obsidian-cli

name

obsidian-cli

description

Read, write, search, and manage David's Obsidian vault via the `obsidian` CLI installed at /opt/homebrew/bin/obsidian. Use when the user wants to save a note to Obsidian, read an existing note, search the vault, append to a daily note, manage vault content, or asks about Obsidian content. Vault path is `~/Documents/Obsidian Vault/`. The CLI is bundled with Obsidian.app and exposes 90+ commands covering files, folders, daily notes, tags, properties, search, bookmarks, templates, themes, plugins, and Obsidian Sync. CRITICAL: the CLI requires "Settings → Community plugins → Browse → install Obsidian CLI" to be enabled in Obsidian itself. Direct file write to the vault folder is the simpler fallback when scripted-vault automation is overkill.

Obsidian CLI

David's Obsidian setup:

• App: /Applications/Obsidian.app (version 1.12.7).
• CLI binary: /opt/homebrew/bin/obsidian (symlinked from /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS/obsidian-cli).
• Vault: ~/Documents/Obsidian Vault/ (vault name in CLI commands: Obsidian Vault).
• CLI status: enabled by David 2026-05-28 (Settings → Community plugins or equivalent setting).

When to use the CLI vs direct file-write

Use direct file-write (Write tool to ~/Documents/Obsidian Vault/<file>.md) when:

• Creating a new note from scratch with substantial content.
• The note can stand alone without needing Obsidian-internal links / properties / templates to resolve.
• You want the simplest write path.

Use the CLI when:

• Appending to an existing note (especially the daily note).
• Reading a note's resolved content (wikilinks, transclusions, embeds expanded).
• Searching across the vault.
• Managing properties, tags, bookmarks.
• Opening Obsidian to a specific file from script (obsidian open file=...).
• Inserting from templates.
• Triggering Obsidian Sync operations.

Direct file-write is fast and predictable; the CLI is richer but slower and requires Obsidian to be running for some commands (those that read/modify state in the running app).

Command surface

90+ commands grouped by area. The complete list is obsidian --help. Most-used:

Reading

obsidian read file="Note Name"             # by name (like wikilinks)
obsidian read path="folder/note.md"        # exact path
obsidian read                              # active file in Obsidian
obsidian outline file="Note Name"          # headings outline
obsidian properties file="Note Name"       # frontmatter properties
obsidian tags                              # all tags in vault
obsidian wordcount file="Note Name"

Writing

obsidian create path="folder/new.md" content="# Title\n\nBody"
obsidian append file="Note" content="\n\n## New section"
obsidian prepend file="Note" content="Heads-up at top\n\n"
obsidian delete file="Note"
obsidian rename file="Old Name" name="New Name"
obsidian move file="Note" path="archive/Note.md"

Quoting rules:

• Quote values with spaces: file="My Note".
• Use \n for newline, \t for tab in content= values.
• file=<name> resolves like a wikilink (first match in vault); path=<path> is exact from vault root.

Daily notes

obsidian daily                             # opens / creates today's daily note
obsidian daily:append content="\n- New bullet"
obsidian daily:prepend content="Top entry\n"
obsidian daily:read
obsidian daily:path                        # prints the resolved path for today

Search

obsidian search "RoPA"                     # full-text
obsidian search:context "RoPA"             # with surrounding lines
obsidian search:open "RoPA"                # open results in Obsidian

Properties (frontmatter)

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

Vaults + navigation

obsidian vaults                            # lists vaults (output: "Obsidian Vault")
obsidian open file="Note Name"             # opens the app to that file
obsidian tab:open file="Note Name"         # in a new tab
obsidian recents                           # recently opened files
obsidian bookmarks                         # vault bookmarks

Linking + orphan detection

obsidian backlinks file="Note"             # who links here
obsidian links file="Note"                 # what this note links to
obsidian unresolved                        # broken wikilinks across vault
obsidian orphans                           # notes with no incoming links
obsidian deadends                          # notes with no outgoing links

Templates

obsidian templates                         # list templates
obsidian template:insert file="Daily" template="meeting-notes"
obsidian template:read template="meeting-notes"

