Obsidian Automation

Purpose

This skill automates Obsidian vault operations that are tedious to perform manually through the GUI. It bridges the gap between Obsidian's visual interface and the command line, scripting layer, and external tools.

Automation tasks include: opening notes and performing actions (insert template, navigate, toggle pins), reading vault metadata without opening Obsidian, batch creating or modifying notes, integrating vault content with other applications, and running scheduled maintenance scripts.

The primary automation vector is the Obsidian CLI — a community-built command-line interface that communicates with Obsidian via its Local REST API plugin. Secondary automation paths include shell scripts operating on .md files directly, and native scripting with Obsidian's built-in Templater or DataviewJS plugins.

When to Use

Invoke this skill when:

• The user wants to open a specific note in Obsidian from the command line
• The user wants to programmatically insert text or templates into notes
• The user needs to batch-process many notes at once (rename, update frontmatter, create from a list)
• The user asks to automate a repetitive task they currently do manually in Obsidian
• The user wants to integrate Obsidian with shell scripts, CI/CD, or other applications
• The user needs vault-wide search or replace operations beyond what Obsidian's GUI offers
• The user wants to run daily/weekly vault maintenance (archive old notes, generate indexes)
• The user mentions "Obsidian CLI", "Local REST API", "obsidian-local-rest-api", or automation

Do NOT use this skill when:

• The task only requires editing a single note's content — edit the .md file directly
• The user needs to change frontmatter properties on one note — use obsidian-frontmatter instead
• The user is asking about wikilink management — use obsidian-links instead
• The Obsidian CLI is not installed and the task does not require it (simple file operations can work without CLI)

Automation Tools Overview

Obsidian CLI (via Local REST API)

The Obsidian Local REST API plugin exposes an HTTP API on localhost:27123 (default). The obsidian-cli npm package wraps this API with a command-line interface.

Installation:

# Install the Local REST API plugin in Obsidian (Community Plugins)
# Then install the CLI wrapper:
npm install -g obsidian-cli

# Or use via npx:
npx obsidian-cli --help

Configuration:

# Set the API key (found in Local REST API plugin settings)
export OBSIDIAN_API_KEY="your-key-here"

# Or pass per command:
obsidian-cli --api-key "your-key" <command>

Core commands:

# Open a note
obsidian-cli open "Daily Notes/2024-01-15"

# Get note content
obsidian-cli get "Projects/Project Alpha"

# Create or update a note
obsidian-cli put "Daily Notes/2024-01-15" --content "$(cat template.md)"

# Append to a note
obsidian-cli append "Daily Notes/2024-01-15" --content "- New task item"

# Search the vault
obsidian-cli search "query string"

# List notes in a folder
obsidian-cli list "Projects/"

# Delete a note
obsidian-cli delete "Archive/Old Note"

Direct File Operations (Shell)

Many vault tasks do not require the CLI and can be done with standard shell tools on the .md files directly:

# Find all notes lacking frontmatter
grep -rL "^---" <vault-root>/*.md

# Count notes by tag
grep -rh "^  - " <vault-root>/**/*.md | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head 20

# Update a frontmatter field across all notes in a folder
find <vault-root>/Projects -name "*.md" -exec sed -i '' \
  's/^status: planning$/status: active/' {} \;

# Create a note if it does not exist
NOTE="<vault-root>/Daily Notes/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).md"
[[ ! -f "$NOTE" ]] && cat daily-template.md > "$NOTE"

Templater Plugin (In-Vault Scripting)

The Templater community plugin allows JavaScript execution inside note templates. Useful for:

• Generating dynamic dates and wikilinks
• Fetching external data (weather, calendar)
• Prompting for user input during note creation

Templater syntax:

<% tp.date.now("YYYY-MM-DD") %>
<% tp.file.title %>
<% await tp.system.prompt("Project name?") %>

Workflow

Step 0: Detect Available Automation Tools

Before scripting, determine what is available:

# Check if obsidian-cli is installed
which obsidian-cli 2>/dev/null || npx obsidian-cli --version 2>/dev/null

# Check if Obsidian is running (Local REST API must be active)
curl -s http://localhost:27123/vault/ -H "Authorization: Bearer $OBSIDIAN_API_KEY" | head -5

# Check Templater plugin (look for .js files in vault's scripts folder)
find <vault-root> -name "*.js" -path "*/scripts/*" 2>/dev/null | head 5

If neither the CLI nor the Local REST API is available, tell the user:

• "The Obsidian CLI requires the Local REST API plugin to be installed and Obsidian to be running."
• Offer to proceed with direct file operations (no Obsidian required, works on .md files).

Step 1: Understand the Automation Goal

Classify the task into one of these categories:

Step 2: Generate the Automation Script

For simple one-off tasks, output a single command. For multi-step automation, output a shell script with comments:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Purpose: Create daily notes for the next 7 days from a template
# Requirements: vault-root set, template.md exists
# Usage: ./create-daily-notes.sh /path/to/vault /path/to/template.md

VAULT="${1:?Usage: $0 <vault-root> <template>}"
TEMPLATE="${2:?Usage: $0 <vault-root> <template>}"
FOLDER="$VAULT/Daily Notes"

mkdir -p "$FOLDER"

for i in $(seq 0 6); do
  DATE=$(date -v+${i}d +%Y-%m-%d 2>/dev/null || date -d "+${i} days" +%Y-%m-%d)
  FILE="$FOLDER/$DATE.md"
  if [[ ! -f "$FILE" ]]; then
    sed "s/{{date}}/$DATE/g" "$TEMPLATE" > "$FILE"
    echo "Created: $FILE"
  else
    echo "Exists:  $FILE (skipped)"
  fi
done

Key scripting principles:

• Use #!/usr/bin/env bash shebang
• Validate required arguments and environment variables at the top
• Echo each action (created, updated, skipped) for visibility
• Use --dry-run mode where possible before applying changes
• Never operate on the vault without verifying $VAULT path

Step 3: Handle Obsidian-Specific Operations

Creating notes with proper frontmatter: When scripting note creation, always write a complete frontmatter block at the top of the file template. Pass it through sed or envsubst to inject dynamic values.

