By name: obsidian-explorer description: "Search, read, save, and list notes in an Obsidian vault. Triggers on: 'search notes', 'find memos', 'save to Obsidian', 'show recent notes'."
Overview
This skill enables users to efficiently search, read, organize, and save notes stored in an Obsidian vault. It runs on Windows using PowerShell scripts (.ps1) invoked from a bash shell via powershell.exe -File. Full-text search (-SearchType fulltext) uses ripgrep (rg.exe) located under the bin directory within this skill.
Prerequisites
Vault Path Configuration
Set your Obsidian vault path in config.json (save with UTF-8 BOM). A config file is used instead of environment variables because Japanese characters in paths get garbled when passed from bash. Windows environment variables such as %USERPROFILE% can also be used.
{
"vaultPath": "%USERPROFILE%\\Documents\\Obsidian"
}
The environment variable OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH is used as a fallback.
Script Location
All scripts are located under ~/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/.
script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1- Search scriptscript/Save-ObsidianNote.ps1- Note saving scriptscript/List-ObsidianNotes.ps1- Note listing scriptscript/Get-ObsidianNote.ps1- Note reading (content retrieval) script
ripgrep Setup
ripgrep is required for full-text search. Place rg.exe in one of the following locations:
- Recommended:
~/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/bin/rg.exe - Alternatively, any subfolder under
bin(e.g.,bin/ripgrep-15.1.0-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc/rg.exe)
Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1 recursively searches under the bin directory from the project root and uses the first rg.exe found. If none is found, the script exits with an error.
Search (Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1)
Search notes in the Obsidian vault by keyword.
Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| -Pattern | Yes | - | Search keyword (supports regex) |
| -SearchType | No | fulltext | Search type: fulltext / filename / heading / tag |
| -Folder | No | "" | Target folder (relative path within vault) |
| -Context | No | 1 | Number of surrounding lines to display (fulltext only) |
| -MaxResults | No | 20 | Maximum number of results |
Usage Examples
# Full-text search
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "GRANDIT.*timeout" -SearchType fulltext
# Filename search
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "GRANDIT" -SearchType filename
# Heading search
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "performance" -SearchType heading
# Tag search
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "todo" -SearchType tag
# Search within a specific folder, showing 3 surrounding lines
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "error" -Folder "Projects" -Context 3
# Display up to 50 results
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "TypeScript" -MaxResults 50
Save Note (Save-ObsidianNote.ps1)
Create a new note and save it to the vault. A date prefix (yyyy-MM-dd) is automatically added to the filename.
Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| -Title | Yes | - | Note title |
| -Content | Yes | - | Note content (Markdown) |
| -Folder | No | "" | Destination folder (relative path within vault) |
Usage Examples
# Save to the vault root
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Save-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Title "Meeting Notes" -Content "## Agenda\n\n- Item 1\n- Item 2"
# Save to a specific folder
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Save-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Title "Research Results" -Content "Content" -Folder "Projects/Research"
List Notes (List-ObsidianNotes.ps1)
Display a list of recently updated notes.
Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| -Days | No | 7 | Show notes from the last N days |
| -MaxResults | No | 20 | Maximum number of results |
Usage Examples
# List notes from the last 7 days
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/List-ObsidianNotes.ps1"
# List notes from the last 30 days, up to 50 results
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/List-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Days 30 -MaxResults 50
Output example:
UPDATED:2026-02-16 12:34|PATH:Projects/XXX/note.md
UPDATED:2026-02-15 09:10|PATH:Inbox/note2.md
The AI can parse each line starting with UPDATED: to extract the relative path (PATH:).
Read Note (Get-ObsidianNote.ps1)
Retrieve the content of a specified note file. Supports three modes: full text, first N lines preview, and section by heading.
Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| -Path | Yes | - | Note file path (relative path within vault, e.g., Projects/XXX/note.md) |
| -Mode | No | full | Retrieval mode: full / preview / section |
| -PreviewLines | No | 40 | Number of lines to retrieve when Mode=preview |
| -Heading | No | "" | Heading text to retrieve when Mode=section (e.g., Results or ## Results) |
Output Format
All modes output in a fixed format that is easy for the AI to parse.
---OBSIDIAN-NOTE-BEGIN---
PATH: relative/path/to/note.md
MODE: full|preview|section
HEADING: heading name (section mode only)
---CONTENT-START---
(note content or excerpt here)
...
---CONTENT-END---
---OBSIDIAN-NOTE-END---
The AI should extract the body text from between ---CONTENT-START--- and ---CONTENT-END---.
Usage Examples
# Get full note content
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Get-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Path "Projects/XXX/note.md" -Mode full
# Preview first 60 lines
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Get-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Path "Projects/XXX/note.md" -Mode preview -PreviewLines 60
# Get a specific section by heading
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Get-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Path "Projects/XXX/note.md" -Mode section -Heading "Results"
# Full heading specification is also supported
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Get-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Path "Projects/XXX/note.md" -Mode section -Heading "## Results"
Search Workflow Examples
Case 1: "Tell me what I've noted about performance"
# Step 1: Tag search
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "performance" -SearchType tag
# Step 2: Heading search
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "performance" -SearchType heading
# Step 3: Full-text search
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "performance improvement|optimization" -SearchType fulltext -Context 2
Case 2: "I want to check my recent notes"
# Get the list of notes from the last 7 days
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/List-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Days 7
# Use the PATH from the output to retrieve the full content of a specific note
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Get-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Path "Projects/XXX/note.md" -Mode full
Case 3: "Save this as a note"
# Save the note
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Save-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Title "Title" -Content "Content to save" -Folder "Notes"
# To review the content later
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/List-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Days 1
# Get the PATH of the latest note and read its content
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Get-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Path "Notes/2026-02-16-Title.md" -Mode preview -PreviewLines 40
Case 4: "I only want to read a specific heading"
# Search for notes with "performance" in headings
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Search-ObsidianNotes.ps1" -Pattern "performance" -SearchType heading
# Use the PATH and heading name from the output to retrieve just that section
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$HOME/.claude/skills/obsidian-explorer/script/Get-ObsidianNote.ps1" -Path "Projects/XXX/note.md" -Mode section -Heading "performance"
Guidelines
- Write searchable notes: use specific terms, leverage headings and tags
- Use descriptive filenames: include dates and categories for easier retrieval
- Organize folder structure: categorize by purpose such as Projects, Work, Learning (2-3 levels deep)
- Only save information worth reusing; periodically clean up temporary notes
Troubleshooting
Environment variable not recognized
# Check from bash
powershell.exe -Command "echo \$env:OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH"
Add $env:OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH = "path" to your PowerShell profile ($PROFILE).
Japanese characters are garbled
UTF-8 encoding is specified within the scripts. If the issue persists, check your terminal's encoding settings.
Too many search results
- Use
-MaxResultsto limit the number of results - Use
-Folderto narrow the search scope - Use
-SearchType filenameorheadingto refine the search - Combine multiple keywords with regex (e.g.,
keyword1.*keyword2)