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Obsidian CLI

The official command-line interface for Obsidian, shipped inside the desktop app since v1.12.4 (Feb 27, 2026) — free, no Catalyst license required. Enabled via Settings → General → Command line interface.

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Requirements

  • Obsidian 1.12.4+ installer (not just the app version — the installer itself must be updated)
  • The Obsidian desktop app must be running. The CLI is a client that talks to the live app instance — it does not read/write vault files directly. If Obsidian isn’t running, commands silently fail or error; the first command run when it’s closed launches it.
  • Binary must be on $PATH (Obsidian attempts this automatically on enable; a new terminal window is required to pick up the PATH change).

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Why it’s different from third-party vault scripts

Because commands go through Obsidian’s own runtime (not raw file I/O), operations are link-safe and settings-aware: move updates all internal [[wikilinks]] automatically, create applies templates correctly, property:set writes valid YAML frontmatter. Third-party tools that edit .md files directly (older community obsidian-cli projects, notesmd-cli, etc.) don’t get this — moving a file with them can silently break backlinks.

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Syntax

  • Parameters: key=value, quote values containing spaces — obsidian create name="My Note" content="Hello"
  • Flags: bare words, no dashes — obsidian create name="Draft" silent overwrite. --copy (copy output to clipboard) is the one documented flag that does use a dash.
  • Multiline content: \n for newline, \t for tab
  • File targeting: file=<name> resolves like a wikilink; path=<path> is exact vault-root-relative
  • Vault targeting: vault=<name> as the first parameter (defaults to most recently focused vault)
  • Output formats: json (scripts/jq), csv, md, paths (for xargs), yaml, tree, tsv
Flag-syntax contradiction (flagged, not silently resolved): the official docs (help.obsidian.md/cli) and kepano’s canonical obsidian-skills SKILL.md both independently state flags are bare words with no dashes. Frank Anaya’s guide writes them with a double dash throughout (--silent --overwrite) and calls that “Rule 3.” Two independent primary-ish sources agree against one — treat bare-word flags (silent, overwrite) as correct, and Anaya’s double-dash form as either an error in that guide or an undocumented alias. If a flag silently no-ops, this is the first thing to check.

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Command categories

Opening/reading, search (full-text + tag [tag:x] + property [status:active] query syntax), daily notes (daily, daily:read, daily:append, daily:prepend, daily:path), tasks, properties (YAML frontmatter), tags/links/backlinks/orphans/unresolved, plugins/themes/snippets, sync/publish/file history, and developer commands (eval, dev:screenshot, dev:console, dev:dom, dev:css, CDP/debugger). Over 100 commands total; obsidian help is always the current source of truth.

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Safety notes (from the guide’s own “mistakes to avoid”)

  1. Run a command manually before scripting it — misunderstood commands fail silently in automation.
  2. Use plain delete (moves to Obsidian trash) before ever using delete --permanent, which is irreversible.
  3. Cron/background scripts must guard on “Obsidian is running” — either start it or log-and-exit-gracefully rather than run partial operations.
  4. eval runs real JavaScript in Obsidian’s runtime (sandboxed renderer, not system shell) — read AI-generated eval code before running it.
  5. Don’t try to memorize the full command surface; start from the 5 highest-value commands (obsidian, daily, search query=, daily:append, files total) and add commands as needed.