jimweller/obsidian

Obsidian CLI

The official Obsidian CLI (v1.12+) controls Obsidian from the terminal via IPC with a running desktop instance.

Read references/command-reference.md for specific flags, output formats, or subcommands. It covers all 130+ commands with full parameter tables.

Prerequisites

| Requirement | Details | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | | Obsidian Desktop | v1.12.0+ | | CLI enabled | Settings, Command line interface, Toggle ON | | Obsidian running | Desktop app must be running for CLI to work (IPC) |

Syntax

All parameters use key=value syntax. Quote values containing spaces.

obsidian <command> [subcommand] [key=value ...] [flags]

Multi-Vault

Target a specific vault by making it the first argument:

obsidian "My Vault" daily:read
obsidian "Work Notes" search query="meeting"

If omitted, the CLI targets the most recently active vault.

Command Overview

The CLI provides 130+ commands across these groups:

| Group | Key Commands | Purpose | | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | | files | read, create, append, prepend, move, rename, delete, files, folders, file, random | Note CRUD and file discovery | | daily | daily, daily:read, daily:append, daily:prepend, daily:path | Daily note operations | | search | search, search:context | Full-text search; search:context returns matching lines | | properties | properties, property:read, property:set, property:remove, aliases | Frontmatter/metadata management | | tags | tags, tag | Tag listing, counts, and filtering | | tasks | tasks, task | Task querying, filtering, and toggling | | links | backlinks, links, unresolved, orphans, deadends | Graph and link analysis | | bookmarks | bookmarks, bookmark | List and add bookmarks | | templates | templates, template:read, template:insert | Template listing, rendering, insertion | | plugins | plugins, plugin, plugin:enable, plugin:disable, plugin:install, plugin:uninstall, plugins:restrict | Plugin management | | sync | sync, sync:status, sync:history, sync:read, sync:restore, sync:deleted | Obsidian Sync operations | | themes | themes, theme, theme:set, theme:install, theme:uninstall | Theme management | | snippets | snippets, snippets:enabled, snippet:enable, snippet:disable | CSS snippet management | | commands | commands, command, hotkeys, hotkey | Execute Obsidian commands by ID; inspect hotkeys | | bases | bases, base:query, base:views, base:create | Obsidian Bases (v1.12+ database feature) | | history | history, history:list, history:read, history:restore | File version recovery (File Recovery plugin) | | workspace | workspace, tabs, tab:open | Workspace layout and tab management | | diff | diff | Compare local vs sync file versions | | dev | eval, dev:screenshot, dev:debug, dev:console, dev:errors, dev:css, dev:dom, devtools | Developer/debugging tools | | vault | vault, vaults, version, reload, restart | Vault info and app control | | other | outline, wordcount, recents | Utility commands |

Quick Reference

Reading and Writing Notes

obsidian read path="folder/note.md"
obsidian create path="folder/note" content="# New Note"
obsidian create path="folder/note" template="meeting-notes"
obsidian append path="folder/note.md" content="New paragraph"
obsidian prepend path="folder/note.md" content="Top content"
obsidian move path="old/note.md" to="new/note.md"
obsidian delete path="folder/note.md"
obsidian delete path="folder/note.md" permanent

Daily Notes

obsidian daily                          # Open today's daily note
obsidian daily:read                     # Print content of today's note
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] New task"
obsidian daily:prepend content="## Morning Notes"

Search

obsidian search query="project alpha"
obsidian search query="TODO" path="projects" limit=10
obsidian search query="meeting" format=json
obsidian search query="urgent" case

Properties and Tags

obsidian properties path="note.md"
obsidian property:set path="note.md" name="status" value="active"
obsidian property:read path="note.md" name="status"
obsidian property:remove path="note.md" name="draft"
obsidian tags counts sort=count
obsidian tag name="project/alpha"

Tasks

obsidian tasks                          # All tasks
obsidian tasks all                      # All tasks
obsidian tasks done                     # Completed only
obsidian tasks daily                    # Tasks in today's daily note
obsidian task path="note.md" line=12 toggle
obsidian tasks | grep "\[ \]"           # Filter to incomplete only

Developer and Automation

obsidian eval code="app.vault.getFiles().length"
obsidian dev:screenshot path="folder/screenshot.png"
obsidian dev:debug on
obsidian dev:console limit=20
obsidian dev:errors

TUI Mode

Running obsidian with no arguments launches an interactive TUI.

Common Agent Patterns

Daily Journal Automation

obsidian daily:append content="## $(date '+%H:%M') -- Status Update
- Completed: feature branch merge
- Next: code review for PR #42
- Blocked: waiting on API credentials"

Create Note from Template with Metadata

obsidian create path="projects/new-feature" template="project-template"
obsidian property:set path="projects/new-feature.md" name="status" value="planning"
obsidian property:set path="projects/new-feature.md" name="created" value="$(date -I)"
obsidian daily:append content="- Started [[projects/new-feature|New Feature]]"

Vault Analytics

obsidian files total                    # Total file count
obsidian tags counts sort=count         # Most used tags
obsidian tasks | grep "\[ \]"          # Incomplete tasks across vault
obsidian orphans                        # Notes needing integration
obsidian unresolved                     # Broken links to fix

Search and Extract

obsidian search query="meeting notes" format=json | jq '.[]'
obsidian read path="meetings/standup.md" | grep "Action item"

Sync Management

obsidian sync:status                    # Check sync health
obsidian sync:history path="important.md"
obsidian sync:restore path="important.md" version=3

Execute Obsidian Commands

obsidian commands | grep "graph"
obsidian command id="graph:open"
obsidian command id="app:open-settings"

Direct File Editing

obsidian vault returns the filesystem path of the active vault. Use this path with Read, Edit, and Write tools to modify markdown files directly instead of delete/recreate cycles through the CLI.

obsidian vault          # returns: path /Users/.../ObsidianVault/MCG

Frontmatter (properties, tags, dates) is plain YAML between --- fences. No special format. Default frontmatter for new notes:

---
tags:
  - topic-a
  - topic-b
created: 2026-04-14
---

Tags should be lowercase, hyphenated. Created date is ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD). Read/Edit/Write handles everything including metadata. Use the CLI for search, vault operations, and commands that interact with the Obsidian app (sync, plugins, templates, eval).

Tips

1. Paths are vault-relative. Use folder/note.md, not absolute filesystem paths.
2. create paths omit .md. The extension is added automatically.
3. move requires full target path including .md extension.
4. Plain text output works with grep, awk, sed, jq.
5. Use format=json on search for JSON array of file paths.
6. daily:prepend inserts content after frontmatter, not at byte 0.
7. Use eval to run arbitrary JavaScript against the Obsidian API (app.*).
8. template:insert inserts into the currently active file in the Obsidian UI. To create a file from a template via CLI, use obsidian create path="..." template="...".
9. property:set stores list values as strings. For proper array fields, edit frontmatter directly or use eval.
10. eval requires single-line JavaScript. For multiline, write to a temp file first.
11. Multi-vault targeting may not work in all environments. If vault name fails, omit it and switch vaults manually in Obsidian UI.