Browse/Productivity
ProductivityObsidian

Obsidian CLI

Interact with Obsidian vaults using the Obsidian CLI to read, create, search, and manage notes, tasks, properties, and more.

Kkepano (Steph Ango)·Productivity·MIT

Library skill — the default version is maintained in GitHub; edits you make live in your own clone.

History · v1Download SKILL.mdView source
Use this skillDownload .zip
How does this work?
  • ChatGPT opens a new chat with the skill loaded. If it's too long for a link, it's copied to your clipboard — just paste.
  • Claude works the same way. To install it permanently, download the .zip and upload it under Claude → Settings → Capabilities → Skills (Pro/Team/Enterprise).
  • Copy prompt copies the skill so you can paste it into any assistant, including Grok.

Obsidian CLI

Use the obsidian CLI to interact with a running Obsidian instance. Requires Obsidian to be open.

Command reference

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

Syntax

Parameters take a value with =. Quote values with spaces:

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

Flags are boolean switches with no value:

obsidian create name="My Note" silent overwrite

For multiline content use \n for newline and \t for tab.

File targeting

Many commands accept file or path to target a file. Without either, the active file is used.

Vault targeting

Commands target the most recently focused vault by default. Use vault=<name> as the first parameter to target a specific vault:

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

Common patterns

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

Use --copy on any command to copy output to clipboard. Use silent to prevent files from opening. Use total on list commands to get a count.

Plugin development

Develop/test cycle

After making code changes to a plugin or theme, follow this workflow:

  1. Reload the plugin to pick up changes: bash obsidian plugin:reload id=my-plugin
  2. Check for errors — if errors appear, fix and repeat from step 1: bash obsidian dev:errors
  3. Verify visually with a screenshot or DOM inspection: bash obsidian dev:screenshot path=screenshot.png obsidian dev:dom selector=".workspace-leaf" text
  4. Check console output for warnings or unexpected logs: bash obsidian dev:console level=error

Additional developer commands

Run JavaScript in the app context:

obsidian eval code="app.vault.getFiles().length"

Inspect CSS values:

obsidian dev:css selector=".workspace-leaf" prop=background-color

Toggle mobile emulation:

obsidian dev:mobile on

Run obsidian help to see additional developer commands including CDP and debugger controls.