Obsidian CLI

Controls the running Obsidian app via IPC. First invocation launches Obsidian if not running.

Prerequisites

Install Obsidian 1.12+
Enable CLI: Settings → General → Command line interface → follow registration prompt
Restart terminal (registration adds obsidian to PATH automatically)

Platform-specific PATH details:

macOS: appends /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS to ~/.zprofile
Linux: symlink at /usr/local/bin/obsidian (fallback ~/.local/bin/obsidian)
Windows: requires Obsidian.com redirector from Discord #insider-desktop-release

Syntax

obsidian <command> [vault=<name>] [file=<name>] [path=<path>] [flags] [--copy]

Pattern	Behavior
`vault=<name>`	Target vault by name; defaults to cwd vault or active vault
`file=<name>`	Wikilink-style resolution (no path/extension needed)
`path=<path>`	Exact vault-relative path, e.g. `path="Folder/Note.md"`
`total`	Return count instead of list
`format=json\|text\|csv\|tsv\|md`	Output format (varies per command)
`--copy`	Copy any command's output to clipboard
`\n` / `\t`	Newline / tab in content strings
No file/path	Defaults to active file in Obsidian
Bare `obsidian`	Opens interactive TUI with autocomplete + `Ctrl+R` history

Quick start

These five operations cover most agent tasks. For complete command reference, see the domain-specific guides below.

Read a note

obsidian read file="Meeting Notes"
obsidian read path="Projects/Roadmap.md"
obsidian read                              # active file

Create a note

obsidian create name="New Note" content="# Title\n\nBody"
obsidian create name="From Template" template="Meeting Notes" silent

Append / prepend

obsidian append file="Journal" content="- New entry"
obsidian prepend file="Ideas" content="## Latest idea"
obsidian daily:append content="- 2pm: Call with team" silent

Search

obsidian search query="project deadline"
obsidian search query="API" limit=10 format=json
obsidian search query="fix" matches         # include context

Tasks

obsidian tasks all todo                     # vault-wide incomplete
obsidian tasks daily                        # today's daily note
obsidian task file="Todo" line=8 toggle     # toggle completion

Reference guides

Load these on demand based on the task:

Task	Reference
Read, create, edit, move, delete notes; outline; word count; unique notes	references/note-operations.md
Search, tags, properties, backlinks, orphans, unresolved links, aliases	references/search-metadata.md
Daily notes, tasks, templates	references/daily-tasks-templates.md
Vault info, files/folders, bookmarks, plugins, workspaces, themes, sync, publish, bases, dev tools	references/vault-management.md

obsidian-skill