin_fanout — Open an isolated worktree for parallel agent writes
• commit_fanout — Merge an active fanout back into its base vault
• abandon_fanout — Discard a fanout without changing the base vault
• list_orphan_fanouts — Diagnose worktrees left by interrupted sessions

Metadata & Tags (3)

• update_frontmatter — Patch frontmatter fields (merge or replace)
• get_metadata_value — Extract frontmatter values (dot notation support)
• manage_tags — Add, remove, or list note tags

Link Analysis (6)

• get_backlinks — All notes that link TO this note
• get_forward_links — All notes this note links TO
• get_related_notes — Multi-hop graph traversal (find non-obvious connections)
• get_hub_notes — Top 10 most connected notes (key concepts)
• get_dead_end_notes — Notes with incoming but no outgoing links
• get_isolated_clusters — Disconnected subgraphs in your vault

Graph Metrics & Suggestions (3)

• suggest_links — AI-powered link suggestions for a note
• get_link_strength — Connection strength between notes (0.0–1.0)
• get_centrality_ranking — Graph centrality metrics (betweenness, closeness, eigenvector)

Search (8)

• search — BM25-ranked search across all notes (<500ms on 100k notes)
• advanced_search — Search with tag, frontmatter, path, and limit filters
• search_by_frontmatter — Find notes by frontmatter key-value pair
• recommend_related — ML-powered recommendations based on content similarity
• find_notes_from_template — Find all notes using a specific template
• query_metadata — Frontmatter pattern queries
• inspect_frontmatter — Schema inspection for SQL queries (feature: sql)
• query_frontmatter_sql — Arbitrary SQL against frontmatter via GlueSQL (feature: sql)

Semantic & Similarity (5)

• semantic_search — TF-IDF semantic search with similarity scores and shared terms
• find_similar_notes — Content-similar notes to a given note
• find_duplicates — Near-duplicate detection (SimHash filter + TF-IDF verify)
• compare_notes — Similarity score, shared vocabulary, diff, and merge recommendation
• diff_notes — Unified diff between two notes

Vault Health & Quality (10)

• quick_health_check — Fast 0-100 health score (<100ms)
• full_health_analysis — Comprehensive vault audit with recommendations
• get_broken_links — All links pointing to non-existent notes
• detect_cycles — Circular reference chains (sometimes intentional)
• explain_vault — Holistic overview replacing 5+ separate calls
• evaluate_note_quality — Per-note quality score with improvement recommendations
• vault_quality_report — Vault-wide quality assessment (worst-N notes)
• find_stale_notes — Notes not modified within a threshold of days
• analyze_note_grounding — Grounding primitives for a note (claims, citations, uncited flag) to feed an external LLM judge
• find_ungrounded_notes — Find hallucination-risk notes that make claims but cite no source

Open Knowledge Format (4)

• okf_validate — Validate the vault as an OKF v0.1 bundle (conformance + concept type vocabulary); usable as a CI/pre-publish gate
• generate_index — Generate/refresh index.md files for progressive disclosure (idempotent)
• append_log_entry — Append a dated entry to a directory's log.md update history (§7)
• visualize — Render the concept graph as a shareable, self-contained HTML file (force-directed graph + rendered notes + backlinks)

Templates & OFM (6)

• list_templates — Discover available templates
• get_template — Template details and required fields
• create_from_template — Render and write templated notes
• get_ofm_syntax_guide — Focused Obsidian Flavored Markdown reference
• get_ofm_quick_ref — Quick OFM cheat sheet
• get_ofm_examples — See all Obsidian Flavored Markdown features

Vault Lifecycle (8)

• create_vault — Programmatically create a new vault
• add_vault — Register and auto-initialize a vault at runtime
• remove_vault — Unregister vault (safe, doesn't delete files)
• list_vaults — All registered vaults with status
• get_vault_config — Inspect vault settings
• set_active_vault — Switch context between multiple vaults
• get_active_vault — Current active vault
• get_vault_context — Meta-tool: single call returns vault status, available tools, OFM guide

Audit & History (5)

• audit_log — Chronological change log with operation IDs for rollback
• audit_stats — Audit overview: operation breakdown + snapshot disk usage
• diff_note_version — Diff a note against a past audited version
• rollback_preview — Preview what a rollback would change (read-only)
• rollback_note — Undo a change by operation ID (atomic, audited)

Export (4)

• export_health_report — Export vault health as JSON/CSV
• export_broken_links — Export broken links with fix suggestions
• export_vault_stats — Statistics and metrics export
• export_analysis_report — Complete audit trail

Real-World Workflows

Initialize Without a Vault

# Server starts with NO vault required
response = client.call("get_vault_context")
# Returns: "No vault registered. Call add_vault() to get started."

response = client.call("add_vault", {
    "name": "personal",
    "path": "~/Documents/Obsidian"
})
# Auto-initializes: scans files, builds link graph, indexes for search

