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
obsidianto PATH automatically)
Platform-specific PATH details:
- macOS: appends
/Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOSto~/.zprofile - Linux: symlink at
/usr/local/bin/obsidian(fallback~/.local/bin/obsidian) - Windows: requires
Obsidian.comredirector 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 |