obsidian-cli

name

obsidian-cli

description

Interact with Obsidian vaults using the Obsidian CLI to read, create, search, and manage notes, tasks, properties, and more. Also supports plugin and theme development with commands to reload plugins, run JavaScript, capture errors, take screenshots, and inspect the DOM. Use when the user asks to interact with their Obsidian vault, manage notes, search vault content, perform vault operations from the command line, or develop and debug Obsidian plugins and themes.

Obsidian CLI

Use the obsidian CLI to interact with a running Obsidian instance. Requires Obsidian to be open.

Command reference

Run obsidian help to see all available commands. This is always up to date. Full docs: https://help.obsidian.md/cli

Never run obsidian with no command — a bare call opens an interactive TUI meant for humans, and is field-observed to leave a blank Untitled.md in the vault.

A blank note is provably tool debris only when your own bare call just created it: you ran the call this session, the file did not exist before it (check creation time), and it is empty. Only then run obsidian delete path="Untitled.md" (trashes by default), and verify with obsidian read path="Untitled.md" that the output reports not found — bare obsidian read reads the active file, and the CLI can print an error while exiting 0, so trust the not-found output or a filesystem existence check, never the exit code. If any condition is unproven — the note predates your call or has content — leave it and ask the user. Never leave CLI side effects in the vault, and never guess a user's note into the trash either.

Syntax

Parameters take a value with =. Quote values with spaces:

obsidian create name="My Note" content="Hello world"

Flags are boolean switches with no value:

obsidian create name="My Note" silent overwrite

For multiline content use \n for newline and \t for tab.

Writing long or complex content

content= is a single shell-quoted argument, and three bash hazards apply inside it: backticks run as command substitution, $ expands variables, and nested double quotes end the argument. Any page carrying a code fence, LaTeX, or quoted prose will usually break the command or corrupt the written content — on top of the \n escaping that multiline content already needs.

• Short content (a heading, a line or two): obsidian create / obsidian append are fine.
• Full pages (frontmatter + body, Mermaid or other charts, code fences, tables): write the .md file directly with your file tools — Obsidian indexes new files automatically — then verify with obsidian read path="...".
• Always pass path="dir/note.md" when the note must land in a specific folder; name= resolves like a wikilink and uses the default new-note location.
• If create fails once on escaping, switch to a direct file write; do not retry with more escaping.

File targeting

Many commands accept file or path to target a file. Without either, the active file is used.

• file=<name> — resolves like a wikilink (name only, no path or extension needed)
• path=<path> — exact path from vault root, e.g. folder/note.md

Dot-directories (.claude/, .knowlery/, .agents/, .obsidian/) are outside Obsidian's vault index. File-targeting commands that depend on that index — including read and create, even with path= — cannot reach them. Read or write those paths directly with your file tools. This is an expected boundary; do not retry the Obsidian CLI. The CLI may print an Error: while still exiting with status 0, so require a Created: <path> result and verify important writes.

Vault targeting

Commands target the most recently focused vault by default. Use vault=<name> as the first parameter to target a specific vault:

obsidian vault="My Vault" search query="test"

Common patterns

obsidian read file="My Note"
obsidian create name="New Note" content="# Hello" template="Template" silent
obsidian append file="My Note" content="New line"
obsidian rename file="old-path.md" new_name="new-path.md"
obsidian search query="search term" limit=10
obsidian search:context query="search term"
obsidian daily:read
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] New task"
obsidian property:set name="status" value="done" file="My Note"
obsidian tasks daily todo
obsidian tags sort=count counts
obsidian backlinks file="My Note"

Use --copy on any command to copy output to clipboard. Use silent to prevent files from opening. Use total on list commands to get a count.

Plugin development

Develop/test cycle

After making code changes to a plugin or theme, follow this workflow:

1. Reload the plugin to pick up changes:

   obsidian plugin:reload id=my-plugin
   

2. Check for errors — if errors appear, fix and repeat from step 1:

   obsidian dev:errors
   

3. Verify visually with a screenshot or DOM inspection:

   obsidian dev:screenshot path=screenshot.png
   obsidian dev:dom selector=".workspace-leaf" text
   

4. Check console output for warnings or unexpected logs:

   obsidian dev:console level=error
   

Additional developer commands

Run JavaScript in the app context:

obsidian eval code="app.vault.getFiles().length"

Inspect CSS values:

obsidian dev:css selector=".workspace-leaf" prop=background-color

Toggle mobile emulation:

obsidian dev:mobile on

Run obsidian help to see additional developer commands including CDP and debugger controls.