request_upload
Create a short-lived, single-use link so someone can upload a file directly to a specified path in your Obsidian vault, without broader write access.
Instructions
Get a short-lived link a person can use to put a file into the vault.
Requires write permission — a readwrite API key, or an OAuth token
carrying the readwrite scope.
Peer to write_file, which takes the bytes directly — use this one when you
do not have them.
No MCP client can hand a tool the bytes of a file the user is looking at,
and your shell cannot reach their machine. This mints a link bound to
exactly one destination path: hand it to the person you are helping, they
open it and pick a file, and it lands at path. Nothing else can be
written with it.
The token lives in the URL's # fragment, which browsers never send to a
server, so it stays out of access logs. Treat the whole URL as a secret
— whoever holds it can write that one path, once, until it expires. Never
put it in a query string: that would log it.
Single use, and no-clobber unless you ask otherwise. With
overwrite=True the link also remembers what the file looked like now and
refuses to publish if it changed in the meantime, so a stale link cannot
silently undo an edit someone made while it was waiting.
From a shell you can upload without the page:
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" -T <file> <base>/transfer/upload.
Then call check_upload(upload_id) to confirm the bytes landed and get
their sha256. See get_vault_guide for how files fit into the vault.
Args:
path: Vault-relative destination (e.g. "Attachments/photo.png").
overwrite: If True, allow replacing an existing file at path.
expires_in: Seconds until the link dies. Clamped to 60–3600; defaults
to TRANSFER_TOKEN_TTL_SECONDS (600). A link can never outlive the
credential you are calling with, so the deadline in the result may
be earlier than you asked for — it says so when that happens.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| path | Yes | ||
| overwrite | No | ||
| expires_in | No |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| result | Yes |