wiki-path

Find the shortest chain of links between two named pages, read directly from the persisted knowledge graph — "the brain's GPS". Deterministic graph lookup, no LLM synthesis. Reference: [[page-neighbors-roadmap]] item W-B.

Pre-condition

The knowledge graph must exist: wiki-meta/graph/knowledge-graph.json. If the tool call fails with "No knowledge graph at ...", offer to run /wiki-graph first, then retry.

Steps

1. Parse the request

• from, to (both required) — page names, unique path suffixes, or exact vault-relative paths.
• maxDepth (optional, default 6, cap 20) — only raise this if the user explicitly asks for a deeper search; the default is generous for most vaults.
• nodeTypes — default ["article"] (path runs through pages only). If the user's phrasing suggests they want "how are these related through a shared idea" (e.g. two pages with no obvious direct link but a common theme), pass nodeTypes: ["article", "entity", "topic"] to allow bridging through a shared concept or index topic — but only after a default-mode search comes back empty, or if the user explicitly asks for "concept" / "topic" bridging up front.

2. Call the tool

mcp__obsidian-router__wiki_path({ vault, from, to, maxDepth?, nodeTypes?, edgeTypes? })

3. Handle the outcomes

• Graph missing → offer /wiki-graph, then retry.
• Ambiguous from/to (error lists candidates) → show the candidates, ask the user to pick.
• Endpoint not found → say so plainly; suggest checking the name or searching the wiki for it.
• found: false (path: null) — this is a legitimate answer, not an error. Say the two pages aren't connected (within maxDepth hops via the requested edge/node types). If you searched in default mode (nodeTypes: ["article"]), offer to retry with the shared-concept bridge (nodeTypes: ["article","entity","topic"]) before concluding there's truly no relationship.

4. Present the result

Render the path as an arrow chain of [[wikilinks]] (by name), in order from from to to:

[[Project — obsidian-mcp-router]] → [[Crawl4AI]] → [[license-audit]]

Mention the hop count (length). If the path passes through a non-article node (an entity/topic — the shared-concept bridge case), call that out explicitly so the user understands why the two pages are linked (e.g. "connected via the shared concept OAuth").

When NOT to use

• Exploring one page's connections broadly (not to a specific second page) → /wiki-neighbors.
• A synthesized, cited answer to a broader question → /wiki-query.
• The graph doesn't exist yet → run /wiki-graph first.

Anti-patterns

• Don't treat "no path found" as a failure to report apologetically — two pages can legitimately be unrelated; state it plainly.
• Don't silently widen nodeTypes to bridge via a shared concept without telling the user you did, and why the intermediate node isn't a page.
• Don't pick a candidate for the user on an ambiguous from/to — surface the list and let them choose.
• Don't confuse this with wiki-neighbors — direction doesn't matter here (traversal is undirected); it does over there.

Quirks

• Traversal is undirected — a link read either way still counts as a connection (contrast wiki-neighbors, where forward/backward matter).
• from === to returns the trivial one-page path (length 0) — not an error.
• graphAnalyzedAt in the response indicates graph freshness — flag it if it looks stale relative to recent vault activity.