Obsidian CLI

When to apply

• The user asks to work with an Obsidian vault from the terminal.
• The task mentions notes, markdown, daily notes, backlinks, tags, tasks, or vault search.
• The task is about using the Obsidian CLI rather than editing files directly.
• The task is part of ongoing coding work and the vault may hold useful project context, decisions, progress notes, or handover state.

Core workflow

1. Confirm the target vault before running note commands. If it is unclear, run obsidian vaults.
2. If obsidian vaults shows exactly one open vault, use that vault by default.
3. If the command or syntax is uncertain, check help first with obsidian help, obsidian help <command>, or obsidian <command> --help.
4. Prefer read-only discovery first: search or read, then expand with links and backlinks once you find a relevant note.
5. Prefer updating an existing note with append or prepend over rewriting a whole note or creating a new one.
6. Re-read afterwards when the write matters operationally.

Safe defaults