obsidian-cli

name	obsidian-cli
description	Control Obsidian from the terminal using the `obsidian` CLI. Use when the agent needs to open notes, search the vault inside Obsidian, append/prepend content to the active file, create notes from templates, manage properties, check backlinks/orphans, query Bases, or interact with the running Obsidian app. Requires Obsidian 1.12+ running.

Obsidian CLI Skill

Control the running Obsidian app from the terminal. Supplementary tool alongside Read/Write/Edit, Glob, Grep, QMD, and Neo4j.

Prerequisites

• Obsidian 1.12+ running (early access, Catalyst license)
• CLI registered: Settings > General > Command line interface
• Templates plugin: Settings > Core Plugins > Templates > Template folder → _templates
• PATH: /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS (in ~/.zprofile)

Important: Noisy Output

The CLI outputs Loading updated app package... to stdout on every invocation. Always filter with grep -v:

obsidian orphans total 2>/dev/null | grep -v "Loading updated"    # correct — clean output
obsidian orphans total                                             # noisy output in agent context

Shorthand for all examples below: 2>/dev/null | grep -v "Loading updated" is abbreviated as 2>/dev/null for readability, but always include the full filter in practice.

When to Use CLI vs File Tools

Scenario	Use CLI	Use File Tools
Open a note in Obsidian UI	obsidian open	No equivalent
Read/write file content	Either works	Prefer Read/Write/Edit
Search vault content	obsidian search	Prefer Grep/QMD
Open today's daily note in Obsidian	obsidian daily	No equivalent
Append task to daily note	obsidian daily:append	Either
Create note from template	obsidian create template=X	Manual template apply
Check backlinks/orphans/unresolved	obsidian backlinks/orphans	Manual grep
Set/read properties (frontmatter)	obsidian property:set	Edit tool
Query a Base view	obsidian base:query	No equivalent
Execute Obsidian commands	obsidian command	No equivalent

Rule of thumb: CLI for Obsidian-app-specific actions (open files, trigger commands, query Bases, graph relationships). File tools for direct file manipulation.

Agent Integration Patterns

Keeper — Supplementary Health Checks

# Quick vault health stats (supplement Python/Neo4j checks)
obsidian unresolved verbose 2>/dev/null | grep -v "Loading updated"
obsidian orphans total 2>/dev/null | grep -v "Loading updated"
obsidian deadends total 2>/dev/null | grep -v "Loading updated"

Scribe — Quick Capture

# Fast append to daily note (no file path needed)
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Review TPM progress" silent 2>/dev/null

# Atomic frontmatter update
obsidian property:set name=status value=shipped path="prd/xmarket/checkout.md" 2>/dev/null

# Template-based note creation
obsidian create name="New PRD" template=prd silent 2>/dev/null

# Surface created note in Obsidian
obsidian open path="decisions/xmarket/2026-02-11-payment-provider.md" newtab 2>/dev/null

Scout — Fallback Search

# Backlinks via Obsidian's graph (alternative to Neo4j)
obsidian backlinks file=Note 2>/dev/null

# Quick text search (alternative to QMD)
obsidian search query="payment provider" 2>/dev/null

Today — Workflow Touchpoints

# Phase 0: Ensure daily note visible in Obsidian
obsidian daily silent 2>/dev/null

# Phase 3: Quick health stats
obsidian unresolved total 2>/dev/null
obsidian orphans total 2>/dev/null

# Phase 5: Surface daily note
obsidian open path="daily/2026-02-11.md" 2>/dev/null

Command Reference

Vault & File Targeting

# Auto-detects vault from CWD
obsidian daily 2>/dev/null

# Target specific vault
obsidian vault=Notes daily 2>/dev/null

# By name (wikilink resolution)
obsidian read file=Recipe 2>/dev/null

# By exact path
obsidian read path="prd/xmarket/checkout.md" 2>/dev/null

Daily Notes

obsidian daily 2>/dev/null                              # Open today's daily note
obsidian daily:read 2>/dev/null                         # Read daily note contents
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Task" 2>/dev/null  # Append to daily note
obsidian daily:prepend content="## Morning" 2>/dev/null # Prepend after frontmatter
obsidian daily:append content="text" silent 2>/dev/null # Append without opening

