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pablo-mano 4e43a03f8c Add 6 new command groups and expand existing sections

Adds CSS Snippets, Commands & Hotkeys, Obsidian Bases, History,
Workspace & Tabs, and Diff sections to command-reference.md.
Expands existing sections with missing commands (search:context,
daily:path, random, rename, bookmark add, plugins:restrict, theme
management, dev DOM/CSS/CDP tools, restart). Documents all 8 output
format options. Updates SKILL.md command table and count to 130+.
Bumps version to 1.2.0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-03-03 22:57:21 +01:00

20 KiB

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Obsidian CLI — Full Command Reference

Complete reference for all official Obsidian CLI commands (v1.12+).

Syntax: obsidian [vault] <command> [subcommand] [key=value ...] [flags]

All parameters use key=value syntax. Quote values containing spaces: content="hello world".

Files
Daily Notes
Search
Properties
Tags
Tasks
Links
Bookmarks
Templates
Plugins
Sync
Themes
CSS Snippets
Commands & Hotkeys
Obsidian Bases
History
Workspace & Tabs
Diff
Developer
Vault & System

Files

File operations: read, write, create, move, delete, list.

Reading Notes

obsidian read path="folder/note.md"

Prints raw markdown content of a note to stdout. Path is vault-relative.

Creating Notes

obsidian create path="folder/note" content="# Title\n\nBody text"
obsidian create path="folder/note" template="template-name"

Path should not include .md — it is appended automatically.
Use template= to create from a template file.
Use content= to set initial content directly.

Appending & Prepending

obsidian append path="folder/note.md" content="Appended text"
obsidian prepend path="folder/note.md" content="Prepended text"

append adds content at the end of the file.
prepend adds content after the frontmatter (not at byte 0).

Moving & Renaming

obsidian move path="old/path/note.md" to="new/path/note.md"

to= is the full vault-relative target path including the .md extension.
Can be used to move, rename, or both in a single command.

Deleting

obsidian delete path="folder/note.md"           # Moves to trash
obsidian delete path="folder/note.md" permanent  # Permanent deletion

File Discovery

obsidian files                       # List all files in vault
obsidian files ext=md                # Filter by extension
obsidian files folder="subfolder"    # Files in specific folder
obsidian files total                 # Just the file count
obsidian folders                     # List all folders
obsidian file path="folder/note.md"  # File info (size, created, modified dates)

Random Notes

obsidian random           # Open a random note in Obsidian
obsidian random:read      # Print content of a random note to stdout

Renaming

obsidian rename path="folder/note.md" name="new-name"

name= is the new filename only (no path, no .md extension).
Use move when you also want to change the folder.

Daily Notes

Operations on the daily note (requires Daily Notes core plugin enabled).

obsidian daily                           # Open today's daily note in Obsidian
obsidian daily:read                      # Print today's daily note content to stdout
obsidian daily:append content="text"     # Append content to today's note
obsidian daily:prepend content="text"    # Prepend content (after frontmatter)
obsidian daily:path                      # Print vault-relative path of today's note

Notes:

daily:prepend inserts content after the frontmatter block, not at the very beginning.
If today's note doesn't exist, daily will create it (using the configured template if set).
Daily note format/folder are configured in Obsidian's Daily Notes plugin settings.

Search

Full-text search across the vault.

obsidian search query="search text"
obsidian search query="text" path="folder"         # Scope to folder
obsidian search query="text" limit=10               # Limit results
obsidian search query="text" format=json            # JSON output (array of file paths)
obsidian search query="text" matches                # Accepted but returns file paths only
obsidian search query="text" case                   # Case-sensitive search

Parameters:

query= — Search term (required)
path= — Restrict search to a folder
limit= — Maximum number of results
format=json — Returns a JSON array of matching file paths: ["folder/note.md", ...]
matches — Flag accepted by the CLI but does not return match context/snippets in v1.12
case — Enable case-sensitive matching

Search with Context

obsidian search:context query="search text"
obsidian search:context query="text" path="folder" limit=10
obsidian search:context query="text" case
obsidian search:context query="text" format=json

Returns matching lines with surrounding context (not just file paths). Useful when you need to see the actual content that matched rather than just file paths.

