Obsidian 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

References

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