Obsidian-CLI-skill/skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.md

name, description

name

description

obsidian-cli

Interact with Obsidian vaults using the official Obsidian CLI (v1.12+). Read, create, append, search, and manage notes, daily notes, properties, tags, tasks, bookmarks, templates, themes, sync, plugins, and links — all from the terminal. Use this skill whenever the user mentions Obsidian CLI, wants to automate Obsidian vault operations, manage notes programmatically, script daily note workflows, query vault metadata, or integrate Obsidian with AI agents or automation pipelines. Also trigger when the user asks about controlling Obsidian from the command line, building scripts around their knowledge base, or running headless Obsidian setups. Even if the user just says "add something to my daily note" or "search my vault" in a CLI/scripting context, this skill applies.

Obsidian CLI

The official Obsidian CLI (released in v1.12, February 2026) lets you control every aspect of Obsidian from the terminal. It communicates with a running Obsidian desktop instance via IPC.

For the full command reference with all subcommands, flags and examples, read references/command-reference.md in this skill folder.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
Obsidian Desktop	v1.12.0+
CLI enabled	Settings → Command line interface → Toggle ON
Obsidian running	The desktop app must be running for CLI to work (IPC)

Platform Notes

• macOS / Linux: The obsidian binary is registered in PATH automatically when you enable CLI in settings.
• Windows: Requires an Obsidian.com redirector file placed alongside Obsidian.exe. Must run with normal user privileges — admin terminals produce silent failures.
• Headless Linux: Use the .deb package (not snap). Run under xvfb. Prefix commands with DISPLAY=:5 (or your xvfb display number). Ensure PrivateTmp=false if running as a service.

Syntax

All parameters use key=value syntax. Quote values containing spaces.

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

Multi-Vault

Target a specific vault by making it the first argument:

obsidian "My Vault" daily:read
obsidian "Work Notes" search query="meeting"

If omitted, the CLI targets the most recently active vault.

Command Overview

The CLI provides 100+ commands across these groups:

Group	Key Commands	Purpose
files	read, create, append, prepend, move, delete, files, folders, file	Note CRUD and file discovery
daily	daily, daily:read, daily:append, daily:prepend	Daily note operations
search	search	Full-text vault search with scoping and JSON output
properties	properties, property:read, property:set, property:remove, aliases	Frontmatter/metadata management
tags	tags, tag	Tag listing, counts, and filtering
tasks	tasks, task	Task querying, filtering, and toggling
links	backlinks, links, unresolved, orphans, deadends	Graph and link analysis
bookmarks	bookmarks	Bookmark management
templates	templates, template:read, template:insert	Template listing, rendering, insertion
plugins	plugins, plugin:enable, plugin:disable, plugin:install, plugin:reload	Plugin management
sync	sync, sync:status, sync:history, sync:read, sync:restore, sync:deleted	Obsidian Sync operations
themes	themes	Theme management
dev	dev:screenshot, eval, dev:console, dev:errors	Developer/debugging tools
vault	vault, vaults, version	Vault info and metadata
other	outline, wordcount, recents, reload	Utility commands

Quick Reference — Most Common Commands

Reading & Writing Notes

obsidian read path="folder/note.md"
obsidian create path="folder/note" content="# New Note"
obsidian create path="folder/note" template="meeting-notes"
obsidian append path="folder/note.md" content="New paragraph"
obsidian prepend path="folder/note.md" content="Top content"
obsidian move path="old/note.md" to="new/note.md"
obsidian delete path="folder/note.md"
obsidian delete path="folder/note.md" permanent

Daily Notes

obsidian daily                          # Open today's daily note
obsidian daily:read                     # Print content of today's note
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] New task"
obsidian daily:prepend content="## Morning Notes"

Search

obsidian search query="project alpha"
obsidian search query="TODO" path="projects" limit=10
obsidian search query="meeting" format=json
obsidian search query="urgent" matches case

Properties & Tags

obsidian properties path="note.md"
obsidian property:set path="note.md" name="status" value="active"
obsidian property:read path="note.md" name="status"
obsidian property:remove path="note.md" name="draft"
obsidian tags counts sort=count
obsidian tag name="project/alpha"

Tasks

obsidian tasks                          # All incomplete tasks
obsidian tasks all                      # All tasks (done + todo)
obsidian tasks done                     # Completed only
obsidian tasks daily                    # Tasks in today's daily note
obsidian task path="note.md" line=12 toggle

Developer & Automation

obsidian eval code="app.vault.getFiles().length"
obsidian dev:screenshot path="screenshot.png"
obsidian dev:console limit=20
obsidian dev:errors

TUI Mode

Running obsidian with no arguments launches an interactive TUI (Terminal User Interface):

Key	Action
↑↓	Navigate files
Enter	Open file
/	Search
n	Create new file
d	Delete file
r	Rename file
q	Quit

Common Agent Patterns

Daily Journal Automation

# Append a timestamped entry
obsidian daily:append content="## $(date '+%H:%M') — Status Update
- Completed: feature branch merge
- Next: code review for PR #42
- Blocked: waiting on API credentials"

Create Note from Template with Metadata

obsidian create path="projects/new-feature" template="project-template"
obsidian property:set path="projects/new-feature.md" name="status" value="planning"
obsidian property:set path="projects/new-feature.md" name="created" value="$(date -I)"
obsidian daily:append content="- Started [[projects/new-feature|New Feature]]"

Vault Analytics Script

obsidian files total                    # Total file count
obsidian tags counts sort=count         # Most used tags
obsidian tasks                          # Open tasks across vault
obsidian orphans                        # Notes needing integration
obsidian unresolved                     # Broken links to fix

Search and Extract for AI Processing

obsidian search query="meeting notes" format=json | jq '.[] | .path'
obsidian read path="meetings/standup.md" | grep "Action item"

Sync Management

obsidian sync:status                    # Check sync health
obsidian sync:history path="important.md"  # Version history
obsidian sync:restore path="important.md" version=3  # Rollback

Tips

1. Paths are vault-relative — use folder/note.md, not absolute filesystem paths.
2. create paths omit .md — the extension is added automatically.
3. move requires full target path including .md extension.
4. Pipe-friendly — plain text output works with grep, awk, sed, jq.
5. JSON output — use format=json on search and file commands for machine parsing.
6. Stderr noise — GPU/Electron warnings on headless are harmless; filter with 2>/dev/null.
7. daily:prepend inserts content after frontmatter, not at byte 0.
8. Use eval to run arbitrary JavaScript against the Obsidian API (app.*).

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Empty output / hangs	Obsidian not running, or admin terminal (Windows)	Start Obsidian; use normal-privilege terminal
Command not found	CLI not registered in PATH	Re-enable CLI in Settings; restart terminal
Unicode errors	Fixed in v1.12.2+	Update Obsidian
Wrong vault targeted	Multi-vault ambiguity	Pass vault name as first arg
IPC socket not found (Linux)	PrivateTmp=true in systemd	Set PrivateTmp=false
Snap confinement issues	Snap restricts IPC	Use .deb package instead