Open Search View

obsidian search:open query="search text"

Opens the Obsidian search panel in the UI with the given query.

Properties

Manage frontmatter (YAML metadata) on notes.

Read All Properties

obsidian properties path="note.md"

Read Single Property

obsidian property:read path="note.md" name="status"

Set Property

obsidian property:set path="note.md" name="status" value="active"
obsidian property:set path="note.md" name="tags" value="[project, alpha]"
obsidian property:set path="note.md" name="date" value="2026-02-27"

Remove Property

obsidian property:remove path="note.md" name="draft"

Aliases

obsidian aliases path="note.md"

Lists all aliases defined in the note's frontmatter.

Tasks

Query and manage checkbox tasks across the vault.

Querying Tasks

obsidian tasks                         # All tasks (same as tasks all in v1.12)
obsidian tasks all                     # All tasks (complete + incomplete)
obsidian tasks done                    # Only completed tasks
obsidian tasks path="note.md"          # Tasks in a specific file
obsidian tasks daily                   # Tasks in today's daily note

Note: In v1.12, tasks with no arguments returns all tasks (complete + incomplete), identical to tasks all. Filtering to incomplete-only is not currently supported without post-processing (e.g. pipe to grep "\[ \]").

Toggling Task Status

obsidian task path="note.md" line=12 toggle

Toggles the checkbox on the specified line number between - [ ] and - [x].

Links

Graph analysis and link management.

obsidian backlinks path="note.md"         # Notes linking TO this note
obsidian backlinks path="note.md" counts  # With link counts per file
obsidian links path="note.md"             # Outgoing links FROM this note
obsidian unresolved                        # All unresolved [[wikilinks]]
obsidian orphans                           # Notes with no incoming or outgoing links
obsidian deadends                          # Notes with no outgoing links

Bookmarks

Manage Obsidian bookmarks (requires Bookmarks core plugin).

obsidian bookmarks                                      # List all bookmarks
obsidian bookmark file="folder/note.md"                 # Bookmark a note
obsidian bookmark file="folder/note.md" subpath="#Heading"  # Bookmark a heading
obsidian bookmark folder="projects"                     # Bookmark a folder
obsidian bookmark search="query text" title="My Search" # Bookmark a search
obsidian bookmark url="https://example.com" title="Link" # Bookmark a URL

Templates

Work with note templates (requires Templates or Templater plugin).

obsidian templates                                      # List available templates
obsidian template:read name="weekly-review"             # Read template content
obsidian template:read name="weekly-review" resolve title="My Note"  # Render with variables
obsidian template:insert name="weekly-review"           # Insert template into the active Obsidian UI file

Parameters:

name= — Template name (without path prefix or extension)
resolve — Process template variables ({{date}}, {{title}}, etc.)
Title and other variables can be passed as key=value for template rendering.

Note: template:insert inserts into whichever file is currently active in the Obsidian UI — it does not accept a path= parameter. If no file is open, it returns Error: No active editor. Open a file first. To create a new file from a template, use obsidian create path="..." template="..." instead.

Plugins

Manage community and core plugins.

obsidian plugins                         # List all plugins (core + community)
obsidian plugins:enabled                 # Only enabled plugins
obsidian plugins versions                # Plugins with version numbers (community only)
obsidian plugins:restrict                # Show restricted mode status
obsidian plugins:restrict on             # Enable restricted mode (disables community plugins)
obsidian plugins:restrict off            # Disable restricted mode
obsidian plugin id="dataview"            # Get info about a specific plugin
obsidian plugin:enable id="canvas"       # Enable a plugin
obsidian plugin:disable id="canvas"      # Disable a plugin
obsidian plugin:install id="dataview"    # Install from community plugins
obsidian plugin:uninstall id="dataview"  # Uninstall a community plugin
obsidian plugin:reload id="my-plugin"    # Reload a plugin (useful for dev)

Note: plugins versions only shows version numbers for community plugins. Core (built-in) plugins share Obsidian's version and display blank version fields.

