obsidian

name	obsidian
description	Use the `obsidian` CLI for non-interactive vault inspection and debugging, especially links, backlinks, and developer console checks after edits. Always use this skill when working in Obsidian vaults.
compatibility	Requires the `obsidian` CLI. Never run bare `obsidian` because it enters interactive mode.

Obsidian Skill

Use this skill when working with the obsidian CLI in a non-interactive way.

This skill is mainly for:

• link and backlink inspection
• unresolved-link inspection
• reading note metadata from the vault
• developer debugging after note edits
• checking console output after TikZ/TikZJax edits

Core rule

Never run:

obsidian

Bare obsidian enters interactive mode and should not be used by the agent. Always run a concrete subcommand.

Important workflow for TikZ / TikZJax edits

After creating or editing TikZ pictures in Obsidian notes, use the developer debugging commands.

Important order:

1. First enable debugging:

obsidian dev:debug on

2. Then make the note edits.

3. After the edits, inspect the console:

obsidian dev:console

This order matters because if debugging was not enabled before the edit, you may not capture the relevant console output.

Useful variants:

obsidian dev:console limit=100
obsidian dev:console level=error
obsidian dev:console clear
obsidian dev:debug off

Use this workflow especially when a TikZJax snippet may have failed to render.

Link-related commands

These are the most important content-inspection commands.

Outgoing links

Use links to inspect links from a note:

obsidian links file="My Note"
obsidian links path="Knowledge/Topic.md"
obsidian links file="My Note" total

Use this when you want to know what a note links to.

Backlinks

Use backlinks to inspect which notes link to a target note:

obsidian backlinks file="My Note"
obsidian backlinks path="Knowledge/Topic.md"
obsidian backlinks path="Knowledge/Topic.md" counts
obsidian backlinks path="Knowledge/Topic.md" format=json
obsidian backlinks path="Knowledge/Topic.md" total

Useful flags:

• counts to include link counts
• total to return only the count
• format=json|tsv|csv when structured output is helpful

Use this when you want to know what references a note.

Related link-inspection commands

Unresolved links

Use unresolved to inspect broken or unresolved links in the vault:

obsidian unresolved
obsidian unresolved counts
obsidian unresolved verbose
obsidian unresolved format=json

Orphans

Use orphans to find notes with no incoming links:

obsidian orphans
obsidian orphans total

Dead ends

Use deadends to find notes with no outgoing links:

obsidian deadends
obsidian deadends total

File targeting rules

The CLI supports two main ways to target notes:

• file=<name> resolves by note name, like a wikilink
• path=<path> uses the exact vault path

Prefer:

• path=... when exact targeting matters
• file=... when the note name is unambiguous and wikilink-like resolution is desired

Quote values with spaces:

obsidian backlinks file="My Note"

Useful supporting commands

These are secondary but sometimes helpful:

Read a note

obsidian read file="My Note"
obsidian read path="Knowledge/Topic.md"

List files

obsidian files
obsidian files folder="Knowledge"
obsidian files ext=md

Search text

obsidian search query="TikZJax" format=json
obsidian search:context query="diamond" format=json

Show outline

obsidian outline path="Knowledge/Topic.md" format=json

Vault targeting

If needed, explicitly target a vault:

obsidian vault="My Vault" backlinks path="Knowledge/Topic.md"

Some Obsidian vaults are Quartz-style vaults with a content/ directory. In those vaults, run Obsidian commands from inside content/ so that note paths resolve relative to that directory.

That means when a note lives at content/Knowledge/Topic.md, prefer:

cd ./content && obsidian read path="Knowledge/Topic.md"

and similarly for other subcommands such as links, backlinks, search, or outline. Do not include the content/ prefix in the Obsidian CLI path in that case.

Practical rules

• Never run bare obsidian.
• Prefer concrete subcommands.
• For TikZ/TikZJax debugging, run obsidian dev:debug on before making edits.
• After editing, inspect obsidian dev:console.
• Prefer path=... when precision matters.
• Use format=json when structured output is useful.
• Use link/backlink/unresolved commands before resorting to broader search.

Pitfalls

• Bare obsidian is interactive and should not be used.
• If dev:debug on was not enabled before an edit, the relevant console output may be missing.
• file=... resolution can be ambiguous if multiple notes share similar names.
• Many commands default to the active file if no file or path is given, which may be unsafe if you need precise targeting.