jcsaaddupuy/obsidian

Obsidian

Obsidian vault = a normal folder on disk.

Vault structure (typical)

• Notes: *.md (plain text Markdown; edit with any editor)
• Config: .obsidian/ (workspace + plugin settings; usually don't touch from scripts)
• Canvases: *.canvas (JSON)
• Attachments: whatever folder you chose in Obsidian settings (images/PDFs/etc.)

Find the active vault(s)

Obsidian desktop tracks vaults here (source of truth):

• ~/Library/Application Support/obsidian/obsidian.json

obsidian-cli resolves vaults from that file; vault name is typically the folder name (path suffix).

Fast "what vault is active / where are the notes?"

• If you've already set a default: obsidian-cli print-default --path-only
• Otherwise, read ~/Library/Application Support/obsidian/obsidian.json and use the vault entry with "open": true.

Example (bash):

# Get active vault path from config
VAULT_PATH=$(jq -r '.vaults[] | select(.open==true) | .path' ~/Library/Application\ Support/obsidian/obsidian.json)
echo "Active vault: $VAULT_PATH"

Notes

• Multiple vaults common (iCloud vs ~/Documents, work/personal, etc.). Don't guess; read config.
• Avoid writing hardcoded vault paths into scripts; prefer reading the config or using print-default.

Direct file operations (no obsidian-cli needed)

For simple operations, work directly with .md files in the vault. Obsidian auto-detects changes.

Create a note:

VAULT_PATH="/path/to/vault"
echo "Note content" > "$VAULT_PATH/Folder/NewNote.md"

Daily notes pattern:

Most vaults use Daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md format:

# Create today's daily note
TODAY=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
echo "# $TODAY" > "$VAULT_PATH/Daily/$TODAY.md"

List notes in a folder:

# Find all markdown files
find "$VAULT_PATH/Daily" -name "*.md" -type f | sort

# List most recent daily notes
ls -lt "$VAULT_PATH/Daily"/*.md | head -10

Read note content:

cat "$VAULT_PATH/Daily/2026-02-17.md"

obsidian-cli quick start

Pick a default vault (once):

• obsidian-cli set-default "<vault-folder-name>"
• obsidian-cli print-default / obsidian-cli print-default --path-only

Search

• obsidian-cli search "query" (note names)
• obsidian-cli search-content "query" (inside notes; shows snippets + lines)

Create

• obsidian-cli create "Folder/New note" --content "..." --open
• Requires Obsidian URI handler (obsidian://…) working (Obsidian installed).
• Avoid creating notes under "hidden" dot-folders (e.g. .something/...) via URI; Obsidian may refuse.

Move/rename (safe refactor)

• obsidian-cli move "old/path/note" "new/path/note"
• Updates [[wikilinks]] and common Markdown links across the vault (this is the main win vs mv).

Delete

• obsidian-cli delete "path/note"

Prefer direct edits when appropriate: open the .md file and change it; Obsidian will pick it up.