Batch frontmatter updates: Use awk or python for reliable YAML frontmatter manipulation. Avoid sed for multi-line YAML edits — it's error-prone.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Update the status field in all project notes."""
import os, re, sys

vault = sys.argv[1]
new_status = sys.argv[2]

for root, dirs, files in os.walk(vault):
    for f in files:
        if not f.endswith('.md'): continue
        path = os.path.join(root, f)
        with open(path, 'r') as fp:
            content = fp.read()
        if not content.startswith('---'): continue
        updated = re.sub(r'^status: \w+', f'status: {new_status}', content, flags=re.MULTILINE)
        if updated != content:
            with open(path, 'w') as fp:
                fp.write(updated)
            print(f"Updated: {path}")

Vault maintenance — archive old notes:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Move notes not modified in 90+ days to Archive/
VAULT="${1:?}"
ARCHIVE="$VAULT/Archive"
mkdir -p "$ARCHIVE"

find "$VAULT" -name "*.md" -not -path "$ARCHIVE/*" -mtime +90 | while read -r f; do
  echo "Archiving: $f"
  mv "$f" "$ARCHIVE/$(basename "$f")"
done

Step 4: Dry-Run First

Always offer a dry-run mode before making changes:

• Add echo "Would create: $FILE" before actual operations
• --dry-run flag pattern: check [[ "$1" == "--dry-run" ]] before writes
• For destructive operations (delete, overwrite), default to dry-run unless -f flag is explicit

Step 5: Report Results

At the end of any automation script, output a summary count:

Vault maintenance complete:
  Notes created: 7
  Notes updated: 23
  Notes archived: 4
  Errors: 0

Common Automation Recipes

Open today's daily note in Obsidian:

obsidian-cli open "Daily Notes/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"

Create a new note from a template:

TITLE="Meeting with Alice - $(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
obsidian-cli put "Meetings/$TITLE" --content "$(cat meeting-template.md)"
obsidian-cli open "Meetings/$TITLE"

Append to the inbox note:

read -rp "Quick note: " QUICK_NOTE
obsidian-cli append "Inbox" --content "- $(date +%H:%M) — $QUICK_NOTE"

Find all notes without a status property:

grep -rL "^status:" <vault-root>/**/*.md

Generate an index of all project notes:

echo "# Project Index\n" > "$VAULT/Projects/Index.md"
find "$VAULT/Projects" -name "*.md" -not -name "Index.md" | sort | while read -r f; do
  TITLE=$(basename "$f" .md)
  echo "- [[$TITLE]]" >> "$VAULT/Projects/Index.md"
done

Critical Rules

NEVER:

• Run destructive operations (delete, overwrite, move) without a dry-run confirmation step
• Hardcode the vault path in a script — always accept it as an argument or read from an environment variable
• Modify binary files or non-.md files inside a vault directory
• Use the Local REST API key in plain text in scripts committed to version control

ALWAYS:

• Check that Obsidian is running before using the CLI (the Local REST API must be active)
• Validate the vault path exists before operating on it
• Make a backup or test on a copy of the vault when running bulk modifications for the first time
• Use the --dry-run pattern before applying irreversible changes
• Document the script's purpose, requirements, and usage in a comment header

Example Usage

Example 1: Open today's daily note

User: "Open today's daily note."

obsidian-cli open "Daily Notes/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"

If the note does not exist, create it from a template first:

DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
NOTE="Daily Notes/$DATE"
# Create if missing
obsidian-cli list "$NOTE" 2>/dev/null || obsidian-cli put "$NOTE" --content "$(sed "s/{{date}}/$DATE/g" daily-template.md)"
obsidian-cli open "$NOTE"

Example 2: Batch-create meeting notes

User: "Create meeting notes for Alice, Bob, and Carol scheduled for today."

DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
for PERSON in "Alice" "Bob" "Carol"; do
  TITLE="Meeting with $PERSON - $DATE"
  obsidian-cli put "Meetings/$TITLE" \
    --content "---
title: $TITLE
date: $DATE
attendees:
  - \"[[$PERSON]]\"
tags:
  - meeting
status: scheduled
---

## Agenda

## Notes

## Action Items
"
  echo "Created: $TITLE"
done

Example 3: Vault search from CLI

User: "Find all notes that mention 'OKR' in my vault."

obsidian-cli search "OKR"
# Or with direct grep:
grep -rl "OKR" <vault-root> --include="*.md"

Example 4: Archive old inbox items

User: "Move all items in my Inbox folder older than 2 weeks to the Archive."

find "$VAULT/Inbox" -name "*.md" -mtime +14 | while read -r f; do
  DEST="$VAULT/Archive/$(basename "$f")"
  echo "Archiving: $f → $DEST"
  # Add --execute flag to actually move:
  # mv "$f" "$DEST"
done
echo "Run with --execute to apply changes."

Example 5: Nightly maintenance script

User: "Create a nightly script that: creates tomorrow's daily note, appends today's done tasks to a weekly review note."

Output: A full bash script with both operations, date calculations, template injection, and a summary log at the end.