Obsidian CLI Skill
Comprehensive reference for Obsidian's built-in CLI (80+ commands). Enables programmatic vault management, search, tag/property operations, link graph queries, and more.
Prerequisites
Usage Pattern
timeout 5 obsidian <command> [params] [flags]
timeout 5 obsidian vault=<name> <command>
| Syntax |
Description |
Example |
key=value |
Parameter |
query="search term" |
key="val spaces" |
Quoted parameter |
file="My Note" |
flagname |
Boolean flag |
total, verbose, counts |
file=<name> |
Target file (wikilink-style) |
file="Daily Note" |
path=<exact> |
Target file (exact path) |
path="folder/note.md" |
--copy |
Copy output to clipboard |
search query="x" --copy |
\n / \t |
Newline / tab in content |
content="line1\nline2" |
Output Formats
| Context |
Formats |
| Most list commands |
format=json|tsv|csv |
| Search |
format=text|json |
| Outline |
format=tree|md|json |
| Properties |
format=yaml|json|tsv |
| Base query |
format=json|csv|tsv|md|paths |
Command Reference
General
timeout 5 obsidian version
timeout 5 obsidian help
timeout 5 obsidian help search
timeout 5 obsidian reload
timeout 5 obsidian restart
Files And Folders
| Command |
Key Params |
Description |
file |
file/path |
Show file info |
files |
folder, ext, total |
List vault files |
folder |
path, info |
Show folder info |
folders |
folder, total |
List vault folders |
open |
file/path, newtab |
Open a file in Obsidian GUI |
create |
name/path, content, template, overwrite, open |
Create or overwrite file |
read |
file/path |
Read file contents |
append |
file/path, content, inline |
Append to file |
prepend |
file/path, content, inline |
Prepend after frontmatter |
move |
file/path, to |
Move or rename file |
rename |
file/path, name |
Rename file and preserve ext |
delete |
file/path, permanent |
Delete file |
timeout 5 obsidian files total
timeout 5 obsidian files folder="Udacity" ext=md
timeout 5 obsidian read file="My Note"
timeout 5 obsidian create name="New Note" content="# Title\n\nContent"
timeout 5 obsidian append file="Daily" content="\n- New item" inline
timeout 5 obsidian move file="Old Name" to="new-folder"
timeout 5 obsidian open file="My Note" newtab
Daily Notes
timeout 5 obsidian daily
timeout 5 obsidian daily:path
timeout 5 obsidian daily:read
timeout 5 obsidian daily:append content="- Task done"
timeout 5 obsidian daily:prepend content="## Morning"
Search
timeout 5 obsidian search query="keyword"
timeout 5 obsidian search query="keyword" path="folder"
timeout 5 obsidian search query="keyword" limit=5 total
timeout 5 obsidian search query="keyword" case
timeout 5 obsidian search:context query="keyword"
timeout 5 obsidian search:open query="keyword"
Tags
timeout 5 obsidian tags total
timeout 5 obsidian tags total counts
timeout 5 obsidian tags file="My Note"
timeout 5 obsidian tag name="project" total
timeout 5 obsidian tag name="resume" verbose
Tasks
timeout 5 obsidian tasks total
timeout 5 obsidian tasks todo
timeout 5 obsidian tasks done
timeout 5 obsidian tasks file="Project"
timeout 5 obsidian task file="Note" line=5 toggle
timeout 5 obsidian task file="Note" line=5 done
Properties
timeout 5 obsidian properties total counts
timeout 5 obsidian properties file="My Note"
timeout 5 obsidian property:read name="status" file="Note"
timeout 5 obsidian property:set name="status" value="complete" file="Note"
timeout 5 obsidian property:set name="tags" value="tag1,tag2" type=list file="Note"
timeout 5 obsidian property:remove name="draft" file="Note"
timeout 5 obsidian aliases total
Links
timeout 5 obsidian backlinks file="My Note"
timeout 5 obsidian backlinks file="My Note" total
timeout 5 obsidian links file="My Note" total
timeout 5 obsidian unresolved total
timeout 5 obsidian unresolved counts verbose
timeout 5 obsidian orphans total
timeout 5 obsidian deadends total
Outline
timeout 5 obsidian outline file="My Note"
timeout 5 obsidian outline file="My Note" format=md
timeout 5 obsidian outline file="My Note" format=json
timeout 5 obsidian outline file="My Note" total
Bookmarks
timeout 5 obsidian bookmarks
timeout 5 obsidian bookmarks total verbose
timeout 5 obsidian bookmark file="My Note" title="Fav"
Templates
timeout 5 obsidian templates total
timeout 5 obsidian template:read name="daily" resolve title="Test"
timeout 5 obsidian template:insert name="daily"
Bases
timeout 5 obsidian bases
timeout 5 obsidian base:query file="projects" format=json
timeout 5 obsidian base:query file="tasks" format=csv
timeout 5 obsidian base:create file="projects" name="New Item" content="..."
