publish-sync

created	"2026-03-04T00:00:00.000Z"
modified	"2026-05-09T00:00:00.000Z"
reviewed	"2026-04-30T00:00:00.000Z"
name	publish-sync
description	Obsidian Publish and Sync operations. Use when publishing notes, managing change sets, pausing/resuming sync, or recovering sync-deleted files.
user-invocable	false
allowed-tools	Bash(obsidian *), Read, Grep, Glob

Obsidian Publish & Sync

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when...	Use the alternative instead when...
Listing, adding, removing, or auditing the change set on Obsidian Publish	Creating or moving the underlying notes themselves — use vault-files
Pausing/resuming Obsidian Sync or checking sync status & usage	Restoring a previous sync version of a file — use file-history
Recovering a file that sync deleted	Recovering a file from local File Recovery — use file-history
Auditing which notes are currently public vs private	Discovering orphaned or unresolved-link notes — use search-discovery

Manage Obsidian Publish and Obsidian Sync services from the CLI. Sync version history (per-file diff and restore) lives in file-history.

Prerequisites

• Obsidian desktop v1.12.4+ with CLI enabled
• Obsidian must be running
• Active Obsidian Publish and/or Sync subscription for the respective commands

Obsidian Publish

Site Info

# Slug, URL, status of the connected Publish site
obsidian publish:site

List & Compare

# All currently published files
obsidian publish:list
obsidian publish:list total

# What would change on next publish (new / changed / deleted)
obsidian publish:status
obsidian publish:status new
obsidian publish:status changed
obsidian publish:status deleted
obsidian publish:status total

Publish & Unpublish

# Publish the active file
obsidian publish:add

# Publish a specific file
obsidian publish:add file="Public Note"
obsidian publish:add path="blog/post.md"

# Publish *all* changed files in one shot
obsidian publish:add changed

# Unpublish
obsidian publish:remove file="Draft Post"

# Open the file's published page in the browser
obsidian publish:open file="Public Note"

Obsidian Sync

Status & Pause/Resume

# Sync state, last sync time, usage
obsidian sync:status

# Pause / resume sync
obsidian sync off
obsidian sync on

Files Deleted via Sync

# Files removed via sync (recoverable)
obsidian sync:deleted
obsidian sync:deleted total

To restore one of those files, use file-history: obsidian sync:restore file=X version=N.

Per-file Sync Versions

For listing, reading, or restoring a specific sync version of a file, use the file-history skill (sync:history, sync:read, sync:restore, sync:open).

Common Patterns

"Publish every note tagged #publish"

# Find candidates
obsidian search query="tag:#publish" format=json

# Or rely on the change set after the user tags them
obsidian publish:status new
obsidian publish:add changed

"Pre-publish dry run"

obsidian publish:status            # all changes
obsidian publish:status new        # adds only
obsidian publish:status deleted    # removes only

"Snapshot the public surface"

obsidian publish:list > published-$(date +%F).txt
obsidian publish:site

"Recover a synced file the agent deleted"

obsidian sync:deleted
# Identify the file, then restore via file-history:
obsidian sync:restore file="Notes/Important" version=1

Agentic Optimizations

Context	Command
Site info	obsidian publish:site
List published	obsidian publish:list
What's changed since last publish	obsidian publish:status
New files only	obsidian publish:status new
Publish all changes	obsidian publish:add changed
Publish one file	obsidian publish:add file=X
Unpublish	obsidian publish:remove file=X
Sync status	obsidian sync:status
Pause sync	obsidian sync off
Resume sync	obsidian sync on
Sync-deleted files	obsidian sync:deleted

Related Skills

• vault-files — Create or modify notes before publishing
• properties — Set publish-related frontmatter on notes
• search-discovery — Find notes tagged for publishing
• file-history — Per-file sync history (sync:history, sync:read, sync:restore)