obsidian-cli

name

obsidian-cli

description

Use this skill whenever the user wants to interact with their Obsidian vault from the command line or terminal. Triggers include: creating, reading, editing, moving, or deleting notes; managing daily notes; searching vault content; managing tasks, tags, or properties; working with plugins, themes, or snippets; accessing sync or publish features; managing bookmarks or bases; running obsidian commands; or any automation involving an Obsidian vault. Also triggers for phrases like "in my vault", "my notes", "obsidian note", "daily note", "add to obsidian", "search obsidian", "obsidian task". Always use this skill when the user wants Claude to do anything with Obsidian on their behalf.

Obsidian CLI Skill

This skill helps you use the official Obsidian CLI (v1.12+) to automate and control Obsidian from the terminal. The CLI connects to a running Obsidian instance via IPC.

Prerequisites

• Obsidian 1.12+ installed and running
• CLI enabled: Obsidian Settings → General → Command line interface → Enable
• The obsidian binary available in your PATH (on macOS, it's typically added automatically; on Windows/Linux, add Obsidian's install directory to PATH)

Core Syntax

obsidian <command> [parameters] [flags]

• Parameters use key=value format. Quote values with spaces: name="My Note"
• Flags are standalone keywords (no value): silent, overwrite, copy
• File targeting: use file=<name> (wikilink-style) or path=<vault-root-path> for exact paths
• Vault targeting: defaults to the most recently focused vault, or use vault=<name>
• Run obsidian help to see all commands; obsidian help <command> for details on a specific command

---

Command Reference

For the full detailed reference with all parameters, options, and examples, read: → references/command-reference.md

Below is a quick index organized by category.

Files & Notes

read, create, append, prepend, open, delete, move, rename, files, folders, file, random, wordcount, outline

Daily Notes

daily, daily:read, daily:append, daily:prepend, daily:path

Search

search, search:context

Tasks

tasks, task, task:toggle

Tags

tags, tag

Properties / Frontmatter

properties, property:read, property:set, property:remove, aliases

Links

backlinks, links, unresolved, orphans, deadends

Bookmarks

bookmarks, bookmark, bookmark:add

Bases (Database Views)

bases, base:query, base:views, base:create

Templates

templates, template:read, template:insert

Commands & Hotkeys

commands, command, hotkeys, hotkey

Tabs & Workspaces

workspace, tabs, tab:open

History & Diff

history, history:list, history:read, history:restore

Sync

sync, sync:status, sync:history, sync:read, sync:restore, sync:deleted

Publish

publish, publish:status, publish:changes, publish:file, publish:unpublish, publish:files

Themes & CSS

themes, theme, theme:set, theme:install, theme:uninstall, snippets, snippets:enabled, snippet:enable, snippet:disable

Plugins

plugins, plugin, plugin:enable, plugin:disable, plugin:install, plugin:uninstall, plugin:reload, plugins:restrict

Vault & App

vault, vaults, version, reload, restart, recents

Developer Tools

eval, dev:screenshot, dev:debug, dev:console, dev:errors, dev:css, dev:dom, devtools

---

Common Workflows

Create a note

obsidian create name="Meeting Notes" content="## Agenda\n- Item 1"
obsidian create name="Project Plan" template="templates/project"

Read a note

obsidian read file="Meeting Notes"

Append to a note

obsidian append file="Meeting Notes" content="## Follow-ups\n- Action item"

Work with today's daily note

obsidian daily:read
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Review PR"

Search vault

obsidian search query="project alpha" limit=10
obsidian search query="TODO" context=2

Manage tasks

obsidian tasks                          # list all tasks
obsidian tasks status=todo             # only incomplete
obsidian task:toggle file="Notes" line=5

Manage properties/frontmatter

obsidian property:read file="My Note"
obsidian property:set file="My Note" key=status value=done
obsidian property:remove file="My Note" key=draft

Find orphaned or broken notes

obsidian orphans
obsidian unresolved
obsidian deadends

Plugin management

obsidian plugins                        # list all plugins
obsidian plugin:enable id=dataview
obsidian plugin:reload id=my-plugin

---

Tips for Claude

• Always check if the user wants to target a specific vault; if so, add vault=<name>
• Use silent flag when you don't want the note to open in Obsidian after an operation
• Use --copy flag on list/read commands to copy output to clipboard
• For large content insertions, use a heredoc or pass content via stdin when possible
• When the user's vault path or note names are unclear, ask before running destructive commands (delete, move)
• Prefer file=<name> over path= unless the user specifies exact paths — wikilink-style resolution matches Obsidian's internal behavior
• If the CLI returns an error like "Cannot connect to Obsidian", remind the user that Obsidian must be running and the CLI must be enabled in settings