Plugins, themes, snippets

obsidian plugins                           # all installed
obsidian plugins:enabled
obsidian plugin:enable id="dataview"
obsidian plugin:install id="dataview"
obsidian themes
obsidian theme:set name="Solarized"
obsidian snippets

Obsidian Sync (if licensed)

obsidian sync:status
obsidian sync:history
obsidian sync:deleted
obsidian sync:restore file="Deleted note"

Dev (rarely needed)

obsidian dev:screenshot path="/tmp/shot.png"
obsidian dev:console                       # JS console
obsidian eval "<js expression>"

Reload / restart / hotkey

obsidian reload                            # reload current vault
obsidian restart                           # restart Obsidian app
obsidian hotkey name="Open quick switcher"
obsidian command name="Some command"       # run any registered command

Vault-specific knowledge

David's ~/Documents/Obsidian Vault/ is currently lightly organised. As of 2026-05-28 the vault contains:

• Welcome.md (default Obsidian welcome)
• 2026-05-20.md (daily note)
• Untitled.base, Untitled.canvas (untitled artefacts)
• WS6 — Dry-Run Observation Runbook.md (authored 2026-05-28 — operational runbook for the WS6 retention worker dry-run period)

When writing into the vault, prefer titles that lead with a programme acronym so they sort and search well: WS6 — …, PR G — …, RoPA — …, etc.

Operational notes and gotchas

The CLI talks to a running Obsidian instance for most commands. Read/search/property commands work when Obsidian is open. If Obsidian is not running, file-system-level commands (create/append/prepend on direct paths) still work because they edit the vault folder, but the running app won't see the change until next refresh.

File resolution via file= is wikilink-style. It searches the whole vault for the first match. If you have two notes with the same name in different folders, use path= to disambiguate.

Frontmatter YAML is parsed. When using property:set, the value is stored as YAML; quote strings and use proper YAML types (arrays as ["a", "b"] or block lists, etc.). For complex properties, write to the markdown directly via append or by editing the file.

Daily notes use the user's daily-note plugin settings. If David has the daily-notes plugin disabled, obsidian daily will fail. Standard install has it enabled by default.

Direct file write is sometimes preferable. For example, creating a 200-line technical runbook is cleaner via the Write tool to ~/Documents/Obsidian Vault/<title>.md than via repeated obsidian append calls. The file is markdown either way; Obsidian picks it up on next refresh.

Vault name with spaces. Address as vault="Obsidian Vault" if multiple vaults exist. Single-vault setups (the current state) can omit vault=.

Typical patterns

Pattern: write a new long-form note

# Direct file-write is simpler than chained CLI calls.
Write tool → ~/Documents/Obsidian Vault/<title>.md
# Optionally open it after:
obsidian open file="<title>"

Pattern: append a quick observation to today's daily note

obsidian daily:append content="\n- [[WS6 dry-run]] Gate 3 query returned 3 rows, all clean"

Pattern: read a note for reference and quote into the conversation

obsidian read file="WS6 — Dry-Run Observation Runbook" > /tmp/ws6.md
# Then read /tmp/ws6.md or grep it.

Pattern: confirm a note exists before referencing it

obsidian search "WS6 dry-run" 2>&1 | head -5

Pattern: lock a property at end of authoring

obsidian property:set file="<title>" key="status" value="published"
obsidian property:set file="<title>" key="reviewed" value="2026-05-28"

Pattern: cross-reference programme docs

Most Bella Slainte programme docs live as canonical sources in arch-pack (docs/architecture-pack/) and Drive Docs (Compliance > ISO 27001 > Procedures). The Obsidian vault is the personal working copy. When duplicating a doc into Obsidian for personal annotation, the standard frontmatter is:

---
title: <Title>
tags: [<programme-acronym>, <topic>]
created: <YYYY-MM-DD>
canonical_source: <path/url to authoritative version>
status: draft | reviewed | published
---

Reference

Full command list: obsidian --help (476 lines, copy to file if you want grep-able).

Obsidian CLI documentation upstream: bundled with Obsidian.app; the binary is built by the Obsidian team rather than a third-party project.