Obsidian CLI — Claude Code Skill

A skill for AI coding agents that enables full control of Obsidian vaults from the terminal using the official Obsidian CLI (v1.12+).

What This Skill Does

Once installed, your AI agent will know how to interact with Obsidian vaults through the official CLI — reading, creating, and editing notes; managing daily notes; running full-text search; querying tasks, tags, links, and properties; managing plugins and sync; and running developer tools.

Covers 130+ commands across all major areas:

Area	Commands
Files	`read`, `create`, `append`, `prepend`, `move`, `rename`, `delete`, `files`, `folders`, `file`, `random`
Daily Notes	`daily`, `daily:read`, `daily:append`, `daily:prepend`, `daily:path`
Search	`search`, `search:context` with scoping, limits, JSON output
Properties	`properties`, `property:read`, `property:set`, `property:remove`, `aliases`
Tags	`tags`, `tag` with counts and filtering
Tasks	`tasks`, `task` — query, filter, toggle
Links	`backlinks`, `links`, `unresolved`, `orphans`, `deadends`
Bookmarks	`bookmarks`, `bookmark`
Templates	`templates`, `template:read`, `template:insert`
Plugins	`plugins`, `plugin`, `plugin:enable/disable/install/uninstall`, `plugins:restrict`
Sync	`sync`, `sync:status`, `sync:history`, `sync:read`, `sync:restore`, `sync:deleted`
Themes	`themes`, `theme`, `theme:set`, `theme:install/uninstall`
Snippets	`snippets`, `snippets:enabled`, `snippet:enable/disable`
Commands	`commands`, `command`, `hotkeys`, `hotkey`
Bases	`bases`, `base:query`, `base:views`, `base:create`
History	`history`, `history:list`, `history:read`, `history:restore`
Workspace	`workspace`, `tabs`, `tab:open`
Diff	`diff`
Developer	`eval`, `dev:screenshot`, `dev:debug`, `dev:console`, `dev:errors`, `dev:css`, `dev:dom`, `devtools`
Vault	`vault`, `vaults`, `version`, `reload`, `restart`, `recents`, `outline`, `wordcount`

Invoking the Skill

The skill activates automatically when your request clearly involves Obsidian vault operations. For casual phrasing, you may need to invoke it explicitly:

Method	Example
Natural language (usually works)	"add this to my daily note: …", "search my vault for X"
Explicit prefix (always works)	`$obsidian-cli append to today's daily note: "…"`
Strict mode (always active)	Enable in Claude Code settings so the skill is always loaded

If Claude tries to answer a vault request without executing any commands, just say use obsidian-cli and it will retry with the skill active.

Prerequisites

Obsidian v1.12 is available to all users — no Early Access build or Catalyst license required.

Requirement	Details
Obsidian Desktop	v1.12.0+
CLI enabled	Settings → Command line interface → Toggle ON
Obsidian running	The desktop app must be running — the CLI communicates over IPC

Platform notes

macOS / Linux — the obsidian binary is added to PATH automatically when you enable CLI in settings.
Windows — requires an Obsidian.com redirector file placed alongside Obsidian.exe. Must run from a normal-privilege terminal — admin terminals produce silent failures.
Headless Linux — use the .deb package (not snap). Run under xvfb and prefix commands with DISPLAY=:5. Set PrivateTmp=false if running as a systemd service.

Installation

Claude Code — Plugin (native)

Option A — Marketplace install (recommended):

/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/pablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill
/plugin install obsidian-cli

Done — see Invoking the Skill above for how to activate it.

Option B — Direct plugin load:

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/pablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill

Load the plugin with the --plugin-dir flag:

claude --plugin-dir ./Obsidian-CLI-skill

Option C — Persistent via settings.json:

Add to your project's .claude/settings.json:

{
  "plugins": {
    "obsidian-cli": {
      "source": { "source": "github", "repo": "pablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill" }
    }
  }
}

The .claude-plugin/marketplace.json manifest makes this repository compatible with Claude Code's marketplace system.

Cursor

Cursor has a native skills system (launched Feb 2026) that is directly compatible with the SKILL.md format — no rules file needed.

In a terminal:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/pablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill /tmp/Obsidian-CLI-skill
mkdir -p ~/.cursor/skills
cp -r /tmp/Obsidian-CLI-skill/skills/obsidian-cli ~/.cursor/skills/obsidian-cli
rm -rf /tmp/Obsidian-CLI-skill

Cursor picks it up automatically — no restart needed.

Cortex Code

Option A — Remote install (recommended)

In a Cortex Code session, run:

/skill add https://github.com/pablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill.git

Cortex Code clones the repo and caches the skill. Use /skill sync obsidian-cli to pull
updates later.

