By name: _util-obsidian description: Obsidian CLI for vault search, backlinks, links, tags, and file operations. Use when fetching related content or interacting with Obsidian programmatically. Requires Obsidian v1.12+ with CLI enabled.
Obsidian CLI
Interact with a running Obsidian instance. Requires Obsidian open with CLI enabled (Settings > General > Command line interface).
Availability Check
Before any operation, verify CLI is available:
obsidian version 2>/dev/null
If this fails (non-zero exit), skip CLI operations and continue without enhanced context. Never block workflows because Obsidian is unavailable.
Syntax
Parameters take a value with =. Quote values with spaces:
obsidian search query="project notes" limit=10
Flags are boolean switches with no value:
obsidian create name="Note" silent
File targeting:
file=<name>— resolves like a wikilink (name only)path=<path>— exact path from vault root
Vault targeting: Commands target the most recently focused vault. Use vault=<name> to target a specific vault.
Quick Start
Search notes by content
obsidian search query="meeting notes" limit=10
Find backlinks (notes linking TO a file)
obsidian backlinks file="Projects/Q2-Launch"
Find outgoing links (notes this file links TO)
obsidian links file="Projects/Q2-Launch"
Find notes by tag
obsidian tag name="project" limit=20
List all tags with counts
obsidian tags sort=count counts
Common Patterns
Use --copy on any command to copy output to clipboard. Use silent to prevent files from opening. Use total on list commands to get a count.
obsidian search query="leadership" limit=5 --copy
obsidian backlinks file="People/Marcus" total
References
For complete CLI command reference: references/commands.md
Full documentation: https://help.obsidian.md/cli