obsidian

# Obsidian Skill Search and open notes via the `obsidian` CLI (requires the Obsidian app to be running). Create notes with the bundled script — **never** with `obsidian create` (see §3 for why). ## 1. Searching Notes ```bash # Text search — returns matching file paths obsidian search query="meeting notes" obsidian search query="project plan" path="Work" # limit to folder obsidian search query="todo" limit=10 # cap results obsidian search query="meeting" format=json # structured output # Text search with line context (grep-style path:line: text) # Use when the user wants to see WHAT matched, not just WHERE obsidian search:context query="TODO" obsidian search:context query="bug" path="Engineering" # Tags obsidian tags counts sort=count # all tags by frequency obsidian tag name="project" verbose # files carrying a tag obsidian tags file="Project Notes" # tags of one file # Frontmatter properties obsidian properties counts # all properties in vault obsidian property:read name="status" file="Project" # Discovery obsidian files folder="Zettelkasten" # list files in folder obsidian backlinks file="Topic Note" counts # what links TO this note obsidian links file="Topic Note" # what this note links to obsidian orphans # no incoming links obsidian recents # recently opened # Read content obsidian read file="Note Name" obsidian read path="folder/note.md" ``` To find notes by tag: `obsidian tag name="tagname" verbose` lists the files, then read the relevant ones. For complex lookups, combine approaches (search text then check tags, or list a folder then search within it). ## 2. Opening Files ```bash obsidian open file="My Note" # by name (wikilink resolution) obsidian open path="folder/subfolder/note.md" # by exact path obsidian open file="My Note" newtab obsidian search:open query="search terms" # open Obsidian's search UI ``` ## 3. Creating Zettelkasten Notes **Always create notes with `{this_skill_dir}/scripts/ob-zettel-create.sh`. Never use `obsidian create`.** The CLI takes content as a command-line argument (silently truncated at ARG_MAX, ~256KB on macOS), its stdout can be polluted by installer warnings, and it needs the app running just to write a plain-text file. The script writes the file directly to the vault on disk, then opens it via `obsidian open`. ```bash # Usage: ob-zettel-create.sh [-t TAG]... [-n] [--src FILE] TITLE [< content] ob-zettel-create.sh "My Note Title" # empty note, opens in Obsidian ob-zettel-create.sh -t "literature" -t "psychology" "Cognitive Biases" echo "Some content" | ob-zettel-create.sh -t "reference" "API Patterns" ob-zettel-create.sh --src /path/to/draft.md "Project Proposal" # content from file ob-zettel-create.sh -n "Quiet Note" # skip opening in Obsidian ``` Content source priority: `--src FILE` > piped stdin > empty. For long generated content, write it to a temp file first and pass `--src` rather than piping a giant heredoc. Tags are written as a `#tag` line at the top of the note. Notes are named `YYYYMMDD.HH Title.md` (e.g., `20260317.14 Cognitive Biases.md`). **Environment variables**: - `OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH` (required) — absolute path to the vault root - `OBSIDIAN_ZETTEL_DIR` (optional, default `80 Zettelkasten Notes`) — zettel directory relative to vault root