Obsidian Skill

Obsidian CLI

Use the CLI for behavior that depends on Obsidian's running application, indexes, settings, command registry, or developer runtime. Use normal filesystem tools for ordinary file operations.

Resolve and probe the CLI

Do not assume one executable name. Obsidian registration and packaging differ by platform and release, and unrelated third-party binaries may use the same name. Select a candidate only when its version probe succeeds.

On macOS/Linux:

resolve_obsidian_cli() {
  local candidate
  for candidate in \
    "${COPILOT_OBSIDIAN_CLI:-}" \
    /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS/obsidian-cli \
    "$(command -v obsidian 2>/dev/null || true)" \
    "$(command -v obsidian-cli 2>/dev/null || true)"
  do
    [[ -n "$candidate" && -x "$candidate" ]] || continue
    if "$candidate" version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
      printf '%s\n' "$candidate"
      return 0
    fi
  done
  return 1
}

OBSIDIAN_CLI=$(resolve_obsidian_cli) || {
  echo "Obsidian CLI unavailable" >&2
  exit 1
}
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" version

On PowerShell:

$candidates = @(
  $env:COPILOT_OBSIDIAN_CLI,
  (Get-Command obsidian -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Source,
  (Get-Command obsidian-cli -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Source
) | Where-Object { $_ }

$OBSIDIAN_CLI = $candidates | Where-Object {
  try { & $_ version *> $null; $LASTEXITCODE -eq 0 } catch { $false }
} | Select-Object -First 1

if (-not $OBSIDIAN_CLI) { throw "Obsidian CLI unavailable" }
& $OBSIDIAN_CLI version

If the probe fails, ask the user to open a compatible Obsidian release, enable Settings > General > Command line interface, complete its registration, and restart the terminal. Do not install Obsidian, change PATH, or register the CLI without explicit user intent.

Use the resolved executable in place of obsidian in all reference examples:

"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vaults
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" help search

Target the vault precisely

Use vault="<name-or-id>" whenever the target is known. Never embed a personal vault name or machine path in this skill.

"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" search query="project deadline" format=json
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" backlinks path="Projects/Plan.md" format=json

Use path= for an exact vault-relative path. Use file= only when Obsidian's wikilink-style name resolution is wanted. Quote values containing spaces or shell-special characters. Inspect live help before relying on syntax not shown by the installed version:

"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" help <command>

Core operations

# Read and write
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" read path="Projects/Roadmap.md"
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" append path="Journal.md" content="- New entry"

# Search and metadata
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" search query="API" limit=10 format=json
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" properties path="Projects/Roadmap.md"

# Configured daily note and indexed tasks
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" daily:append content="- 2pm: Call" silent
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" tasks all todo

# Live workspace
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" tabs ids
"$OBSIDIAN_CLI" vault="<vault-name>" workspace ids

Preserve the host session

Never reload or restart the Obsidian app/window from an agent session. Never reload, disable, or uninstall the plugin hosting the current agent session. Avoid equivalent command, JavaScript, or developer-tool actions. These can terminate the session and discard in-flight work.

Require explicit user intent before permanent deletion, local-history or Sync restoration, publishing or unpublishing, plugin/theme installation or removal, restricted-mode changes, or mutating JavaScript/developer calls. Prefer reversible operations. The command references describe capabilities; they do not authorize mutations.

Reference guides

Read only the guide relevant to the task. Treat obsidian in their examples as the resolved $OBSIDIAN_CLI executable and add vault="<name-or-id>" when the target is known.