Bruno-Cunha-Souza 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.
file=<name>— resolves like a wikilink (name only, no path or extension needed)path=<path>— exact path from vault root, e.g.folder/note.md
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.
Documentation search patterns
The CLI is the primary mechanism for searching project documentation that lives in the vault — MOCs, skill notes, architecture docs, references, daily notes. Prefer it over grep/find/Read because it resolves wikilinks and aliases, respects the vault index (faster on large vaults), and emits paste-ready output via --copy.
[!warning] Verify before first use Some flag combinations below are not exemplified upstream and the CLI evolves. Run
obsidian help search(orhelp backlinks,help tags) once before first use of any row tagged (verify). If the combo errors, drop to the file-IO fallback in the last row of each pattern — never guess flags.
Probe once per session
obsidian --version 2>/dev/null && echo "cli=on" || echo "cli=off"
Cache the result. If cli=off, every recipe below has a grep/find/Read fallback.
Recipes by intent
| Intent | CLI command | Confidence | Fallback |
|---|---|---|---|
| Read a note by name (alias-aware) | obsidian read file="<note-name>" silent |
exemplified | Read tool on absolute path |
| Read a note by exact path | obsidian read path="Folder/Note.md" silent |
exemplified | Read tool |
| Full-text search across the vault | obsidian search query="<term>" limit=10 |
exemplified | grep -rn '<term>' <vaultRoot> |
| Scope search to one folder | obsidian search query="<term>" path="<folder>" |
verify | grep -rn '<term>' <vaultRoot>/<folder> |
| Filter by hierarchical tag (parent + children) | obsidian search tag="skill" or tag="skill/segurança-api" |
verify | grep -lrn '^ - skill' <vaultRoot> |
| Filter by language tag | obsidian search tag="lang/go" |
verify | grep -lrn '^ - lang/go' <vaultRoot> |
| Filter by frontmatter property (exact value) | obsidian search property="type=skill" |
verify | grep -lrn '^type: skill$' <vaultRoot> |
| Combine tag + property | obsidian search tag="skill" property="status=stable" |
verify | grep chain (grep -l ... | xargs grep -l ...) |
| Count without listing content | append total — e.g., obsidian search tag="skill" total |
exemplified for tags, verify for property | grep -lrn ... | wc -l |
| List all tags in vault with counts | obsidian tags sort=count counts |
exemplified | grep -hr '^ - ' <vaultRoot> | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn |
| Find what links to a note (graph-aware) | obsidian backlinks file="<note-name>" |
exemplified | `grep -lrn '[[]]|[[ |
| Resolve aliases | obsidian read file="<alias>" silent (the CLI walks the alias index) |
exemplified | (CLI required — aliases are not visible to plain grep) |
| Copy result to clipboard | append --copy to any read/search |
exemplified | ... | pbcopy (macOS) / ... | xclip (Linux) |
Targeting the right vault
If multiple vaults are open, lead the command with vault="<name>":
obsidian vault="ValarMindObsidian" search query="auth middleware" path="Projetos/ValarMindSkills"
Otherwise the most recently focused vault is used.
Token economy
| Flag | Why |
|---|---|
silent |
Prevents the vault from refocusing files in the UI — avoids losing the user's context. |
total |
Returns a count instead of full content. Use when the question is "how many?" not "which?". |
limit=N |
Caps search output at N hits. Default usually high enough to truncate large queries. |
--copy |
Sends output to clipboard instead of stdout. Use when the user asked for paste-ready text. |
Pair total with tag or property filters before read — confirm the cohort size first, then iterate only on the relevant subset.
Read-only folder reminder
Some projects mark folders as read-only via CLAUDE.md (e.g., Notes/, Inbox/). Read-only ≠ search-only — searches MAY include them and obsidian read/backlinks work fine; writes (create, append, property:set) must refuse those paths and surface the conflict. Always re-check the project's CLAUDE.md before any write under such a folder.
Project-memory use case
When the project keeps a knowledge graph at <vault>/<project>/brain/ (sessions, topics, decisions), see @obsidian-brain for the routing strategy between brain queries and general-doc queries. The CLI commands above are the I/O mechanism; @obsidian-brain is the orchestration layer.
Plugin development
Develop/test cycle
After making code changes to a plugin or theme, follow this workflow:
Reload the plugin to pick up changes:
obsidian plugin:reload id=my-pluginCheck for errors — if errors appear, fix and repeat from step 1:
obsidian dev:errorsVerify visually with a screenshot or DOM inspection:
obsidian dev:screenshot path=screenshot.png obsidian dev:dom selector=".workspace-leaf" textCheck console output for warnings or unexpected logs:
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.