Query Obsidian vaults via obi CLI. Use for any vault data lookup instead of grep or find -- searching notes, filtering by frontmatter (read status, type, tags), listing folders, reading sections, checking backlinks, and finding unread or recent notes.
Query Obsidian vaults via obi CLI. Use for any vault data lookup instead of grep or find -- searching notes, filtering by frontmatter (read status, type, tags), listing folders, reading sections, checking backlinks, and finding unread or recent notes.
Obsidian Vault Lookup
Read-only reference for querying Obsidian vaults from the terminal using obi (installed globally via @butttons/obi). All output is TOON by default. Add --json for structured JSON.
Orientation
Before doing anything, orient yourself in the vault.
Discover available vaults
obi vaults
Returns vault names, paths, and note counts. Use this to pick the right --vault value.
Vault structure
obi map --vault "VaultName"
Returns all folders (with file counts) and all files (with title, type from frontmatter). This is the single best command to understand what a vault contains. Start here.
Property schema and taxonomy
obi schema --vault "VaultName"
Returns all frontmatter property definitions, all type values in use (e.g. worker, client, package, tool), and all tags in use (e.g. billing, auth, deals). Use this to know what filters are available before running query.
Current workspace state
obi context --vault "VaultName"
Returns the active file in Obsidian, recently opened files, last search term, and open tabs. Useful to understand what the user was last working on.
Reading Notes
Full note
obi read"path/to/note.md" --vault "VaultName"
Returns frontmatter (parsed), body (markdown), outgoing wiki-links, and incoming backlinks. Paths are relative to vault root.
Extracts content under the given heading, stopping at the next heading of equal or higher level. Use this when you only need one part of a long note.
Heading structure
obi toc "path/to/note.md" --vault "VaultName"
Returns the heading tree with levels and line numbers. Use this to discover what sections exist before extracting one with read -s.
Link graph
obi links "path/to/note.md" --vault "VaultName"
Returns outgoing links, incoming backlinks, and two-hop connections (notes linked from notes that link to this one). Two-hop connections are useful for discovering related context the user might not have mentioned.
Browsing
Folder contents
obi list "folder" --vault "VaultName"
Returns files in a folder with title, type, and tags from frontmatter. Omit the folder argument to list the vault root.
