obsidian-cli

name	obsidian-cli
description	Use the Obsidian CLI to manage knowledge in an Obsidian vault — daily notes, search, tasks, tags, link graph analysis, properties, templates, and file operations. This skill should be used when the user asks to interact with their Obsidian vault, manage daily notes, search notes, manage tasks, explore tags or backlinks, set properties, use templates, or perform vault maintenance.
allowed-tools	Bash, Read, Glob, Grep

Obsidian CLI — Knowledge Management Skill

Use the obsidian CLI to interact with a running Obsidian instance from the terminal. The CLI connects to the running app and provides access to Obsidian-native capabilities: search indexing, the link graph, template variable resolution, frontmatter-aware property management, and task checkbox semantics.

Prerequisites

• Obsidian 1.12+ must be running (CLI connects to the running instance)
• CLI enabled: Settings > General > Enable "Command line interface"
• Binary: /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS/obsidian (added to PATH via ~/.zprofile)

If the CLI returns connection errors, ask the user to ensure Obsidian is running.

When to Use CLI vs. Native Tools

Use the Obsidian CLI for:

Capability	Why CLI wins
Search	Uses Obsidian's indexed search — faster, respects aliases and tags
Backlinks / orphans / deadends	Requires Obsidian's link graph
Tasks	Checkbox semantics — toggle, done, todo, custom status characters
Properties	Frontmatter-aware — typed values (date, list, checkbox, number)
Templates	Variable resolution ({{date}}, {{time}}, {{title}})
Daily notes	Respects daily note plugin settings (folder, format, template)
Outline / word count	Parsed heading tree, accurate word counts
Version history	Access Obsidian's file recovery and sync history

Use native tools (Read, Write, Grep, Glob) for:

• Bulk file reads or multi-file edits
• Regex-based content search across many files
• File creation without templates
• Structural code or markdown changes
• Reading file contents when you need line numbers for Edit tool

Combine both when appropriate — e.g., use CLI search to find relevant files, then Read to inspect and Edit to modify.

Syntax Conventions

obsidian <command> [parameter=value ...] [flags ...]

• Parameters take values: parameter=value or parameter="value with spaces"
• Flags are boolean switches with no value: silent, overwrite, total, verbose
• Multiline content: use \n for newline, \t for tab
• Vault targeting: vault=<name> must be the first parameter: obsidian vault=Notes daily
• File targeting: file=<name> resolves like wikilinks (name without path/extension); path=<path> requires exact path from vault root
• Copy output: add --copy to any command to copy output to clipboard
• Output formats: many commands support format=json|text|csv|tsv|md|yaml|paths

Command Reference

Daily Notes

Command	Description
daily	Open today's daily note (creates if needed)
daily:read	Read daily note contents
daily:append content=<text>	Append content to daily note
daily:prepend content=<text>	Prepend content to daily note

Flags: paneType=tab|split|window, inline, silent

# Read today's daily note
obsidian daily:read

# Add a task to today's note
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Review pull requests"

# Prepend a heading inline (no blank line separator)
obsidian daily:prepend content="## Morning Tasks" inline

Search & Discovery

Command	Description
search query=<text>	Search vault using Obsidian's index
tags	List tags (default: active file)
tag name=<tag>	Get tag info and usage
backlinks	List backlinks to a file
links	List outgoing links from a file
orphans	Files with no incoming links
deadends	Files with no outgoing links
unresolved	Unresolved (broken) wikilinks in vault

Search parameters: path=<folder>, limit=<n>, format=text|json, total, matches, case

Tags parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, sort=count, all, total, counts

Link commands parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, counts, total, verbose

# Full-text search limited to a folder
obsidian search query="meeting notes" path=Work limit=10

# All tags with counts, sorted by frequency
obsidian tags all counts sort=count

# Files linking to a specific note
obsidian backlinks file="Project Alpha"

# Find broken links
obsidian unresolved verbose

# Find orphaned notes
obsidian orphans

Reading & Writing

Command	Description
read file=<name>	Read file contents
create name=<name>	Create a new file
append file=<name> content=<text>	Append content to file
prepend file=<name> content=<text>	Prepend content after frontmatter
open file=<name>	Open file in Obsidian

Create parameters: path=<path>, content=<text>, template=<name>, overwrite, silent, newtab

# Create a note from a template
obsidian create name="Trip to Paris" path=Travel template=Travel

# Append a section to an existing note
obsidian append file="Meeting Notes" content="\n## Action Items\n- [ ] Follow up with team"

# Read a specific file
obsidian read path="Projects/Alpha/status.md"

Task Management

Command	Description
tasks	List tasks in vault or file
task	Show or update a specific task

Tasks parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, status="<char>", all, daily, total, done, todo, verbose

Task parameters: ref=<path:line>, file=<name>, path=<path>, line=<n>, status="<char>", toggle, daily, done, todo

