Obsidian Cli

Overview

The obsidian CLI is an official command-line interface that requires Obsidian to be running. It allows reading, writing, searching, and inspecting vault notes from a shell.

When to Use

Invoke when running shell commands against an Obsidian vault, scripting vault operations, or checking note content from the terminal. Trigger phrases: "obsidian CLI", "vault command line", "obsidian read/create/search from shell".

When NOT to use

• Obsidian is not running — the CLI requires the live Obsidian app to be open.
• Programmatic vault reading without Obsidian running — use direct file reads instead.
• OFM syntax questions with no shell interaction — use obsidian-markdown.

Core Process

1. Verify Obsidian is running before issuing CLI commands.
2. Use file= for wikilink-style resolution, or path= for exact path resolution.
3. For multi-vault setups, add vault= to target a specific vault.

Techniques

Parameter conventions

• Parameters use = syntax: file=NoteName, not --file NoteName.
• Flags are boolean with no value: --copy, --silent, --total.
• Multiline content uses \n and \t escape sequences.

File resolution

| Form | Meaning | | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | | file= | Resolves like a wikilink (search across vault) | | path= | Exact vault-root-relative path | | vault= | Target a specific vault (multi-vault setups) |

Read operations

• obsidian read file= — print note content.
• obsidian daily:read — read today's daily note.
• obsidian search — full-text search.
• obsidian tags — list all tags.
• obsidian backlinks file= — list notes linking to this note.

Write operations

• obsidian create file= content= — create a note.
• obsidian append file= content= — append to a note.
• obsidian daily:append content= — append to today's daily note.
• obsidian property:set file= key= value= — set a frontmatter property.

Developer / inspection

• obsidian plugin:reload name= — reload a plugin.
• obsidian dev:errors — show console errors.
• obsidian dev:screenshot — take a screenshot.
• obsidian dev:dom — inspect the DOM.
• obsidian dev:console — open the console.
• obsidian eval code= — evaluate JavaScript in the Obsidian context.
• obsidian dev:css — show applied CSS.

Common Rationalizations

N/A — reference skill.

Red Flags

• Using --file syntax instead of file= — parameters use =, not --.
• Running CLI commands when Obsidian is not open — the command will hang or error.
• Using path= when file= would work — path= requires an exact vault-root-relative path and is brittle across vault reorganizations.

Verification

Run obsidian tags and confirm output. Obsidian must be running.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: DoctorMozg
• Source: DoctorMozg/claude-pipelines
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.