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pablo-mano e30c0eb9cc Add template:insert error message to docs 
Clarifies exact error returned when no file is active in Obsidian UI:
"Error: No active editor. Open a file first."

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-02-27 23:51:30 +01:00

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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".

Table of Contents

  1. Files
  2. Daily Notes
  3. Search
  4. Properties
  5. Tags
  6. Tasks
  7. Links
  8. Bookmarks
  9. Templates
  10. Plugins
  11. Sync
  12. Themes
  13. Developer
  14. 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)

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)

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

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.

Tags

Tag discovery and filtering.

obsidian tags                          # List all tags in the vault
obsidian tags counts                   # Tags with usage counts
obsidian tags counts sort=count        # Sorted by frequency (most used first)
obsidian tags path="note.md"           # Tags in a specific file
obsidian tag name="project/alpha"      # List notes with a specific tag

Notes:

  • Nested tags are supported (e.g., project/alpha).
  • Tags from both frontmatter and inline #tag syntax are included.

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

Bookmarks commands let you view and manage bookmarked notes, searches, and groups. Use obsidian bookmarks --help for all available subcommands.

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 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

Themes

Manage appearance themes.

obsidian themes                        # List installed themes
obsidian themes versions               # List installed themes with version numbers

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.

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)

Output Formatting & Piping

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

# 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 '.[]'

# 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):

  1. Install the .deb package (not snap — snap confinement breaks IPC)
  2. Install and start xvfb: Xvfb :5 -screen 0 1920x1080x24 &
  3. Start Obsidian under xvfb: DISPLAY=:5 obsidian &
  4. 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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