Multi-Vault Workflow

# Add multiple vaults
client.call("add_vault", {"name": "work", "path": "/work/notes"})
client.call("add_vault", {"name": "personal", "path": "~/notes"})

# Switch context instantly
client.call("set_active_vault", {"name": "work"})
search_results = client.call("search", {"query": "Q4 goals"})

client.call("set_active_vault", {"name": "personal"})
recommendations = client.call("recommend_related", {"path": "AI/ML.md"})

Vault Maintenance & Repair

# Quick diagnostic
health = client.call("quick_health_check")
if health["data"]["score"] < 60:
    # Deep analysis if needed
    full_analysis = client.call("full_health_analysis")

# Find and fix issues
broken = client.call("get_broken_links")
# Process broken links...

# Atomic bulk repair
client.call("batch_execute", {
    "operations": [
        {"type": "DeleteNote", "path": "old/deprecated.md"},
        {"type": "MoveNote", "from": "old/notes.md", "to": "new/notes.md"},
        # ... more operations
    ]
})

# Verify improvement
client.call("explain_vault")  # Holistic view

Content Discovery

# Find what matters
hubs = client.call("get_hub_notes")  # Top concepts
orphans = client.call("get_dead_end_notes")  # Incomplete topics

# Deep search
results = client.call("search", {"query": "machine learning"})

# Explore relationships
related = client.call("get_related_notes", {
    "path": "AI/ML.md",
    "max_hops": 3
})

# Get suggestions
suggestions = client.call("suggest_links", {"path": "AI/ML.md"})

Performance Profile

Operation	Time	Notes
read_note	<10ms	Instant with caching
get_backlinks, get_forward_links	<50ms	Graph lookup
write_note	<50ms	Includes graph update
search (10k notes)	<100ms	Tantivy BM25
quick_health_check	<100ms	Heuristic score
full_health_analysis	1–5s	Exhaustive, use sparingly
explain_vault	1–5s	Aggregates 5+ analyses
Vault initialization	100ms–5s	Depends on vault size

Key insight: Fast operations (<100ms) for common tasks, slower operations (1–5s) for exhaustive analysis. Claude uses smart fallbacks.

Configuration Profiles

Profile	Use Case
development	Local dev with verbose logging
production	Production with security auditing and optimized logging
readonly	Read-only access for safe exploration
high-performance	Large vaults (10k+ notes) with aggressive caching

Tool Visibility

TurboVault can reduce tools/list context by applying TurboMCP visibility rules from ~/.turbovault/config.yaml or --config:

tool_visibility:
  hidden:
    - full_health_analysis
    - explain_vault
  disabled:
    - delete_note

Use hidden for advanced tools that should stay callable by exact name, disabled for tools that should fail closed, and allowed when you want an explicit allowlist. Equivalent env/CLI overrides are available via TURBOVAULT_HIDDEN_TOOLS, TURBOVAULT_DISABLED_TOOLS, TURBOVAULT_ALLOWED_TOOLS, and --hidden-tools, --disabled-tools, --allowed-tools.

SDK and Server Implementation

TurboVault is designed for two primary audiences: developers building on top of the Rust SDK and users looking for a standalone MCP server.

As a Standalone MCP Server

The quickest way to get started is using the pre-built binary. It's fully self-contained and optimized for performance:

• Link-time optimization (LTO) for maximum speed
• Configurable transports (STDIO, HTTP, WebSocket, TCP)
• Zero external dependencies (just point it at your vault)

# Build the optimized binary
cargo build --release --features full

# Run it
./target/release/turbovault --vault /path/to/vault --profile production

As a Rust SDK (Library)

The core of TurboVault is a collection of modular crates. Use them to build your own search engines, knowledge management tools, or even your own specialized MCP servers.

// Use in your own Rust projects
use turbovault_core::MultiVaultManager;
use turbovault_vault::VaultManager;
use turbovault_tools::SearchEngine;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
    // 1. Initialize the MultiVault manager
    let manager = MultiVaultManager::new();
    
    // 2. Add and initialize a vault (scans files, builds graph)
    manager.add_vault("notes", "/home/user/notes").await?;
    
    // 3. Perform high-level operations
    let vault = manager.get_vault("notes")?;
    let results = vault.search("machine learning")?;
    
    // 4. Use these components to build your own custom MCP server
    // or integrate into existing Rust applications.
    Ok(())
}

Each crate is published to crates.io, so you can depend on individual components or the full stack.

