laurigates Obsidian Bases
When to Use This Skill
| Use this skill when... | Use the alternative instead when... |
|---|---|
| Querying notes that share a Base view (status board, reading list, project tracker) | Doing a free-text search across the vault — use search-discovery |
| Creating a new entry that should land in a specific Base view | Creating an arbitrary note — use vault-files |
Listing what .base files and views exist in the vault |
Reading frontmatter on a single note — use properties |
Bases turn note collections into queryable views with frontmatter-driven filters and columns. The CLI exposes those views as structured data — JSON for the agent, CSV/TSV for piping, markdown for rendering.
Prerequisites
- Obsidian desktop v1.12.4+ with CLI enabled
- Obsidian must be running
- At least one
.basefile in the vault
List Bases and Views
# List all .base files in the vault
obsidian bases
# List the views defined in a base (default: active base)
obsidian base:views file=Reading
obsidian base:views path="Bases/Reading.base"
Query a View
base:query runs a view and returns rows. Default format is JSON, which is
the right choice for agentic consumption.
# Query the active view of the active base
obsidian base:query
# Specific base + view, JSON for parsing
obsidian base:query file=Reading view="To read" format=json
# Markdown table for human consumption
obsidian base:query file=Reading view="To read" format=md
# Just the matching note paths (one per line, useful with xargs)
obsidian base:query file=Projects view=Active format=paths
# CSV for spreadsheet workflows
obsidian base:query file=Tasks view=Open format=csv
The format=paths mode is the agentic-friendly equivalent of a vault search
that already understands base filters — pipe the output into obsidian read
or any file-level skill.
Create an Entry in a Base
Create a new note that automatically lands in a base view (the base's filter must match the new note's frontmatter for it to actually appear):
# Add to the active base view
obsidian base:create name="Untitled Book"
# Specific base + view, with starting content
obsidian base:create file=Reading view="To read" name="The Mythical Man-Month" content="# The Mythical Man-Month\n\n"
# Open the new note in a new tab after creating
obsidian base:create file=Reading view="To read" name="New entry" newtab open
Common Patterns
"Find every active project and append a status update"
obsidian base:query file=Projects view=Active format=paths \
| while read -r path; do
obsidian append path="$path" content="\n## $(date +%F) update\n- "
done
"Show me a markdown table of incomplete reading"
obsidian base:query file=Reading view="To read" format=md
"Bulk-create entries from a CSV"
Read each row, then call base:create per row with the desired name= and
content=. Avoid embedding shell operators inside the CLI invocation —
build values in shell variables first, then pass them.
Agentic Optimizations
| Context | Command |
|---|---|
List .base files |
obsidian bases |
| List views in a base | obsidian base:views file=X |
| Query a view as JSON | obsidian base:query file=X view=Y format=json |
| Get matching paths only | obsidian base:query file=X view=Y format=paths |
| Markdown table for humans | obsidian base:query file=X view=Y format=md |
| Create entry in a view | obsidian base:create file=X view=Y name="…" |
Related Skills
- vault-files — Read/write notes returned by a base query
- properties — Edit frontmatter that drives base filters
- search-discovery — Free-text and tag search when no base exists