vault-pkm vs Obsidian Semantic Search
vault-pkm is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by AdrianV101. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Claude Code: claude-plugins-community). Obsidian Semantic Search is an MCP server published by DalecB. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Official MCP Registry). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-28. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  vault-pkm |  Obsidian Semantic Search |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code: claude-plugins-community | Listed Version: 3.10.1 Forks (GitHub): 3 Stars (GitHub): 15 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.2.1 Downloads/month (npm): 216 Downloads/week (npm): 22 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 1 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | vault-pkm | Obsidian Semantic Search |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it | 1 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 15 (better) | 1 (worse) |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 3 (better) | 0 (worse) |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | On your machine (obsidian-pkm) | On your machine (@dalecb/obsidian-semantic-mcp) |
| Transport (differs) | Not stated | stdio |
| Tools it declares | Not published | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | 1, secrets among them: 0 | 8, secrets among them: 0 |
| Hooks it runs (differs) | 2 | Not published |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | 14 | Not a bundle |
| Licence (differs) | MIT | Not stated |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/adrianv101/obsidian-pkm-plugin | github.com/dalecb/obsidian-semantic-mcp |
| Changes in the last 7 days | 0 | 0 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-12 | 2026-10-11 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
vault-pkm
Personal knowledge management for Claude Code. Connect to your Obsidian vault with 20 MCP tools, semantic search, wikilink graph traversal, template-based note creation, link health audits, and cross-session activity logging. Includes 3 autonomous agents and hooks for proactive knowledge capture.
Obsidian Semantic Search
Read-only semantic search MCP server for Obsidian vaults using local Ollama embeddings.
How to run each
vault-pkm As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-community
/plugin install vault-pkm@claude-communityObsidian Semantic Search As a local MCP server: npm package
claude mcp add --env "OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT=<YOUR_OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT>" --transport stdio obsidian-semantic-mcp -- npx -y @dalecb/obsidian-semantic-mcpRequires: OBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOT
Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
Neither one's marketplaces publish a list of tools, so there is nothing to compare.
Settings each asks for
Only vault-pkm asks for
VAULT_PATH
Only Obsidian Semantic Search asks for
OBSIDIAN_EMBED_MODELOBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_ALLOW_SENSITIVEOBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_EXCLUDEOBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_MCP_HOMEOBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_SENSITIVE_PATHSOBSIDIAN_SEMANTIC_STARTUP_INDEXOBSIDIAN_VAULT_ROOTOLLAMA_BASE_URL
Settings as each marketplace publishes them. Asking for fewer is not better in itself.
What it can do: vault-pkm · What it can do: Obsidian Semantic Search · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the public marketplace file https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-community/blob/HEAD/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json. Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.