Obsidian cli

Skill SunnyDayDev/obsidian-skill/skills/obsidian-cli

Operate the user's Obsidian vault through the `obsidian` command-line interface (Obsidian 1.12.7+). Use whenever the user wants to read, create, append, search, move, rename, or delete notes; work with their Obsidian vault or daily notes; manage frontmatter properties, tags, or aliases; follow backlinks and outgoing links or inspect a note's outline; or list and toggle Markdown tasks. Safe by default: prefers trashing over permanent deletion, reads before overwriting, confirms destructive or bulk actions, and never runs developer, eval, or plugin-management commands unless explicitly asked.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add SunnyDayDev/obsidian-skill --skill obsidian-cli

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One thing to look at

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SKILL.md

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Obsidian CLI

Drive a running Obsidian vault through the obsidian binary. Commands take the form obsidian <command> param=value. This skill covers the everyday 90%; the full command catalog is in reference.md.

1. Preconditions — check before acting

Binary present: confirm the CLI is installed with command -v obsidian.
- If missing: tell the user to update to Obsidian 1.12.7+ and enable Settings → General → "Command line interface", then retry. Do not guess at an alternate path.
App running: the CLI controls the live app. If a command reports no running instance, ask the user to launch the Obsidian desktop app.
A quick, harmless probe is obsidian version.

2. How the CLI works

Syntax: obsidian <command> param=value. Quote any value containing spaces: content="hello world".
Newlines/tabs: encode as \n and \t inside quoted values.
Output to clipboard: append --copy when the user wants the result copied.
Prefer read-only commands first to confirm state before mutating.

3. Targeting the vault and file

Vault: defaults to the active/current-directory vault. To target another, pass vault=<name> (or vault=<id>) as the first parameter, before the command's own params.
File — two ways:
- file=<name> resolves by Obsidian wikilink logic (use when the user names a note by title).
- path=<path> is an exact path from the vault root (use when the user gives a path or you need to disambiguate).
- With neither, commands act on the active file.

4. Reading & exploring (non-mutating — safe)

Goal	Command
Read a note	`read file=<name>` or `read path=<path>`
List files in a folder	`files folder=<path>` (add `ext=md`, `total`)
List subfolders	`folders folder=<path>`
Full-text search	`search query="<text>"` (add `path=`, `limit=`, `case`)
Search with match lines	`search:context query="<text>"`
File info	`file path=<path>`
Vault info	`vault info=name

5. Creating & editing notes

Goal	Command
Create a note	`create name=<name> content="<text>"`
Create from template	`create name=<name> template=<name>`
Append to end	`append file=<name> content="<text>"`
Prepend to start	`prepend file=<name> content="<text>"`
Move / rename (updates links)	`move file=<name> to=<path>` · `rename file=<name> name=<new>`

Never pass overwrite on create unless the user has approved replacing an existing file — and read the existing content first (see §8).
Multi-line content uses \n between lines.

6. Daily notes

daily (open) · daily:read · daily:append content="<text>" · daily:prepend content="<text>" · daily:path. Use daily:append to log something to today's note.

7. Metadata, links & tasks

Properties (frontmatter): property:set name=<name> value=<value> type=<text|list|number|checkbox|date|datetime> · property:read name=<name> · property:remove name=<name>.
Tags / aliases: tags (optionally file=<name>, sort=count) · aliases file=<name>.
Graph: backlinks file=<name> (add format=json for structured output) · links file=<name> · outline file=<name> · orphans · unresolved.
Tasks: tasks file=<name> todo (or done) to list; task ref=<path:line> toggle (or done) to complete a specific task after identifying its line.

8. Safety rules — always

Destructive actions need explicit confirmation. Delete, overwrite, move, and rename change or remove data — summarize what will happen and confirm first.
Trash, don't destroy. delete file=<name> moves to trash. Only add permanent when the user explicitly asks for permanent deletion.
Read before overwrite. Before create ... overwrite or replacing content, read the existing note so nothing is lost silently.
Bulk / irreversible → confirm. If an action touches multiple files or is hard to undo, describe the scope and get a yes before running it.
Escape-hatch commands are off by default. Do not run eval, dev:*, plugin:*, theme:*, snippet:*, sync:*, or publish:* unless the user explicitly requests that specific action; then confirm before executing.

9. Examples

# "Add a meeting note"
obsidian create name="2026-06-24 Standup" content="## Notes\n- ...\n## Actions\n- [ ] "

# "Search my vault for anything about onboarding"
obsidian search query="onboarding" limit=20

# "Log this to today's daily note"
obsidian daily:append content="Shipped the CLI skill 🎉"

# "What links to the Roadmap note?"
obsidian backlinks file="Roadmap" format=json

# "Mark the second task in Today done" (after reading to find the line)
obsidian task ref="Today.md:14" done

# "Delete the scratch note" → trash, not permanent, after confirming
obsidian delete file="Scratch"

For anything beyond the above (publishing, sync, bases, workspaces, themes, developer tools), consult reference.md — and remember the escape-hatch rule in §8.