Obsidian CLI

Obsidian CLI — Knowledge Management Skill

Use the obsidian CLI to interact with a running Obsidian instance from the terminal. The CLI connects to the running app and provides access to Obsidian-native capabilities: search indexing, the link graph, template variable resolution, frontmatter-aware property management, and task checkbox semantics.

Prerequisites

• Obsidian 1.12+ must be running (CLI connects to the running instance)
• CLI enabled: Settings > General > Enable "Command line interface"
• Binary: /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS/obsidian (added to PATH via ~/.zprofile)

If the CLI returns connection errors, ask the user to ensure Obsidian is running.

When to Use CLI vs. Native Tools

Use the Obsidian CLI for:

Use native tools (Read, Write, Grep, Glob) for:

• Bulk file reads or multi-file edits
• Regex-based content search across many files
• File creation without templates
• Structural code or markdown changes
• Reading file contents when you need line numbers for Edit tool

Combine both when appropriate — e.g., use CLI search to find relevant files, then Read to inspect and Edit to modify.

Syntax Conventions

obsidian <command> [parameter=value ...] [flags ...]

• Parameters take values: parameter=value or parameter="value with spaces"
• Flags are boolean switches with no value: silent, overwrite, total, verbose
• Multiline content: use \n for newline, \t for tab
• Vault targeting: vault=<name> must be the first parameter: obsidian vault=Notes daily
• File targeting: file=<name> resolves like wikilinks (name without path/extension); path=<path> requires exact path from vault root
• Copy output: add --copy to any command to copy output to clipboard
• Output formats: many commands support format=json|text|csv|tsv|md|yaml|paths

Command Reference

Daily Notes

Flags: paneType=tab|split|window, inline, silent

# Read today's daily note
obsidian daily:read

# Add a task to today's note
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Review pull requests"

# Prepend a heading inline (no blank line separator)
obsidian daily:prepend content="## Morning Tasks" inline

Search & Discovery

Search parameters: path=<folder>, limit=<n>, format=text|json, total, matches, case

Tags parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, sort=count, all, total, counts

Link commands parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, counts, total, verbose

# Full-text search limited to a folder
obsidian search query="meeting notes" path=Work limit=10

# All tags with counts, sorted by frequency
obsidian tags all counts sort=count

# Files linking to a specific note
obsidian backlinks file="Project Alpha"

# Find broken links
obsidian unresolved verbose

# Find orphaned notes
obsidian orphans

Reading & Writing

Create parameters: path=<path>, content=<text>, template=<name>, overwrite, silent, newtab

# Create a note from a template
obsidian create name="Trip to Paris" path=Travel template=Travel

# Append a section to an existing note
obsidian append file="Meeting Notes" content="\n## Action Items\n- [ ] Follow up with team"

# Read a specific file
obsidian read path="Projects/Alpha/status.md"

Task Management

Tasks parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, status="<char>", all, daily, total, done, todo, verbose

Task parameters: ref=<path:line>, file=<name>, path=<path>, line=<n>, status="<char>", toggle, daily, done, todo

# List incomplete tasks from daily note
obsidian tasks daily todo

# List all completed tasks
obsidian tasks done

# Count tasks in a file
obsidian tasks file="Sprint 12" total

# List tasks with file paths and line numbers
obsidian tasks verbose

# Toggle a task checkbox
obsidian task ref="Recipe.md:8" toggle

# Mark a daily note task as done
obsidian task daily line=3 done

# Set a custom status character
obsidian task file=Recipe line=8 status=-

# Filter by custom status
obsidian tasks 'status=?'

Properties (Frontmatter)

Properties parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, name=<name>, sort=count, format=yaml|tsv, all, total, counts

Property:set parameters: type=text|list|number|checkbox|date|datetime, file=<name>, path=<path>

# List all properties used in vault with counts
obsidian properties all counts sort=count

# Set a typed property
obsidian property:set file="Project Alpha" name=status value=active type=text

# Set a date property
obsidian property:set file="Meeting" name=date value=2026-02-13 type=date

# Read a property
obsidian property:read file="Project Alpha" name=status

# Remove a property
obsidian property:remove file="Old Note" name=deprecated-field

Templates

Template:read flags: title=<title>, resolve (processes {{date}}, {{time}}, {{title}})

# List templates
obsidian templates

# Preview a template with variables resolved
obsidian template:read name=Meeting resolve title="Sprint Planning"

# Create a file using a template
obsidian create name="Weekly Review" path=Reviews template="Weekly Review"

File & Folder Info

Files parameters: folder=<path>, ext=<extension>, total

Folder parameters: info=files|folders|size

Outline parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, format=tree|md, total

Wordcount parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, words, characters

# List all markdown files in a folder
obsidian files folder=Projects ext=md

# Get heading structure
obsidian outline file="Architecture Doc" format=tree

# Count words
obsidian wordcount file="Draft Post"

# Folder size info
obsidian folder path=Attachments info=size

Vault Maintenance

Move parameters: path=<path>

Delete flags: permanent

Bookmark parameters: subpath=<subpath>, folder=<path>, search=<query>, url=<url>, title=<title>

# Move a file
obsidian move file="Old Note" to="Archive/Old Note.md"

# Delete to trash
obsidian delete file="Scratch"

# Bookmark a file
obsidian bookmark file="Projects/Alpha/README.md" title="Alpha Project"

Version History

Diff parameters: file=<name>, path=<path>, from=<n>, to=<n>, filter=local|sync

# Compare latest version to current file
obsidian diff file=Recipe from=1

# Compare two historical versions
obsidian diff file=Recipe from=2 to=1

# List version history
obsidian history file="Important Doc"

# Read a specific version
obsidian history:read file="Important Doc" version=2

# Restore a previous version
obsidian history:restore file="Important Doc" version=3

Vault Info

obsidian vault
obsidian vault info=name

Common Patterns

Daily Task Review

# See today's tasks
obsidian tasks daily

# See incomplete tasks across vault
obsidian tasks todo

# Mark tasks done
obsidian task daily line=5 done

Orphan Cleanup

# Find orphaned notes (no incoming links)
obsidian orphans

# For each orphan, check if it should be linked or archived
obsidian backlinks file="Orphan Note"
obsidian move file="Orphan Note" to="Archive/Orphan Note.md"

Link Health Audit

# Find broken links
obsidian unresolved verbose

# Find dead-end notes (no outgoing links)
obsidian deadends

# Check specific file's connections
obsidian backlinks file="Hub Note" counts
obsidian links file="Hub Note"

Tag Inventory

# Full tag report
obsidian tags all counts sort=count

# Find files with a specific tag
obsidian tag name=project-alpha verbose

Template-Based Note Creation

# List available templates
obsidian templates

# Create note from template
obsidian create name="Client Meeting 2026-02-13" path=Meetings template=Meeting

# Append to newly created note
obsidian append file="Client Meeting 2026-02-13" content="\n## Notes\n- Discussed timeline"

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