Obsidian Remote#

This skill replaces the older obsidian-cli-based skill. The obsidian binary is Obsidian's own built-in CLI with full app control. Prefer it for everything.

Prerequisites#

• Obsidian desktop app running (the CLI talks to the live app process)
• obsidian binary on PATH (installed with the desktop app; on macOS it's a shell wrapper at /opt/homebrew/bin/obsidian → Obsidian.app)

Quick check: obsidian version

Core Concepts#

• file= — resolves like wikilinks (fuzzy, by note name)
• path= — exact path relative to vault root (e.g. Folder/Note.md)
• Most commands default to the active file when file/path is omitted
• vault= — target a specific vault (omit for default/only vault)
• Quote values with spaces: name="My Note"
• Use \n for newline, \t for tab in content values
• Output formats available on many commands: format=json|tsv|csv|text|md

Vault & File Discovery#

bash

obsidian vaults                         # list known vaults
obsidian vaults verbose                 # include vault paths
obsidian vault                          # active vault info (name, path, files, folders, size)
obsidian vault info=path                # just the vault path

obsidian files                          # list all files
obsidian files folder="Projects"        # filter by folder
obsidian files ext=canvas               # filter by extension
obsidian files total                    # file count

obsidian folders                        # list folders
obsidian folder path="Projects" info=files  # folder info

obsidian recents                        # recently opened files

Reading & Writing Notes#

bash

obsidian read file="Meeting Notes"          # read by name
obsidian read path="Projects/spec.md"       # read by exact path

obsidian create name="New Note" content="# Hello" open  # create + open
obsidian create path="Journal/idea.md" template="Default" overwrite

obsidian append file="Log" content="- entry"     # append
obsidian append file="Log" content=" suffix" inline  # append without newline
obsidian prepend file="Log" content="# Header"   # prepend

obsidian delete file="Old Note"                  # trash
obsidian delete path="tmp/scratch.md" permanent  # permanent delete

obsidian move file="Draft" to="Archive/Draft.md" # move/rename
obsidian rename file="Draft" name="Final"        # rename in place

obsidian open file="Todo" newtab                 # open in new tab
obsidian random                                  # open random note
obsidian random:read folder="Journal"            # read random note from folder

Search#

bash

obsidian search query="project plan"             # file-name search
obsidian search query="plan" path="Work" limit=5 # scoped, limited

obsidian search:context query="API key" case     # full-text with line context
obsidian search:context query="bug" format=json  # JSON output

Daily Notes#

bash

obsidian daily                                   # open today's daily note
obsidian daily:path                              # get daily note path
obsidian daily:read                              # read daily note contents
obsidian daily:append content="- 3pm standup"    # append to daily
obsidian daily:prepend content="## Morning"      # prepend to daily

Tasks#

bash

obsidian tasks                          # all tasks
obsidian tasks todo                     # incomplete only
obsidian tasks done                     # completed only
obsidian tasks todo verbose             # grouped by file with line numbers
obsidian tasks file="Project" todo      # tasks in specific file
obsidian tasks daily todo               # tasks from daily note
obsidian tasks status="/" format=json   # custom status filter

obsidian task file="Todo" line=5 toggle # toggle done/todo
obsidian task file="Todo" line=5 done   # mark done
obsidian task file="Todo" line=5 todo   # mark todo
obsidian task daily line=3 toggle       # toggle task in daily note

Properties / Frontmatter#

bash

obsidian properties                              # all properties across vault
obsidian properties file="Note" format=yaml      # properties for a file
obsidian properties counts sort=count            # property usage stats

obsidian property:read name="status" file="Task" # read property
obsidian property:set name="status" value="done" file="Task"
obsidian property:set name="tags" value="work,urgent" type=list file="Task"
obsidian property:remove name="draft" file="Task"

Tags#

bash

obsidian tags                           # all tags
obsidian tags counts sort=count         # tag usage sorted by count
obsidian tags file="Note"               # tags in specific file
obsidian tag name="project" verbose     # tag info with file list

Links & Graph#

bash

obsidian links file="Hub"               # outgoing links
obsidian backlinks file="API"           # incoming links
obsidian backlinks file="API" counts    # with link counts
obsidian orphans                        # files with no incoming links
obsidian deadends                       # files with no outgoing links
obsidian unresolved                     # broken links
obsidian aliases                        # all aliases