Plugins
timeout 5 obsidian plugins
timeout 5 obsidian plugins filter=community versions
timeout 5 obsidian plugins:enabled
timeout 5 obsidian plugin id="dataview"
timeout 5 obsidian plugin:enable id="dataview"
timeout 5 obsidian plugin:disable id="dataview"
timeout 5 obsidian plugin:install id="dataview" enable
timeout 5 obsidian plugin:uninstall id="dataview"
Themes And Snippets
timeout 5 obsidian themes
timeout 5 obsidian theme
timeout 5 obsidian theme:set name="Minimal"
timeout 5 obsidian snippets
timeout 5 obsidian snippet:enable name="custom"
Command Palette And Hotkeys
timeout 5 obsidian commands
timeout 5 obsidian command id="editor:toggle-bold"
timeout 5 obsidian hotkeys total
timeout 5 obsidian hotkey id="editor:toggle-bold"
Vault And Workspace
timeout 5 obsidian vault
timeout 5 obsidian vaults verbose
timeout 5 obsidian workspace
timeout 5 obsidian workspaces
timeout 5 obsidian workspace:save name="coding"
timeout 5 obsidian workspace:load name="coding"
timeout 5 obsidian tabs
timeout 5 obsidian recents total
Sync And History
timeout 5 obsidian sync:status
timeout 5 obsidian sync off
timeout 5 obsidian sync on
timeout 5 obsidian sync:history file="Note" total
timeout 5 obsidian history file="Note"
timeout 5 obsidian history:restore file="Note" version=3
timeout 5 obsidian diff file="Note" from=1 to=3
Other
timeout 5 obsidian random
timeout 5 obsidian random:read
timeout 5 obsidian wordcount file="Note"
timeout 5 obsidian web url="https://example.com"
Developer
timeout 5 obsidian devtools
timeout 5 obsidian dev:errors
timeout 5 obsidian dev:screenshot path="/tmp/shot.png"
timeout 5 obsidian eval code="app.vault.getFiles().length"
Common Workflows
Vault Health Check
timeout 5 obsidian vault
timeout 5 obsidian unresolved total
timeout 5 obsidian orphans total
timeout 5 obsidian deadends total
Tag-Based Queries
timeout 5 obsidian tags total counts
timeout 5 obsidian tag name="resume" verbose
timeout 5 obsidian search query="#project"
Property Bulk Operations
timeout 5 obsidian property:read name="status" file="Project"
timeout 5 obsidian property:set name="status" value="complete" file="Project"
timeout 5 obsidian property:set name="tags" value="done,archived" type=list file="Project"
Daily Note Workflow
timeout 5 obsidian daily:append content="\n## $(date +%H:%M) Update\n- Task completed"
timeout 5 obsidian daily:read
CLI Vs Direct File Access
| Operation |
Best Tool |
Reason |
| Create or edit notes |
Direct file write |
Faster, no timeout risk |
| Batch file ops |
Direct file system |
More reliable for bulk |
| Search content |
CLI search or grep |
CLI uses Obsidian's index |
| Tag queries |
CLI tags or tag |
Only CLI has tag index |
| Property CRUD |
CLI property:* |
Atomic, no parse errors |
| Backlinks or orphans |
CLI backlinks or orphans |
Only CLI has link graph |
| Open in GUI |
CLI open |
Opens specific file |
| Plugin management |
CLI plugin:* |
Only way from terminal |
Troubleshooting
| Issue |
Fix |
Unable to connect to main process |
killall Obsidian && sleep 2 && open -a Obsidian && sleep 5 |
| CLI hangs |
Always use timeout 5 prefix |
| Wrong vault |
Use vault=<name> as first param |
| Command not found |
Check obsidian help for latest commands |
| Empty output |
Some commands return empty on success; check with total flag |
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