Obsidian Cli
- 54.2k installs
- 43.5k repo stars
- Updated June 8, 2026
- kepano/obsidian-skills
obsidian-cli is a skill for automating Obsidian vault operations via command-line commands for notes, tasks, and plugin development.
About
This skill provides guidance for the Obsidian CLI, enabling command-line interaction with Obsidian vaults. It covers reading and writing notes, vault search, task and property management, daily note operations, and plugin/theme development. The skill requires Obsidian to be running and documents parameter syntax, file targeting, and common patterns for vault automation.
- Read, create, search, and manage notes, tasks, and properties via CLI
- Automate vault operations including daily notes, tag management, and backlinks
- Support plugin and theme development with reload, JavaScript execution, and DOM inspection
Obsidian Cli by the numbers
- 54,214 all-time installs (skills.sh)
- +3,041 installs in the week ending Jul 28, 2026 (Skillselion tracking)
- Ranked #38 of 3,301 Productivity & Planning skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
- Security screen: MEDIUM risk (skills.sh audit)
- Data as of Jul 28, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
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| Installs | 54.2k |
|---|---|
| repo stars | ★ 43.5k |
| Security audit | 2 / 3 scanners passed |
| Last updated | June 8, 2026 |
| Repository | kepano/obsidian-skills ↗ |
How do you manage Obsidian notes from CLI?
Automate Obsidian vault operations including note management, search, task tracking, and plugin development from the command line.
Who is it for?
Developers who keep specs, runbooks, and tasks in Obsidian and want agent-driven vault CRUD from the terminal.
Skip if: Headless note systems without Obsidian running, or teams standardized on Notion, Confluence, or plain Markdown repos only.
When should I use this skill?
User asks to search vault, create/edit Obsidian notes, manage tasks, or debug Obsidian plugins via CLI.
What you get
Vault reads/writes, task updates, search results, and plugin debug captures
- Note create/edit results
- Vault search output
- Plugin debug captures
Files
Obsidian CLI
Use the obsidian CLI to interact with a running Obsidian instance. Requires Obsidian to be open.
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 overwriteFor 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:
1. Reload the plugin to pick up changes:
obsidian plugin:reload id=my-plugin2. Check for errors — if errors appear, fix and repeat from step 1:
obsidian dev:errors3. Verify visually with a screenshot or DOM inspection:
obsidian dev:screenshot path=screenshot.png
obsidian dev:dom selector=".workspace-leaf" text4. Check console output for warnings or unexpected logs:
obsidian dev:console level=errorAdditional 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-colorToggle mobile emulation:
obsidian dev:mobile onRun obsidian help to see additional developer commands including CDP and debugger controls.
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Obsidian Cli has 3 known copies in the catalog totaling 252 installs. They canonicalize to this original listing.
- pedronauck - 155 installs
- guanyang - 96 installs
- brycewang-stanford - 1 installs
How it compares
Pick obsidian-cli for live vault automation with a running Obsidian app instead of raw Markdown file edits that bypass Obsidian APIs.
FAQ
Does obsidian-cli require Obsidian to be open?
obsidian-cli requires Obsidian to be running because the obsidian CLI communicates with an open Obsidian instance to read, create, search, and manage notes, tasks, properties, plugins, and themes.
What beyond note editing does obsidian-cli support?
obsidian-cli also supports Obsidian plugin and theme development helpers including plugin reload, JavaScript execution, error capture, screenshots, and DOM inspection through the obsidian command reference.
Is Obsidian Cli safe to install?
skills.sh reports 2 of 3 security scanners passed. Review the Security Audits panel on this page before installing in production.