obsidian-cli

name: obsidian-cli description: Use Obsidian from terminal for vault workflows and Neovim note navigation. Use when the user asks to open, create, search, or link Obsidian markdown notes from shell, or to run obsidian:// URI actions.

Obsidian CLI

Use this workflow to operate an Obsidian vault from terminal while editing in Neovim.

Quick Check

1. Confirm command exists: which obsidian.
2. Confirm vault context: pwd and check .obsidian/ directory.
3. Quote all note paths because vault paths often include spaces.

Core Commands

1. Open app, note, or folder:

• obsidian
• obsidian "/abs/path/to/note.md"
• obsidian "/abs/path/to/folder"

2. Run Obsidian URI actions:

• obsidian "obsidian://open?vault=<VaultName>&file=<EncodedPath>"
• obsidian "obsidian://new?vault=<VaultName>&name=<EncodedName>"
• obsidian "obsidian://search?vault=<VaultName>&query=<EncodedQuery>"

3. Create note from terminal, then open in Obsidian:

• note="My Note.md"
• printf "# %s\n\n" "${note%.md}" > "$note"
• obsidian "$PWD/$note"

4. Find notes and wiki-links quickly:

• rg --files -g '*.md'
• rg -n "<search text>" -g '*.md'
• rg -n "\\[\\[.*<term>.*\\]\\]" -g '*.md'

Neovim Workflow

1. Get current buffer absolute path inside Neovim:

• :echo expand('%:p')

2. Open that note in Obsidian from shell:

• obsidian "<absolute-path>"

3. Keep content edits in markdown files by default; avoid changing .obsidian/ internals unless user requests config/plugin changes.

Troubleshooting

1. If obsidian command missing:

• Reinstall wrapper at ~/.dotfiles/bin/obsidian.
• Re-check PATH includes ~/bin or ~/.dotfiles/bin.

2. If user asks for official built-in Obsidian CLI subcommands:

• Require Obsidian 1.12+ early access and CLI enabled inside app settings.

References

• For URI encoding patterns and ready-to-run examples, read references/uri-patterns.md.