obsidian-cli

name	obsidian-cli
description	Interact with Obsidian vaults using Obsidian CLI to read, create, search, and manage notes, tasks, properties, tags, plugins, themes, and workspace state. Use when the user asks to work with their Obsidian vault from pi.

Obsidian CLI

Use the obsidian_cli tool from the project extension when available. If the tool is unavailable, fall back to shell command obsidian ....

Requires Obsidian desktop app to be running.

Command reference

Run obsidian help to see all available commands. This is always up to date. Docs: https://help.obsidian.md/cli

Syntax

Parameters use =:

obsidian create name="My Note" content="Hello world"

Flags are booleans with no value:

obsidian create name="My Note" overwrite

For multiline content, use \n and \t.

File targeting

Many commands accept file or path. If omitted, active file is used.

• file=<name> resolves like wikilinks
• path=<path> is exact from vault root (folder/note.md)

Vault targeting

Use vault=<name> first to target specific vault:

obsidian vault="My Vault" search query="test"

Common patterns

obsidian read file="My Note"
obsidian create name="New Note" content="# Hello"
obsidian append file="My Note" content="New line"
obsidian search query="search term" limit=10
obsidian property:set name="status" value="done" file="My Note"
obsidian tasks todo
obsidian tags sort=count counts
obsidian backlinks file="My Note"

Use total on list commands for counts.

Plugin development loop

After plugin/theme changes:

1. Reload plugin

   obsidian plugin:reload id=my-plugin
   

2. Check errors

   obsidian dev:errors
   

3. Verify UI

   obsidian dev:screenshot path=screenshot.png
   obsidian dev:dom selector=".workspace-leaf" text
   

4. Check console

   obsidian dev:console level=error
   

Safety

Dangerous commands (eval, dev:cdp, dev:debug, restart) should only be run when explicitly requested by user.