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

• Confirm CLI availability: command -v obsidian obsidian version

• Discover vault names: obsidian vaults

• 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

• Discover command surface before automation.

• Run obsidian --help .

• Run scripts/collect_obsidian_help.sh for a complete snapshot.

• Resolve targets with deterministic selectors.

• Prefer path= over file= when ambiguity exists.

• Use vault=<name> on all non-trivial runs.

• Execute read-first probes.

• Use read , file , tasks , properties , search , sync:history before mutation.

• Execute minimal mutation steps.

• Apply append , prepend , create , property:set , task , move , rename in small steps.

• 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

• Run target command(s) with explicit vault= and path= .

• Run verification command(s) immediately after each mutation step.

• Report changed files, properties, tasks, or sync versions with exact command evidence.