Option B — Project-local install

mkdir -p .cortex/skills/obsidian-cli
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill/main/skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.md \
  -o .cortex/skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.md

Or clone the repo and copy:

git clone https://github.com/pablo-mano/Obsidian-CLI-skill.git /tmp/obsidian-cli-skill
cp -r /tmp/obsidian-cli-skill/skills/obsidian-cli .cortex/skills/

Option C — User-level install

mkdir -p ~/.snowflake/cortex/skills/obsidian-cli
cp skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.md ~/.snowflake/cortex/skills/obsidian-cli/

Verify

/skill list

You should see obsidian-cli in the output.

Invoke

Prefix requests with $obsidian-cli or just describe what you want — Cortex Code activates
the skill automatically when the context matches:

$obsidian-cli append to today's daily note: "Reviewed Snowflake PR #42"

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

Copilot supports custom instructions via repository files:

Option A — Repository-wide (recommended):

Create .github/copilot-instructions.md in your repo.
Paste the body of SKILL.md into the file.

Option B — Path-scoped:

Create .github/instructions/obsidian-cli.instructions.md
Add frontmatter applyTo: "**/*" then paste the SKILL.md body.

Windsurf

Windsurf uses a Rules system (.windsurf/rules/). Rules have a 12,000 character limit per file, so split the skill across two files:

Create .windsurf/rules/obsidian-cli.md — paste the body of SKILL.md (everything after the --- frontmatter).
Create .windsurf/rules/obsidian-cli-reference.md — paste the contents of skills/obsidian-cli/references/command-reference.md.

Set the activation mode to Always On or Model Decision in each file's frontmatter to control when the rules apply.

Nanoclaw

Nanoclaw loads skills from .claude/skills/ using the same SKILL.md format — directly compatible.

Clone or download this repo

Copy the skill folder into your Nanoclaw project:

cp -r Obsidian-CLI-skill /path/to/nanoclaw/.claude/skills/obsidian-cli

The skill is available as a slash command (/obsidian-cli) or auto-triggers when you ask the agent to interact with Obsidian.

This is a knowledge skill — it adds Obsidian CLI awareness to the agent without modifying Nanoclaw's codebase.

Openclaw

Openclaw loads skills from the skills/ directory at the project root using the SKILL.md format — directly compatible.

Clone or download this repo

Copy the skill folder into Openclaw's skills directory:

cp -r Obsidian-CLI-skill /path/to/openclaw/skills/obsidian-cli

Restart the Openclaw agent — skills are discovered automatically.

Any Other LLM Agent or Assistant

SKILL.md is a plain Markdown document. For any agent that supports custom system prompts or instructions:

Open the agent's system prompt / custom instructions settings.
Paste the contents of SKILL.md (with or without the YAML frontmatter — most agents accept either).
Optionally include skills/obsidian-cli/references/command-reference.md for the complete command reference.

This works with any chat interface or coding agent that has a system prompt or custom instructions field.

Quick Examples

Append to today's daily note

obsidian daily:append content="- [ ] Review pull requests"

Search your vault and pipe to jq

obsidian search query="meeting notes" format=json | jq '.[].path'

Vault health check

obsidian files total          # Total file count
obsidian tags counts sort=count  # Most-used tags
obsidian tasks                # All open tasks
obsidian orphans              # Notes with no links
obsidian unresolved           # Broken wikilinks

Create a note from a template with metadata

obsidian create path="projects/new-feature" template="project-template"
obsidian property:set path="projects/new-feature.md" name="status" value="planning"
obsidian property:set path="projects/new-feature.md" name="created" value="$(date -I)"
obsidian daily:append content="- Started [[projects/new-feature|New Feature]]"

Full Command Reference

See skills/obsidian-cli/references/command-reference.md for the complete reference covering all commands, parameters, flags, output formatting, multi-vault usage, and headless Linux setup.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Empty output / hangs	Obsidian not running, or admin terminal (Windows)	Start Obsidian; use a normal-privilege terminal
`command not found`	CLI not registered in PATH	Re-enable CLI in Settings; restart terminal
Unicode errors	Bug fixed in v1.12.2+	Update Obsidian
Wrong vault targeted	Multi-vault ambiguity	Pass vault name as the first argument: `obsidian "My Vault" ...`
IPC socket not found (Linux)	`PrivateTmp=true` in systemd unit	Set `PrivateTmp=false`
Snap confinement errors	Snap restricts IPC	Use the `.deb` package instead
Multi-vault `"Name" command` fails	Vault name matching issue	Omit vault name; switch vault manually in Obsidian UI
`property:set` list value is a string	CLI stores value as-is	Edit frontmatter directly or use `eval` to call Obsidian API
Colon+params exit 127 (missing `.com`)	Outdated installer — `Obsidian.com` absent	Reinstall from obsidian.md/download
Colon+params exit 127 (Git Bash / MSYS2)	Bash resolves `obsidian` to `.exe` not `.com`	Create `~/bin/obsidian` wrapper: `#!/bin/bash` + `/c/path/to/Obsidian.com "$@"`, add `export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"` to `~/.bashrc`

License

This skill is provided as-is for use with the Obsidian CLI. Obsidian v1.12+ is free for all users.

obsidian-cli