Obsidian CLI — Claude Code Skill

A skill for AI coding agents that enables full control of Obsidian vaults from the terminal using the official Obsidian CLI (v1.12+).

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What This Skill Does

Once installed, your AI agent will know how to interact with Obsidian vaults through the official CLI — reading, creating, and editing notes; managing daily notes; running full-text search; querying tasks, tags, links, and properties; managing plugins and sync; and running developer tools.

Covers 100+ commands across all major areas:

Area	Commands
Files	read, create, append, prepend, move, delete, files, folders
Daily Notes	daily, daily:read, daily:append, daily:prepend
Search	search with scoping, limits, JSON output
Properties	properties, property:read, property:set, property:remove
Tags	tags, tag with counts and filtering
Tasks	tasks, task — query, filter, toggle
Links	backlinks, links, unresolved, orphans, deadends
Templates	templates, template:read, template:insert
Plugins	plugins, plugin:enable/disable/install/reload
Sync	sync, sync:status, sync:history, sync:restore
Developer	eval, dev:screenshot, dev:console, dev:errors
Vault	vault, vaults, version, recents, outline, wordcount

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Prerequisites

Obsidian v1.12 is available to all users — no Early Access build or Catalyst license required.

Requirement	Details
Obsidian Desktop	v1.12.0+
CLI enabled	Settings → Command line interface → Toggle ON
Obsidian running	The desktop app must be running — the CLI communicates over IPC

Platform notes

• macOS / Linux — the obsidian binary is added to PATH automatically when you enable CLI in settings.
• Windows — requires an Obsidian.com redirector file placed alongside Obsidian.exe. Must run from a normal-privilege terminal — admin terminals produce silent failures.
• Headless Linux — use the .deb package (not snap). Run under xvfb and prefix commands with DISPLAY=:5. Set PrivateTmp=false if running as a systemd service.

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Installation

Claude Code — Plugin (native)

Install directly from GitHub using the Claude Code plugin system:

1. Open Claude Code and run:

   /plugin marketplace add https://github.com/pablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill
   

2. Install the obsidian-cli skill from the plugin list.
3. Done — the skill auto-triggers when you ask Claude to interact with Obsidian, automate vault operations, manage daily notes, search your vault, etc.

Alternative — manual install:

1. Download obsidian-cli-skill-v1.0.0.zip from the Releases page.
2. Open Claude Code → Skills plugin settings → Import → select the .zip.

The plugin.json manifest at the repo root makes this repository directly compatible with Claude Code's plugin system.

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Cursor

Cursor loads context via Rules. Add the skill as a project-level or global rule:

1. Create the file .cursor/rules/obsidian-cli.mdc in your project root (or in ~/.cursor/rules/ for global scope).
2. Paste the body of SKILL.md (everything after the --- frontmatter block) into the file.
3. Optionally append the contents of references/command-reference.md for the full command reference.

Cursor will now apply Obsidian CLI knowledge when you work on related tasks.

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Windsurf

Windsurf uses Rules stored in .windsurf/rules/:

1. Create .windsurf/rules/obsidian-cli.md in your project.
2. Paste the body of SKILL.md (below the frontmatter) into the file.
3. Optionally include the command reference from references/command-reference.md.

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GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

Copilot supports custom instructions via a repository-level file:

1. Create .github/copilot-instructions.md in your repo.
2. Paste the body of SKILL.md into the file.

For workspace-level instructions in VS Code, add the content to your VS Code settings under "github.copilot.chat.codeGeneration.instructions".

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Any Other LLM Agent or Assistant

SKILL.md is a plain Markdown document. For any agent that supports custom system prompts or instructions:

1. Open the agent's system prompt / custom instructions settings.
2. Paste the contents of SKILL.md (with or without the YAML frontmatter — most agents accept either).
3. Optionally include references/command-reference.md for the complete command reference.

This works with Aider, Continue.dev, LM Studio, Open Interpreter, or any chat interface with a system prompt field.

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Quick Examples

Append to today's daily note

obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Review pull requests"

Search your vault and pipe to jq

obsidian search query="meeting notes" format=json | jq '.[].path'

Vault health check

obsidian files total          # Total file count
obsidian tags counts sort=count  # Most-used tags
obsidian tasks                # All open tasks
obsidian orphans              # Notes with no links
obsidian unresolved           # Broken wikilinks

Create a note from a 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]]"

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Full Command Reference

See references/command-reference.md for the complete reference covering all commands, parameters, flags, output formatting, multi-vault usage, and headless Linux setup.

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Troubleshooting

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

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License

This skill is provided as-is for use with the Obsidian CLI. Obsidian v1.12+ is free for all users.