# List incomplete tasks from daily note
obsidian tasks daily todo

# List all completed tasks
obsidian tasks done

# Count tasks in a file
obsidian tasks file="Sprint 12" total

# List tasks with file paths and line numbers
obsidian tasks verbose

# Toggle a task checkbox
obsidian task ref="Recipe.md:8" toggle

# Mark a daily note task as done
obsidian task daily line=3 done

# Set a custom status character
obsidian task file=Recipe line=8 status=-

# Filter by custom status
obsidian tasks 'status=?'

Properties (Frontmatter)

Command	Description
properties	List properties for a file or vault
property:set name=<n> value=<v>	Set a frontmatter property
property:read name=<n>	Read a property value
property:remove name=<n>	Remove a property
aliases	List aliases for a file or vault

Properties parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, name=<name>, sort=count, format=yaml|tsv, all, total, counts

Property:set parameters: type=text|list|number|checkbox|date|datetime, file=<name>, path=<path>

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

# Set a typed property
obsidian property:set file="Project Alpha" name=status value=active type=text

# Set a date property
obsidian property:set file="Meeting" name=date value=2026-02-13 type=date

# Read a property
obsidian property:read file="Project Alpha" name=status

# Remove a property
obsidian property:remove file="Old Note" name=deprecated-field

Templates

Command	Description
templates	List available templates
template:read name=<template>	Read template content
template:insert name=<template>	Insert template into active file

Template:read flags: title=<title>, resolve (processes {{date}}, {{time}}, {{title}})

# List templates
obsidian templates

# Preview a template with variables resolved
obsidian template:read name=Meeting resolve title="Sprint Planning"

# Create a file using a template
obsidian create name="Weekly Review" path=Reviews template="Weekly Review"

File & Folder Info

Command	Description
file file=<name>	Show file metadata
files	List files in vault
folder path=<path>	Show folder info
folders	List folders in vault
outline	Show heading tree for a file
wordcount	Count words and characters

Files parameters: folder=<path>, ext=<extension>, total

Folder parameters: info=files|folders|size

Outline parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, format=tree|md, total

Wordcount parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, words, characters

# List all markdown files in a folder
obsidian files folder=Projects ext=md

# Get heading structure
obsidian outline file="Architecture Doc" format=tree

# Count words
obsidian wordcount file="Draft Post"

# Folder size info
obsidian folder path=Attachments info=size

Vault Maintenance

Command	Description
move file=<name> to=<path>	Move or rename a file
delete file=<name>	Delete a file (to trash by default)
bookmarks	List bookmarks
bookmark file=<path>	Add a bookmark

Move parameters: path=<path>

Delete flags: permanent

Bookmark parameters: subpath=<subpath>, folder=<path>, search=<query>, url=<url>, title=<title>

# Move a file
obsidian move file="Old Note" to="Archive/Old Note.md"

# Delete to trash
obsidian delete file="Scratch"

# Bookmark a file
obsidian bookmark file="Projects/Alpha/README.md" title="Alpha Project"

Version History

Command	Description
diff	List or compare file versions
history file=<name>	List local history versions
history:list	List all files with local history
history:read file=<name> version=<n>	Read a specific version
history:restore file=<name> version=<n>	Restore a version

Diff parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, from=<n>, to=<n>, filter=local|sync

# Compare latest version to current file
obsidian diff file=Recipe from=1

# Compare two historical versions
obsidian diff file=Recipe from=2 to=1

# List version history
obsidian history file="Important Doc"

# Read a specific version
obsidian history:read file="Important Doc" version=2

# Restore a previous version
obsidian history:restore file="Important Doc" version=3

Vault Info

Command	Description
vault	Show current vault info
vaults	List known vaults
vault info=name	Show just vault name
vault info=path	Show vault path

obsidian vault
obsidian vault info=name

Common Patterns

Daily Task Review

# See today's tasks
obsidian tasks daily

# See incomplete tasks across vault
obsidian tasks todo

# Mark tasks done
obsidian task daily line=5 done

Orphan Cleanup

# Find orphaned notes (no incoming links)
obsidian orphans

# For each orphan, check if it should be linked or archived
obsidian backlinks file="Orphan Note"
obsidian move file="Orphan Note" to="Archive/Orphan Note.md"

Link Health Audit

# Find broken links
obsidian unresolved verbose

# Find dead-end notes (no outgoing links)
obsidian deadends

# Check specific file's connections
obsidian backlinks file="Hub Note" counts
obsidian links file="Hub Note"

Tag Inventory

# Full tag report
obsidian tags all counts sort=count

# Find files with a specific tag
obsidian tag name=project-alpha verbose

Template-Based Note Creation

# List available templates
obsidian templates

# Create note from template
obsidian create name="Client Meeting 2026-02-13" path=Meetings template=Meeting

# Append to newly created note
obsidian append file="Client Meeting 2026-02-13" content="\n## Notes\n- Discussed timeline"