Obsidian CLI

Use the obsidian CLI to interact with a running Obsidian instance. Requires Obsidian to be open.

[!IMPORTANT] macOS — open Obsidian once before using the CLI. On macOS the obsidian command launches the Electron app if no Obsidian instance is running, producing a visible window flash on the first call. Once Obsidian is open, subsequent CLI calls forward args to the running instance silently — no further flicker. For interactive workflows (slash commands), ensure Obsidian is open at the start of the session. For non-interactive contexts where you can't guarantee Obsidian is open (background hooks, automation, CI), prefer filesystem reads via Read / Grep / Glob.

Command reference

Run obsidian help to see all available commands. This is always up to date. Full docs: https://help.obsidian.md/cli

Syntax

Parameters take a value with =. Quote values with spaces:

obsidian create name="My Note" content="Hello world"