Architecture

Built as a modular Rust workspace:

turbovault-core        — Core types, MultiVaultManager, configuration
turbovault-parser      — OFM (Obsidian Flavored Markdown) parsing
turbovault-graph       — Link graph analysis with petgraph
turbovault-vault       — Vault operations, file I/O, atomic writes
turbovault-batch       — Validated sequential batch operations
turbovault-export      — JSON/CSV/Markdown export
turbovault-sql         — SQL frontmatter queries (GlueSQL, feature-gated)
turbovault-tools       — 74 MCP tool implementations
turbovault-plugin-api  — Curated plugin facade, provider contract, event hooks
turbovault (binary)    — CLI and MCP server entry point

All crates are published to crates.io for public use.

Obsidian Flavored Markdown (OFM) Support

TurboVault fully understands Obsidian's syntax:

• Wikilinks: [[note]], [[note|alias]], [[note#section]], [[note#^block]]
• Embeds: ![[image.png]], ![[note]], ![[note#section]]
• Tags: #tag, #parent/child/tag
• Tasks: - [ ] Task, - [x] Done
• Callouts: > [!type] Title
• Frontmatter: YAML metadata with automatic parsing
• Headings: Hierarchical structure extraction

Security

• Path traversal protection — No access outside vault boundaries
• Type-safe deserialization — Rust's type system prevents injection
• Atomic writes — Temp file → atomic rename (never corrupts on failure)
• Hash-based conflict detection — edit_note detects concurrent modifications
• File size limits — Default 10MB per file (configurable), enforced on reads and writes
• Protected directories — .obsidian/, .git/, node_modules/, and TurboVault's own .turbovault/ state are unreachable through the note APIs on both write backends
• No shell execution — Zero command injection risk
• Security auditing — Detailed logs in production mode

System Requirements

• Rust: 1.90.0 or later
• OS: Linux, macOS, Windows
• Memory: 100MB base + ~80MB per 10k notes
• Disk: Negligible (index is in-memory)

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/epistates/turbovault.git
cd turbovault

# Development build
cargo build

# Production build (optimized)
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test --all

Or use the Makefile:

make build       # Debug build
make release     # Production build
make test        # Run tests
make clean       # Clean build artifacts

Documentation

Docs

Examples

Example 1: Search-Driven Organization

You: "What topics do I have the most notes on?"
Claude:
  1. get_hub_notes() -> [AI, Project Management, Rust, Python]
  2. For each hub:
     - get_related_notes() -> related topics
     - get_backlinks() -> importance/connectivity
  3. Report: "Your core topics are AI (23 notes) and Rust (18 notes)"

Example 2: Vault Health Improvement

You: "My vault feels disorganized. Help me improve it."
Claude:
  1. quick_health_check() -> Health: 42/100
  2. full_health_analysis() -> Issues: 12 broken links, 8 orphaned notes
  3. get_broken_links() -> List of specific broken links
  4. suggest_links() -> AI-powered link recommendations
  5. Apply fixes individually, or use batch_execute() after reviewing its fail-fast semantics
  6. explain_vault() -> New health: 78/100

Example 3: Template-Based Content Creation

You: "Create project notes for Q4 initiatives"
Claude:
  1. list_templates() -> "project", "task", "meeting"
  2. create_from_template("project", {
       "title": "Q4 Planning",
       "status": "In Progress",
       "deadline": "2024-12-31"
     })
  3. Creates structured note with auto-formatting
  4. Returns path for follow-up edits

Benchmarks

M1 MacBook Pro, 10k notes, production build:

• File read: <10ms
• File write: <20ms
• Simple search: <50ms
• Graph analysis: <200ms
• Vault initialization: ~500ms
• Memory usage: ~80MB
• External-change reconciliation: ~19ms per pass, at most once per 500ms

Keeping up with edits you did not make

A vault is a shared directory. Obsidian is usually open on it, and an editor, a git pull, or a sync client may touch it while TurboVault is running. Search, the link graph, similarity, and vault stats are all derived from the notes, so none of that would reach them on its own.

Before serving any of those, TurboVault compares a (size, mtime) scan against what it last recorded and applies whatever moved. Comparing state cannot miss a change the way filesystem notifications can, which matters most on exactly the setups where notifications are weakest: network shares, and iCloud, Dropbox, or Syncthing vaults, none of which report a peer's edits at all.

The pass is debounced, so a burst of tool calls costs one scan and an idle server costs nothing. Worst-case staleness is the interval, at least 500ms and scaled up only on a vault large enough to need it. Set reconcile_external_changes: false to turn it off for a vault nothing else writes.

Roadmap

• Cross-vault link resolution
• Encrypted vault support
• Collaborative locking
• WebSocket transport (beyond MCP stdio)

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please ensure:

• All tests pass: cargo test --all
• Code formats: cargo fmt --all
• No clippy warnings: cargo clippy --all -- -D warnings

License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details

Links

• Repository: https://github.com/epistates/turbovault
• Issues: https://github.com/epistates/turbovault/issues
• MCP Protocol: https://modelcontextprotocol.io
• Obsidian: https://obsidian.md
• Related: TurboMCP

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Get started now: ./target/release/turbovault --profile production