Sync

Manage Obsidian Sync (requires active Sync subscription).

obsidian sync                                   # Show sync status summary
obsidian sync on                                # Resume syncing
obsidian sync off                               # Pause syncing
obsidian sync:status                            # Detailed sync status
obsidian sync:history path="note.md"            # Version history for a file
obsidian sync:read path="note.md" version=3     # Read a specific version
obsidian sync:restore path="note.md" version=3  # Restore a previous version
obsidian sync:deleted                           # List files deleted via sync
obsidian sync:open                              # Open the Sync history view in the UI

Themes

Manage appearance themes.

obsidian themes                            # List installed themes
obsidian themes versions                   # List installed themes with version numbers
obsidian theme                             # Show the currently active theme
obsidian theme name="Minimal"              # Get details about a specific theme
obsidian theme:set name="Minimal"          # Switch to a theme
obsidian theme:set name=""                 # Switch back to default theme
obsidian theme:install name="Minimal"      # Install a community theme
obsidian theme:install name="Minimal" enable  # Install and activate immediately
obsidian theme:uninstall name="Minimal"    # Uninstall a theme

CSS Snippets

Manage custom CSS snippet files (snippets live in .obsidian/snippets/).

obsidian snippets                          # List all installed CSS snippets
obsidian snippets:enabled                  # List only enabled snippets
obsidian snippet:enable name="my-style"    # Enable a snippet
obsidian snippet:disable name="my-style"   # Disable a snippet

Commands & Hotkeys

Execute any Obsidian command by its ID, and inspect hotkey bindings.

obsidian commands                          # List all available command IDs
obsidian command id="app:reload"           # Execute a command by ID
obsidian command id="editor:toggle-bold"   # Example: toggle bold in active editor
obsidian hotkeys                           # List all hotkeys (tab-separated: id \t keybinding)
obsidian hotkey id="app:open-settings"     # Get hotkey for a specific command
obsidian hotkey id="app:open-settings" verbose  # Show if custom or default

Typical workflow — find and run a command:

obsidian commands | grep "canvas"          # Find canvas-related command IDs
obsidian command id="canvas:new-file"      # Execute the matched command

Getting plugin command IDs:

obsidian commands | grep "dataview"        # List all Dataview plugin commands

Obsidian Bases

Obsidian Bases (v1.12+) is a built-in database feature. Base files (.base) store structured data and support multiple views.

obsidian bases                                    # List all .base files in vault
obsidian base:query file="tasks" format=json      # Query default view of a base
obsidian base:query file="tasks" view="Kanban"    # Query a specific view
obsidian base:query path="folder/tasks.base" format=csv  # Query by path
obsidian base:views file="tasks"                  # List all views in a base file
obsidian base:create file="tasks" title="Buy milk"  # Add an item to a base

Supported output formats for base:query: json (default), csv, tsv, md, paths

History

File version history (built-in to Obsidian, separate from Sync). Requires the File Recovery core plugin.

obsidian history:list                             # List all files that have history
obsidian history path="folder/note.md"            # List versions of a specific file
obsidian history:read path="folder/note.md"       # Read the latest saved version
obsidian history:read path="folder/note.md" version=3  # Read a specific version
obsidian history:restore path="folder/note.md" version=3  # Restore a version
obsidian history:open path="folder/note.md"       # Open file recovery UI for a file

Note: History is distinct from Sync version history. History uses Obsidian's built-in File Recovery snapshots; Sync history uses Obsidian Sync cloud versions.

Workspace & Tabs

Inspect and manage the Obsidian workspace layout and open tabs.

obsidian workspace                                # Show the full workspace tree
obsidian tabs                                     # List all open tabs (flat list)
obsidian tab:open file="folder/note.md"           # Open a file in a new tab
obsidian tab:open view="graph"                    # Open a view type in a new tab

Diff

Compare local and sync versions of a file.

obsidian diff path="folder/note.md"               # List available versions (local + sync)
obsidian diff path="folder/note.md" from=1 to=2   # Diff two specific versions
obsidian diff path="folder/note.md" filter=local  # Show only local versions
obsidian diff path="folder/note.md" filter=sync   # Show only sync versions

Developer

Debugging and development tools.

Screenshots

obsidian dev:screenshot path="folder/screenshot.png"

Takes a screenshot of the Obsidian window and saves it. Path must be vault-relative — absolute filesystem paths are silently ignored.

