obsidian-cli

Original：🇺🇸 English
Translated

Control Obsidian from the terminal via the Obsidian CLI. Read, create, search, and manage notes, tasks, properties, and more. Includes vault structure commands (orphans, dead ends, backlinks, unresolved wikilinks), Bases, and plugin development.

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NPX Install

npx skill4agent add nweii/agent-stuff obsidian-cli

Tags

Translated version includes tags in frontmatter
obsidian-cliterminal-controlnote-managementplugin-developmentvault-operations

SKILL.md Content

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Obsidian CLI

Run 
obsidian <command>
to control Obsidian from the terminal. The app must be running for most commands; the first command will launch Obsidian if not open.
Run 
obsidian help
or 
obsidian help <command>
for the canonical, always-up-to-date command reference. This skill documents common patterns and non-obvious behaviors.

Targeting vaults and files

  • Vault: 
    vault=<name>
    as first parameter. Default: cwd if it's a vault folder, else the active vault.
  • File: 
    file=<name>
    resolves like a wikilink (name only, no path or extension needed). 
    path=<path>
    for exact path from vault root.
  • TUI: Run 
    obsidian
    with no args for interactive mode; omit the 
    obsidian
    prefix inside.

Parameters and flags

  • Parameters: 
    param=value
    . Quote values with spaces: 
    content="Hello world"
    .
  • Flags: Boolean, no value: 
    silent
    , 
    overwrite
    , 
    newtab
    .
  • Multiline content: Use 
    \n
    for newlines, 
    \t
    for tabs in 
    content=
    .

Search, links, and structure

bash
obsidian search query="text" [path=folder] [limit=n] [format=text|json] [total] [case]
obsidian search:context query="text" [path=folder] [limit=n]  # includes surrounding context
obsidian links [file=Note] [total]
obsidian backlinks [file=Note] [counts] [total]
obsidian outline [file=Note] [format=tree|md]
obsidian orphans [total] [active]       # notes with no links to or from them
obsidian deadends [total] [active]      # notes with no outgoing links
obsidian unresolved [total] [counts] [verbose]  # broken wikilinks
obsidian tags [active] [file=Note] [total] [counts] [sort=count]
obsidian tag name=project [total] [verbose]

Common patterns

Notes and content

To peek at a note without reading its full content, use 
property:read
or 
properties file=Note
.
bash
obsidian read file="Note" # Use this to read the content of a wikilink
obsidian create name="Note" content="# Title\n\nBody" [template=Name] [overwrite] [silent]
obsidian append file="Note" content="- [ ] Task"
obsidian prepend file="Note" content="# Header\n"
obsidian move file="Note" to=folder/newpath.md
obsidian rename file="Note" name="New file name"
obsidian delete file="Note"

Daily notes (Daily notes plugin)

bash
obsidian daily:read
obsidian daily [paneType=tab|split|window] [open]
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Buy groceries" [inline] [open]
obsidian daily:prepend content="- [ ] Morning routine" [inline]  # goes after frontmatter
obsidian daily:path  # returns expected path even if file doesn't exist yet

Tasks

bash
obsidian tasks [daily] [file=Note] [todo] [done] [status="x"] [total] [verbose]
obsidian task ref=path:line [toggle] [done] [todo] [daily]

Properties and frontmatter

bash
obsidian properties [active] [file=Note] [total] [counts] [format=yaml|json|tsv]
obsidian property:read name=status [file=Note]
obsidian property:set name=status value=done [file=Note]
obsidian property:remove name=status [file=Note]

Bases (Bases plugin)

bash
obsidian bases
obsidian base:views [file=base.base]
obsidian base:query [file=base.base] [view=name] [format=json|csv|tsv|md|paths]
obsidian base:create name="Item" content="..." [open] [newtab]

Developer commands

Reload a plugin after code changes — essential for the develop/test cycle:
bash
obsidian plugin:reload id=my-plugin
obsidian eval code="app.vault.getFiles().length"
obsidian dev:screenshot path=screenshot.png
obsidian dev:dom selector=".cm-editor" [text] [attr=class]
obsidian dev:css selector=".cm-editor" [prop=color]
obsidian dev:console [clear] [limit=10] [level=log|warn|error]
obsidian dev:errors [clear]

Quick reference

TaskCommand
List commands
obsidian help
Open daily note
obsidian daily
Append to daily
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Task"
Search vault
obsidian search query="text"
Read active/specified file
obsidian read
or 
obsidian read file=Note
Create from template
obsidian create name="Title" template=Name
List tags with counts
obsidian tags counts
List tasks from daily
obsidian tasks daily
Find broken wikilinks
obsidian unresolved counts
Find orphan notes
obsidian orphans

References

  • obsidian help
    — full command list (always up to date)
  • obsidian help <command>
    — help for a specific command
  • Obsidian CLI docs (Obsidian)