Bookmarks#

bash

obsidian bookmarks                              # list bookmarks
obsidian bookmark file="Important.md"           # bookmark a file
obsidian bookmark file="Note.md" subpath="## Section"  # bookmark heading
obsidian bookmark search="todo" title="My Search"      # bookmark a search
obsidian bookmark url="https://example.com" title="Ref" # bookmark URL

Templates#

bash

obsidian templates                      # list available templates
obsidian template:read name="Meeting"   # read template content
obsidian template:read name="Meeting" resolve title="Q1 Review"  # resolve vars
obsidian template:insert name="Meeting" # insert into active file

Plugins#

bash

obsidian plugins                              # installed plugins
obsidian plugins filter=community versions    # community with versions
obsidian plugins:enabled                      # enabled plugins

obsidian plugin id="dataview"                 # plugin info
obsidian plugin:install id="dataview" enable  # install + enable
obsidian plugin:enable id="dataview"          # enable
obsidian plugin:disable id="dataview"         # disable
obsidian plugin:uninstall id="dataview"       # uninstall
obsidian plugins:restrict on                  # toggle restricted mode

Themes & Snippets#

bash

obsidian theme                                # active theme
obsidian themes versions                      # installed themes
obsidian theme:install name="Minimal" enable  # install + activate
obsidian theme:set name="Minimal"             # switch theme
obsidian theme:uninstall name="Minimal"       # remove

obsidian snippets                             # CSS snippets
obsidian snippets:enabled                     # enabled snippets
obsidian snippet:enable name="custom"         # enable
obsidian snippet:disable name="custom"        # disable

Sync#

bash

obsidian sync:status                    # sync status
obsidian sync on                        # resume sync
obsidian sync off                       # pause sync
obsidian sync:history file="Note"       # version history
obsidian sync:read file="Note" version=2   # read specific version
obsidian sync:restore file="Note" version=2 # restore version
obsidian sync:deleted                   # deleted files in sync

Publish#

bash

obsidian publish:site                   # site info
obsidian publish:list                   # published files
obsidian publish:status                 # pending changes
obsidian publish:add file="Guide"       # publish file
obsidian publish:add changed            # publish all changed
obsidian publish:remove file="Draft"    # unpublish
obsidian publish:open file="Guide"      # open on published site

File History (Local)#

bash

obsidian history:list                   # files with history
obsidian history file="Note"            # version list
obsidian history:read file="Note" version=1  # read old version
obsidian history:restore file="Note" version=1  # restore
obsidian diff file="Note" from=1 to=3  # diff versions

Bases (Obsidian Databases)#

bash

obsidian bases                                # list base files
obsidian base:views                           # views in current base
obsidian base:query file="Tracker" format=json  # query base
obsidian base:query file="Tracker" view="Active" format=md
obsidian base:create file="Tracker" name="New Item" content="..." open

Outline & Word Count#

bash

obsidian outline file="Report"          # heading tree
obsidian outline file="Report" format=md  # markdown format
obsidian wordcount file="Essay"         # word + char count
obsidian wordcount file="Essay" words   # words only

Commands & Hotkeys#

bash

obsidian commands                       # all available commands
obsidian commands filter="editor"       # filter by prefix
obsidian command id="editor:toggle-bold"  # execute command
obsidian hotkeys                        # all hotkeys
obsidian hotkey id="editor:toggle-bold" # hotkey for command

Tabs & Workspace#

bash

obsidian tabs                           # open tabs
obsidian tabs ids                       # with tab IDs
obsidian tab:open file="Note.md"        # open in new tab
obsidian workspace                      # workspace tree
obsidian workspace ids                  # with item IDs

Dev Tools#

For automation, debugging, or extending Obsidian:

bash

obsidian eval code="app.vault.getName()"              # run JS
obsidian dev:screenshot path="screenshot.png"          # take screenshot
obsidian dev:dom selector=".workspace" text            # query DOM
obsidian dev:dom selector="h1" all                     # all h1 elements
obsidian dev:css selector=".nav-header" prop="color"   # CSS inspection
obsidian dev:console                                   # console messages
obsidian dev:console level=error                       # errors only
obsidian dev:errors                                    # captured errors
obsidian dev:cdp method="Page.reload"                  # CDP command
obsidian dev:debug on                                  # attach debugger

Tips#

• Prefer file= for interactive lookups (fuzzy, like wikilinks). Use path= when you know the exact location.
• Pipe to jq or grep for filtering JSON output.
• For bulk operations, prefer format=json and parse programmatically.
• obsidian reload reloads the vault; obsidian restart restarts the app.
• The CLI may hang or timeout if Obsidian is not running — always verify with obsidian version first.