iusztinpaul Obsidian CLI
Use the obsidian CLI to interact with a running Obsidian instance. Requires Obsidian to be open.
Install / Enable
Obsidian 1.12.7+ ships the CLI with the desktop app. Enable it in Obsidian: Settings > General > Advanced > Command line interface.
On Windows, the executable is commonly:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Obsidian\Obsidian.com
If obsidian is not on PATH but that executable works, either call it by full path or set
OBSIDIAN_CLI to that path. /research will also try this Windows default path during
preflight.
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.
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-plugin - Check for errors — if errors appear, fix and repeat from step 1:
obsidian dev:errors - Verify visually with a screenshot or DOM inspection:
obsidian dev:screenshot path=screenshot.png obsidian dev:dom selector=".workspace-leaf" text - Check 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.