Obsidian CLI Automation

Overview

Automate Obsidian workflows with deterministic CLI commands. Use this skill to map natural-language requests into safe, repeatable obsidian command sequences with explicit verification.

When to Use

Use this skill when requests include any of the following intents:

• Automate Obsidian workflows from terminal scripts
• Batch create, update, move, rename, or delete notes
• Operate daily notes, tasks, links, tags, aliases, properties
• Query vault structure, search content, generate hygiene reports
• Manage plugins, themes, snippets, tabs, workspace, bookmarks
• Inspect or recover history and Obsidian Sync versions
• Execute developer diagnostics commands such as dev:* or eval

Quick Start

1. Confirm CLI availability:

   command -v obsidian
   obsidian version
   

2. Discover vault names:

   obsidian vaults
   

3. Pin target vault and run a read-only probe:

   VAULT='My Vault'
   obsidian vault="$VAULT" vault info=path
   obsidian vault="$VAULT" files total
   

Execution Workflow

1. Discover command surface before automation.
   • Run obsidian --help.
   • Run scripts/collect_obsidian_help.sh for a complete snapshot.
2. Resolve targets with deterministic selectors.
   • Prefer path= over file= when ambiguity exists.
   • Use vault=<name> on all non-trivial runs.
3. Execute read-first probes.
   • Use read, file, tasks, properties, search, sync:history before mutation.
4. Execute minimal mutation steps.
   • Apply append, prepend, create, property:set, task, move, rename in small steps.
5. Verify post-change state.
   • Re-run read/query commands and compare expected vs actual output.

Command Families

• Vault discovery and structure: vaults, vault, folders, files, folder, file
• Note lifecycle: create, read, append, prepend, move, rename, delete, open
• Daily workflow: daily, daily:path, daily:read, daily:append, daily:prepend
• Tasks and links: tasks, task, links, backlinks, orphans, deadends, unresolved
• Metadata: tags, tag, aliases, properties, property:read, property:set, property:remove
• Search and outline: search, search:context, search:open, outline
• Bases: bases, base:views, base:query, base:create
• UI/system controls: tabs, tab:open, workspace, command, commands, reload, restart
• Theme/snippet/plugin management: themes, theme:*, snippets, snippet:*, plugins, plugin:*, plugins:restrict
• Sync/history and recovery: sync:*, history:*, diff
• Developer diagnostics: dev:*, devtools, eval, dev:console, dev:errors, dev:screenshot

High-Value Automation Patterns

Daily planning block

VAULT='My Vault'
obsidian vault="$VAULT" daily:append content=$'## Plan\n- [ ] Top 1\n- [ ] Top 2\n'
obsidian vault="$VAULT" daily:read

Batch frontmatter update for a folder

VAULT='My Vault'
obsidian vault="$VAULT" files folder='Projects' ext=md | while IFS= read -r p; do
  [ -z "$p" ] && continue
  obsidian vault="$VAULT" property:set path="$p" name=reviewed value=false type=checkbox
done

Vault hygiene snapshot

VAULT='My Vault'
obsidian vault="$VAULT" unresolved total
obsidian vault="$VAULT" orphans total
obsidian vault="$VAULT" deadends total
obsidian vault="$VAULT" recents total

Sync inspection before restore

VAULT='My Vault'
TARGET='Projects/Example.md'
obsidian vault="$VAULT" sync:history path="$TARGET"
obsidian vault="$VAULT" sync:read path="$TARGET" version=1

Safety Guardrails

• Avoid destructive commands (delete permanent, sync:restore, history:restore, theme:uninstall, plugin:uninstall) without explicit confirmation.
• Use mutation commands only after a read probe confirms target scope.
• Split large automations into idempotent, restart-safe steps.
• Log command output for rollback decisions when running bulk operations.

Bundled Resources

• scripts/collect_obsidian_help.sh: Dump top-level help, all command helps, and a markdown report.
• references/automation-recipes.md: Copy-paste automation recipes for recurring workflows.
• references/obsidian-cli-full-help.md: Full command traversal output for obsidian CLI.

Validation Checklist

1. Run target command(s) with explicit vault= and path=.
2. Run verification command(s) immediately after each mutation step.
3. Report changed files, properties, tasks, or sync versions with exact command evidence.