Files & Folders

obsidian files 2>/dev/null                        # List all files
obsidian files folder=prd 2>/dev/null             # List files in folder
obsidian files ext=md total 2>/dev/null           # Count .md files
obsidian open file=Note 2>/dev/null               # Open a file
obsidian open file=Note newtab 2>/dev/null        # Open in new tab
obsidian create name="New Note" 2>/dev/null       # Create file
obsidian create name=Note template=prd 2>/dev/null  # Create from template
obsidian create name=Note content="text" silent overwrite 2>/dev/null
obsidian read file=Note 2>/dev/null               # Read file contents
obsidian append file=Note content="new line" 2>/dev/null
obsidian prepend file=Note content="top line" 2>/dev/null
obsidian move file=Note to="archive/" 2>/dev/null
obsidian delete file=Note 2>/dev/null             # Trash (recoverable)

Search

obsidian search query="meeting notes" 2>/dev/null          # Search vault
obsidian search query="TODO" path=daily 2>/dev/null        # Search in folder
obsidian search query="bug" total 2>/dev/null              # Count matches
obsidian search query="fix" matches 2>/dev/null            # Show match context
obsidian search query="test" format=json 2>/dev/null       # JSON output

Links & Graph

obsidian backlinks file=Note 2>/dev/null           # Backlinks to a file
obsidian backlinks file=Note counts 2>/dev/null    # With link counts
obsidian links file=Note 2>/dev/null               # Outgoing links from a file
obsidian unresolved 2>/dev/null                    # Broken/unresolved links
obsidian unresolved verbose 2>/dev/null            # Include source files
obsidian orphans 2>/dev/null                       # Files with no incoming links
obsidian orphans total 2>/dev/null                 # Count orphans
obsidian deadends 2>/dev/null                      # Files with no outgoing links

Properties (Frontmatter)

obsidian properties file=Note 2>/dev/null                  # List properties
obsidian properties all counts 2>/dev/null                 # All vault properties
obsidian property:read name=status file=Note 2>/dev/null   # Read a property
obsidian property:set name=status value=done file=Note 2>/dev/null  # Set a property
obsidian property:set name=tags value="[a,b]" type=list file=Note 2>/dev/null
obsidian property:remove name=old_prop file=Note 2>/dev/null

Tags

obsidian tags all counts 2>/dev/null              # All tags with counts
obsidian tags file=Note 2>/dev/null               # Tags in a file
obsidian tag name=project verbose 2>/dev/null     # Tag info with file list

Tasks

obsidian tasks 2>/dev/null                         # Tasks in active file
obsidian tasks daily 2>/dev/null                   # Tasks from daily note
obsidian tasks daily todo 2>/dev/null              # Incomplete daily tasks
obsidian tasks all todo 2>/dev/null                # All incomplete tasks
obsidian task daily line=3 toggle 2>/dev/null      # Toggle a daily task

Bases

obsidian bases 2>/dev/null                         # List all .base files
obsidian base:query file=MyBase format=json 2>/dev/null     # Query base
obsidian base:query file=MyBase view=TableView format=csv 2>/dev/null

Templates

obsidian templates 2>/dev/null                     # List templates
obsidian template:read name=prd 2>/dev/null        # Read template
obsidian template:insert name=prd 2>/dev/null      # Insert into active file

Workspace & Tabs

obsidian tabs 2>/dev/null                          # List open tabs
obsidian workspace 2>/dev/null                     # Show workspace tree
obsidian workspace:load name=Writing 2>/dev/null   # Load workspace

Commands

obsidian commands 2>/dev/null                      # List all command IDs
obsidian command id=editor:toggle-bold 2>/dev/null # Execute a command

Common Patterns for This Vault

Quick daily task capture

obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Review TPM progress" silent 2>/dev/null

Check vault health via CLI

obsidian orphans total 2>/dev/null
obsidian unresolved verbose 2>/dev/null
obsidian deadends total 2>/dev/null

Open a PRD in Obsidian

obsidian open path="prd/tpm/private-market-mvp-phases.md" 2>/dev/null

Find all notes tagged with a project

obsidian tag name=xmarket verbose 2>/dev/null

Query a Base for structured data

obsidian base:query file=Projects format=json 2>/dev/null