obsidian

name	obsidian
description	Help with Obsidian Zettelkasten vault management - search, create, edit, and organize notes in the user's personal knowledge base with 1200+ notes. Use when the user asks about their Zettelkasten, vault, notes, knowledge management, or wants to create/modify markdown notes in ~/Documents/Zettelkasten. (project, gitignored)

Obsidian Zettelkasten Skill

Overview

Help user interact with their personal Zettelkasten vault — a knowledge management system with 1200+ notes covering learning, projects, and ideas.

Vault Location

Path: ~/Documents/Zettelkasten/

Vault Structure

Zettelkasten/
├── copilot/          # AI copilot files
├── Files/            # Attachments, images, PDFs
├── Reference/        # Reference materials
├── Templates/        # Note templates
└── Zettelkasten/     # Main notes directory
    ├── Life/         # Personal planning, tasks, projects
    ├── Notes/        # Main knowledge notes
    └── Writings/     # Essays, diary entries

Obsidian CLI (Primary Interface)

The official Obsidian CLI is installed and enabled. Requires Obsidian to be running. Always prefer CLI over direct file operations — it respects Obsidian's index, links, templates, and plugins.

Binary: /opt/homebrew/bin/obsidian Syntax: obsidian <command> [options] Targeting: file=<name> (resolves like wikilinks), path=<exact/path.md>, vault=<name>

When to Use CLI vs Direct File Tools

Use CLI (obsidian)	Use File Tools (Read/Write/Grep)
Creating notes (respects templates)	Bulk text search across many files
Appending/prepending to notes	Reading note content for analysis
Querying backlinks, orphans, deadends	Complex regex searches
Managing properties/frontmatter	Editing note body content
Searching with Obsidian's index	When Obsidian is not running
Working with daily notes
Managing tasks
Link graph analysis

Key CLI Commands

Note Operations

# Create a note (use template= to apply templates)
obsidian create name="My Note" path="Zettelkasten/Notes/My Note.md" content="..." template="Note Template"

# Read a note
obsidian read file="Aristotle"

# Append/prepend to a note
obsidian append file="Coffee Log" content="New entry here"
obsidian prepend file="Task Log" content="- [ ] New task"

# Open a note in Obsidian GUI
obsidian open file="Aristotle" newtab

# Delete a note
obsidian delete file="Old Note"

# Move/rename
obsidian move file="Old Name" to="Zettelkasten/Notes/New Name.md"
obsidian rename file="Old Name" name="New Name"

Daily Notes

obsidian daily              # Open today's daily note
obsidian daily:path         # Get daily note path
obsidian daily:read         # Read today's daily note
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] New task"
obsidian daily:prepend content="## Morning thoughts\n..."

Search

# Basic search (returns file paths)
obsidian search query="fish shell" limit=5

# Search with line context (returns matching lines with line numbers)
obsidian search:context query="climbing training" limit=3

# Open search in Obsidian GUI
obsidian search:open query="philosophy"

Link Graph Analysis (CLI-exclusive power)

# Backlinks — what links TO a note
obsidian backlinks file="Aristotle" counts

# Outgoing links FROM a note
obsidian links file="Aristotle" total

# Orphan notes (no incoming links) — vault maintenance
obsidian orphans total

# Dead-end notes (no outgoing links) — vault maintenance
obsidian deadends total

# Unresolved links (broken wikilinks) — vault maintenance
obsidian unresolved total
obsidian unresolved counts verbose

Properties / Frontmatter

# List all properties in vault (with counts)
obsidian properties counts sort=count

# Read a property from a file
obsidian property:read name="tags" file="Aristotle"

# Set a property
obsidian property:set name="type" value="note" file="My Note"
obsidian property:set name="tags" value="philosophy,greek" type=list file="Aristotle"