JavaScript Evaluation

obsidian eval code="app.vault.getFiles().length"
obsidian eval code="app.vault.getMarkdownFiles().map(f => f.path).join('\n')"

Executes arbitrary JavaScript in the Obsidian app context. Has access to the full Obsidian API (app, app.vault, app.workspace, app.metadataCache, etc.).

Console & Errors

obsidian dev:debug on              # Start capturing console output (required before dev:console)
obsidian dev:debug off             # Stop capturing console output
obsidian dev:console limit=20     # Recent console output (requires dev:debug on first)
obsidian dev:errors                # Recent error messages

Note: dev:console will return an error unless dev:debug on has been run first in the current session.

DOM Inspection

obsidian dev:dom selector=".view-content"             # Get outerHTML of first match
obsidian dev:dom selector=".view-content" all         # Get all matches
obsidian dev:dom selector=".view-content" text        # Get text content
obsidian dev:dom selector=".view-content" total       # Count matching elements
obsidian dev:dom selector=".view-content" attr=class  # Get an attribute value
obsidian dev:dom selector=".view-content" css=color   # Get a CSS property value

CSS Inspection

obsidian dev:css selector=".view-content"              # Inspect CSS with source locations
obsidian dev:css selector=".view-content" prop=color   # Filter by CSS property name

Chrome DevTools Protocol

obsidian devtools                                      # Toggle Electron DevTools panel
obsidian dev:cdp method="Runtime.evaluate" params='{"expression":"1+1"}'  # Run a CDP command

Mobile Emulation

obsidian dev:mobile on                                 # Enable mobile emulation
obsidian dev:mobile off                                # Disable mobile emulation

Vault & System

Vault Information

obsidian vault                         # Current vault: name, path, file/folder counts
obsidian vaults                        # List all known vaults

Other Utilities

obsidian version                       # Obsidian version info
obsidian outline path="note.md"        # Heading structure of a note
obsidian wordcount path="note.md"      # Word and character count
obsidian recents                       # Recently opened files
obsidian reload                        # Reload the vault (re-index)
obsidian restart                       # Restart the Obsidian app

Output Formatting & Piping

The CLI outputs plain text by default, ideal for piping into Unix tools.

Supported `format=` values

Format	Description	Best for
`text`	Plain text (default)	Piping to grep/awk/sed
`json`	JSON array or object	Processing with jq, AI agents
`csv`	Comma-separated values	Spreadsheet import
`tsv`	Tab-separated values	Shell parsing with cut/awk
`yaml`	YAML output	Config-style processing
`md`	Markdown table	Embedding results in notes
`paths`	One path per line	Batch file operations
`tree`	Tree view	Visual hierarchy

Not all formats are supported by every command. Use text or json when in doubt.

Examples

# Count notes in a folder
obsidian files folder="projects" | wc -l

# Find notes with a specific tag, then read them
obsidian tag name="urgent" | while read -r note; do
  echo "=== $note ==="
  obsidian read path="$note"
done

# Export search results as JSON and process with jq
# format=json returns an array of file path strings: ["folder/note.md", ...]
obsidian search query="meeting" format=json | jq '.[]'

# Query a base as CSV
obsidian base:query file="tasks" format=csv

# Filter console errors (requires dev:debug on first)
obsidian dev:debug on
obsidian dev:console limit=50 | grep -i error

Multi-Vault Usage

When working with multiple vaults, pass the vault name as the first argument (before the command):

obsidian "Personal" daily:read
obsidian "Work" search query="standup"
obsidian "Archive" files total

If the vault name contains spaces, quote it. The vault name must match what's shown in obsidian vaults.

Headless / Server Setup (Linux)

For running Obsidian CLI on a headless Linux server (useful for AI agent integration):

Install the .deb package (not snap — snap confinement breaks IPC)
Install and start xvfb: Xvfb :5 -screen 0 1920x1080x24 &
Start Obsidian under xvfb: DISPLAY=:5 obsidian &
Run CLI commands: DISPLAY=:5 obsidian daily:read

Systemd note: If running as a service, ensure PrivateTmp=false so the IPC socket is accessible.

Stderr filtering: Headless environments produce harmless GPU warnings. Filter with:

DISPLAY=:5 obsidian search query="test" 2>/dev/null

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