Obsidian Clis

Obsidian CLIs

CLIs here means two terminal interfaces: the Obsidian app CLI (obsidian, primary) and notesmd-cli (filesystem fallback when obsidian is not available). There is no separate invocation mode—pick the binary that exists in the environment.

Which binary to use

1. If obsidian is on PATH, use it for all workflows below (richer surface: links, Bases, tasks, plugin dev).
2. If obsidian is missing but notesmd-cli is on PATH, follow notesmd-fallback.md for headless vault operations.
3. If neither is available, say so and fall back to direct file edits, MCP, or other vault tools the user provides.

CLI availability

Before relying on either tool, confirm install with command -v obsidian and command -v notesmd-cli (or which) when the environment is unknown. Do not assume either binary is present.

If sandboxed obsidian cannot find the running app, retry outside the sandbox before falling back.

Obsidian app CLI

Run obsidian <command> to control a running Obsidian instance from the terminal. The app must be running for most commands; the first command will launch Obsidian if not open.

Run obsidian help or obsidian help <command> for the canonical, always-up-to-date command reference. This skill documents common patterns and non-obvious behaviors.

Targeting vaults and files

• Vault: vault=<name> as first parameter. Default: cwd if it's a vault folder, else the active vault.
• File: file=<name> resolves like a wikilink (name only, no path or extension needed). path=<path> for exact path from vault root.
• TUI: Run obsidian with no args for interactive mode; omit the obsidian prefix inside.

Parameters and flags

• Parameters: param=value. Quote values with spaces: content="Hello world".
• Flags: Boolean, no value: silent, overwrite, newtab.
• Multiline content: Use \n for newlines, \t for tabs in content=.

Search, links, and structure

obsidian search query="text" [path=folder] [limit=n] [format=text|json] [total] [case]
obsidian search:context query="text" [path=folder] [limit=n]  # includes surrounding context
obsidian links [file=Note] [total]
obsidian backlinks [file=Note] [counts] [total]
obsidian outline [file=Note] [format=tree|md]
obsidian orphans [total] [active]       # notes with no links to or from them
obsidian deadends [total] [active]      # notes with no outgoing links
obsidian unresolved [total] [counts] [verbose]  # broken wikilinks
obsidian tags [active] [file=Note] [total] [counts] [sort=count]
obsidian tag name=project [total] [verbose]

Common patterns

Notes and content

To peek at a note without reading its full content, use property:read or properties file=Note.

obsidian read file="Note" # Use this to read the content of a wikilink
obsidian create name="Note" content="# Title\n\nBody" [template=Name] [overwrite] [silent]
obsidian append file="Note" content="- [ ] Task"
obsidian prepend file="Note" content="# Header\n"
obsidian move file="Note" to=folder/newpath.md
obsidian rename file="Note" name="New file name"
obsidian delete file="Note"

Daily notes (Daily notes plugin)

obsidian daily:read
obsidian daily [paneType=tab|split|window] [open]
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Buy groceries" [inline] [open]
obsidian daily:prepend content="- [ ] Morning routine" [inline]  # goes after frontmatter
obsidian daily:path  # returns expected path even if file doesn't exist yet

Tasks

obsidian tasks [daily] [file=Note] [todo] [done] [status="x"] [total] [verbose]
obsidian task ref=path:line [toggle] [done] [todo] [daily]

Properties and frontmatter

obsidian properties [active] [file=Note] [total] [counts] [format=yaml|json|tsv]
obsidian property:read name=status [file=Note]
obsidian property:set name=status value=done [file=Note]
obsidian property:remove name=status [file=Note]

Bases (Bases plugin)

obsidian bases
obsidian base:views [file=base.base]
obsidian base:query [file=base.base] [view=name] [format=json|csv|tsv|md|paths]
obsidian base:create name="Item" content="..." [open] [newtab]

Plugin development

Develop/test cycle

After making code changes to a plugin or theme, follow this workflow:

1. Reload the plugin to pick up changes:

   obsidian plugin:reload id=my-plugin
   

2. Check for errors — if errors appear, fix and repeat from step 1:

   obsidian dev:errors
   

3. Verify visually with a screenshot or DOM inspection:

   obsidian dev:screenshot path=screenshot.png
   obsidian dev:dom selector=".workspace-leaf" text
   

4. 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

Quick reference (Obsidian app CLI)

For notesmd-cli, see notesmd-fallback.md.

References

• obsidian help — full command list (always up to date)
• obsidian help <command> — help for a specific command