# Remove a property
obsidian property:remove name="oldfield" file="My Note"

Tags

obsidian tags counts sort=count          # All tags with counts
obsidian tags file="Aristotle"           # Tags for a specific note
obsidian tag name="philosophy" verbose   # Files with a specific tag

Tasks

obsidian tasks todo                      # All incomplete tasks
obsidian tasks done                      # All completed tasks
obsidian tasks todo file="Task Log"      # Tasks in a specific file
obsidian tasks daily todo                # Today's incomplete tasks
obsidian task file="Task Log" line=5 toggle  # Toggle a task

Templates

obsidian templates                       # List available templates
obsidian template:read name="Note Template"  # Read template content
obsidian template:read name="Note Template" resolve title="My Note"  # Resolve variables

Vault Health & Info

obsidian vault                           # Vault name, path, file/folder count, size
obsidian files total                     # Total file count
obsidian files folder="Zettelkasten/Notes"  # Files in a folder
obsidian folders                         # List all folders
obsidian recents                         # Recently opened files
obsidian wordcount file="Being and Time" # Word/char count
obsidian outline file="Aristotle"        # Heading structure

Plugins & Themes

obsidian plugins filter=community versions  # List community plugins
obsidian plugins:enabled                    # Enabled plugins
obsidian plugin:enable id="dataview"
obsidian plugin:disable id="dataview"
obsidian plugin:install id="some-plugin" enable

Output Formats

Many commands support format=json|tsv|csv|text. Use format=json when parsing output programmatically.

Tips

• file= resolves names like wikilinks (case-insensitive, no extension needed)
• path= is exact (e.g., Zettelkasten/Notes/Aristotle.md)
• Quote values with spaces: name="My Note"
• Use \n for newline, \t for tab in content values
• Add total to most list commands to get just the count

Creating Notes

When creating notes via CLI, use the template= option to apply the user's Note Template. If creating manually:

CRITICAL: Always add frontmatter:

---
created: YYYY-MM-DD
type: note
tags: []
aliases: []
related: []
---

Frontmatter format rules:

Field	Format	Example
tags	Empty array or list of lowercase strings	tags: [] or tags: [python, networking]
aliases	Empty array or list of strings	aliases: [] or aliases: [Alt Name]
related	Empty array or multi-line wikilinks	See below
type	One of: note, daily, diary, weekly, quarterly	type: note

Related field format (multi-line, quoted wikilinks):

related:
  - "[[Note One]]"
  - "[[Note Two]]"

Key rules:

• tags: are plain lowercase text, NOT wikilinks
• related: uses quoted wikilinks in multi-line format

Obsidian Plugins Installed

• dataview: Query notes with SQL-like syntax
• templater: Dynamic templates
• obsidian-vimrc-support: Vim keybindings
• quickadd: Quick note creation
• calendar: Calendar view
• excalibrain: Visual knowledge graph
• And 17+ more plugins

When to Use This Skill

• User asks to search their Zettelkasten
• Wants to create a new note
• References existing notes
• Asks about their knowledge base
• Wants to query/analyze notes
• Vault maintenance (orphans, deadends, unresolved links)
• Daily note operations
• Task management within notes

Best Practices

1. Always ask before creating notes — Don't assume structure
2. Use search first — Check if similar notes exist
3. Respect user's organization — Follow existing patterns
4. Suggest connections — Link related notes when relevant
5. Use templates — Always use template="Note Template" when creating
6. Use CLI for link-aware operations — Backlinks, orphans, properties
7. Use file tools for heavy text operations — Bulk reads, complex regex, content analysis

Related Skills

• obsidian-annotator — Creating and managing PDF annotations via the Annotator plugin. Loaded when user asks to annotate, highlight, or comment on a PDF.

Important Notes

• This is the user's personal knowledge base — treat with care
• Don't make assumptions about structure without asking
• The vault is their long-term memory, not Claude's

Integration with Other Skills

• This vault: User's personal knowledge
• Memory skill: Claude's context about the user
• Different purposes: Don't confuse the two!