Obsidian CLI

Use the obsidian CLI to interact with a running Obsidian instance. Requires Obsidian to be open.

REQUIRES: Obsidian 1.12+ with CLI enabled: Settings → General → Command line interface.

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 overwrite

For 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"

Command Reference

File Operations

obsidian files folder=<path> ext=md          # list files (replaces: Glob *.md)
obsidian files folder=base/categories ext=md # list categories
obsidian folders folder=<path>               # list subdirectories
obsidian read file="My Note"                 # read file contents
obsidian read path="folder/note.md"          # read by exact path
obsidian create name="New Note" content="# Hello" template="Template" silent
obsidian append path="folder/note.md" content="New line"
obsidian prepend file="My Note" content="New line"
obsidian move path="old/note.md" to="new/folder"
obsidian rename file="My Note" name="New Name"
obsidian delete path="folder/note.md"
obsidian delete path="folder/note.md" permanent  # skip trash

Search

obsidian search query="search term" limit=10          # file paths with matches
obsidian search query="text" path=base/notes limit=10 # scoped to folder
obsidian search:context query="text" path=base/notes  # grep-style with matching lines
obsidian search query="#task/inbox" path=periodic/daily  # find inbox tasks

Properties (Frontmatter)

obsidian properties path=folder/note.md             # read all properties of a file
obsidian property:read name="status" file="My Note" # read single property
obsidian property:set name="status" value="🟦" file="My Note"
obsidian property:set name="updated" value="2026-02-28" type=date file="My Note"
obsidian property:set name="tags" value="note/basic/primary" type=list file="My Note"
obsidian property:remove name="draft" file="My Note"

Tasks

obsidian tasks todo format=json               # all open tasks in vault, with metadata
obsidian tasks done format=json               # all completed tasks in vault
obsidian task ref="path/to/note.md:42" toggle # toggle a specific task

# Tasks in a folder — use search with Obsidian task operators (path= in tasks needs a file):
obsidian search:context query="task-todo:#task/inbox" path=periodic/daily   # open inbox tasks
obsidian search:context query="task-done:#task/inbox" path=periodic/daily   # completed inbox tasks
obsidian search query="- [ ]" path=periodic/daily       # open tasks (any, without tag filter)

Links & Graph

obsidian backlinks file="My Note"              # notes linking to this note
obsidian links file="My Note"                  # outgoing links from this note
obsidian unresolved                            # broken links in vault
obsidian orphans                               # notes with no incoming links
obsidian deadends                              # notes with no outgoing links
obsidian outline file="My Note" format=md      # headings structure

Recently Modified Files

obsidian recents                              # recently opened files (replaces: Glob sort by mtime)

DO NOT use base:query or other base:* commands — they require Obsidian UI rendering and return [] from CLI. Use obsidian search with [property: value] syntax instead.

Cross-Platform Date Calculations (replaces bash date / python3)

Use obsidian eval with JavaScript instead of OS-specific commands:

# Current date YYYY-MM-DD
obsidian eval code="new Date().toISOString().slice(0,10)"

# Current week ISO 8601 (replaces: date +%G-W%V)
obsidian eval code="(function(){const d=new Date();const dt=new Date(Date.UTC(d.getFullYear(),d.getMonth(),d.getDate()));const day=dt.getUTCDay()||7;dt.setUTCDate(dt.getUTCDate()+4-day);const y=dt.getUTCFullYear();const ys=new Date(Date.UTC(y,0,1));const w=Math.ceil(((dt-ys)/86400000+1)/7);return y+'-W'+String(w).padStart(2,'0')})()"

# Parent month of current week (replaces: date -j macOS-specific)
obsidian eval code="const d=new Date();d.getFullYear()+'-'+String(d.getMonth()+1).padStart(2,'0')"

# Current quarter + months (replaces: python3 quarter script)
obsidian eval code="const d=new Date();const q=Math.ceil((d.getMonth()+1)/3);const m1=(q-1)*3+1;const months=[0,1,2].map(i=>d.getFullYear()+'-'+String(m1+i).padStart(2,'0'));d.getFullYear()+'-Q'+q+' '+months.join(' ')"

# Days since a date
obsidian eval code="Math.floor((Date.now()-new Date('2026-01-01'))/86400000)"

Note: eval uses JavaScript without return keyword — the last expression is the result.

Daily Notes

obsidian daily:path                           # expected path for today's daily note
obsidian daily:read                           # read today's daily note
obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] New task"
obsidian daily:prepend content="New content"

Vault Info

obsidian vault                                # vault info
obsidian vaults                               # list all known vaults
obsidian version                              # Obsidian version

Common Patterns for Skills

Listing available categories (replaces: Glob base/categories/*.md)

obsidian files folder=base/categories ext=md
obsidian files folder=base/_meta-notes ext=md
obsidian files folder=base/_problems ext=md

Finding active projects (replaces: Grep "status: 🟦" in projects/)

# Combine tag: operator with [property: value] — searches entire vault, no path needed:
obsidian search query="tag:#project [status: 🟦]"
obsidian search query="tag:#project [status: 🟥]"

# IMPORTANT: bare #tag + [property: value] returns 0 — always use tag: operator
# tag: supports nested tags: tag:#project matches project/single, project/longform, etc.

# Without tag filter (includes subfolders recursively — may include longform scenes):
obsidian search query="[status: 🟦]" path=projects
obsidian search query="[status: 🟩]" path=projects

Finding inbox tasks across daily notes (replaces: Grep #task/inbox)

# Use task-todo:/task-done: operators to filter by checkbox status:
obsidian search:context query="task-todo:#task/inbox" path=periodic/daily   # open only
obsidian search:context query="task-done:#task/inbox" path=periodic/daily   # completed only
obsidian search:context query="#task/inbox" path=periodic/daily             # all (open + done)

Reading recently modified notes (replaces: Glob sorted by mtime)

obsidian recents

Updating a property after creating a note (replaces: Edit YAML manually)

obsidian property:set name="addition" value="[[My Addition|➕]]" type=list file="Parent Note"

Counting notes/tasks/sources by date (replaces: Grep "YYYY-MM-" in frontmatter)

# Notes created this month (works as partial date match in [property: value] syntax):
obsidian search query="[created: 2026-02]" path=base/notes total
obsidian search query="[created: 2026-02]" path=base/additions total

# Multiple property filters combined with space (AND logic):
obsidian search query="[status: 🟩] [end: 2026-02]" path=sources total

# Tasks completed this month (text search for ✅ date marker):
obsidian search query="✅ 2026-02" total

# Projects by status — use tag: to exclude longform scenes:
obsidian search query="tag:#project [status: 🟦]"   # in progress
obsidian search query="tag:#project [status: 🟥]"   # todo
obsidian search query="tag:#project [status: 🟩]"   # done

IMPORTANT: [property: value] syntax supports partial matching:

[created: 2026-02] — finds all files with created: starting with 2026-02
[status: 🟩] [end: 2026] — two property conditions combined (space = AND)
property: value (without brackets) → error "Operator not recognized"
#tag [property: value] combined → returns 0 (not supported)

Getting files by tag (replaces: Grep "#source/book" in sources/)

obsidian tag name="source/book" verbose      # all files with this tag + count
obsidian tag name="source/article/paper" verbose
obsidian tags sort=count counts              # all vault tags sorted by frequency

Plugin Development

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

Reload the plugin to pick up changes:
```
obsidian plugin:reload id=my-plugin
```
Check for errors — if errors appear, fix and repeat from step 1:
```
obsidian dev:errors
```

Verify visually with a screenshot or DOM inspection:

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

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

obsidian-cli