What does this skill do, and when should you use it?
Obsidian CLI is one of the standalone skills in kepano/obsidian-skills. It enables a compatible agent to read, create, search, and manage notes, tasks, and properties through the Obsidian CLI. It also covers plugin and theme development workflows such as reloading plugins, checking errors, running JavaScript, taking screenshots, and inspecting the DOM. Obsidian must be running, and commands use the most recently focused vault by default.
Runs obsidian CLI commands to read and create notes, append content, search a vault, read or append daily notes, set properties, and inspect tasks, tags, and backlinks. It can target files by wikilink-like name, exact vault-relative path, or vault name. For plugin and theme development, it reloads plugins, checks errors and console output, evaluates JavaScript, captures screenshots, inspects the DOM and CSS, and toggles mobile emulation.
- An Obsidian user needs to read or create notes from the command line and wants an agent to perform the vault operation.
- A user needs to find matching notes, tags, tasks, or backlinks across a vault.
- A user wants to append daily tasks or update note properties using repeatable CLI commands.
- An Obsidian plugin developer has changed code and needs to reload the plugin, check errors, and verify the result visually or through the DOM.
- An Obsidian theme developer needs to inspect CSS values or emulate a mobile interface.
How do you install this skill?
- Before running create, append, property:set, or overwrite, explicitly confirm the target vault, path, content, and overwrite risk, and provide a backup or recovery plan.
- obsidian eval can execute arbitrary JavaScript in the application context; do not pass untrusted input directly as code or grant more vault or development access than required.
- Confirm the Obsidian version, CLI command availability, and target vault state before use; the skill provides limited diagnostics and recovery guidance when commands fail.
- Shell / CLI
- Local filesystem
Obsidian running
Install it as part of the kepano/obsidian-skills collection. Use npx skills add https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills, or copy the repository's skills/ directory into the Codex skills path, typically ~/.codex/skills. The collection can also be installed with /plugin marketplace add kepano/obsidian-skills followed by /plugin install obsidian@obsidian-skills. The README does not provide a separate command for installing only skills/obsidian-cli/.
tmp="$(mktemp -d)"
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-skills.git "$tmp"
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R "$tmp/skills/obsidian-cli" ~/.claude/skills/
rm -rf "$tmp"Generated from the source repository and skill path; it copies only this skill's folder. If the author's install steps above differ, follow those first. To scope it to one project, replace ~/.claude/skills with that project's .claude/skills.
How do you use this skill?
Once installed, send your agent any of these to trigger it:
- Read my Obsidian note My Note
- Search the vault for test.
Open Obsidian, then ask the agent for a concrete operation such as “Read my Obsidian note My Note” or “Search the vault for test.” Supported examples include obsidian read file="My Note", obsidian search query="search term" limit=10, and obsidian property:set name="status" value="done" file="My Note". Run obsidian help to see the current command set.
What are this skill's strengths and limitations?
- Covers common note, task, property, tag, daily note, and backlink operations.
- Includes plugin and theme development checks such as reloads, error inspection, screenshots, and DOM inspection.
- Supports targeting content by name, exact path, or vault name.
- The repository is MIT licensed.
- Requires a running Obsidian instance.
- Commands default to the most recently focused vault, so multi-vault workflows should specify `vault=` explicitly.
- The source provides no test suite, platform test matrix, or failure-recovery documentation.
- This profile covers only obsidian-cli; Markdown, Bases, JSON Canvas, and web-content extraction capabilities belong to sibling skills in the collection.
How does this skill compare with similar options?
Side by side with related skills; every score comes from the same FSRS standard.
| Skill | FS score | Stars | Last updated | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obsidian CLI Assistant this page | 46 · Use with care | ★ 50k | 1mo ago | MIT |
| Obsidian CLI Knowledge Transport | 48 · Use with care | ★ 16k | 1mo ago | MIT |
| LLM Wiki Manager | 51 · Use with care | ★ 71 | 1mo ago | MIT |
| Conversation Archivist | 49 · Use with care | ★ 16k | 1mo ago | MIT |
| Web Page Cleaner | 41 · Not recommended | ★ 16k | 1mo ago | MIT |
How did FollowSkills review this skill?
The skill explicitly requires a running Obsidian instance and shows commands that read, write, overwrite, execute JavaScript, and inspect or modify development state. The capability surface and some silent options are visible, but there is no user-confirmation policy, least-privilege boundary, data-flow disclosure, sensitive-data handling, rollback plan, or external-effects warning, so substantial points are deducted. No malware, credential theft, covert exfiltration, or other red-line evidence was found; the unverified publisher is treated as unknown only.
Command syntax, file and vault targeting, common patterns, and the plugin debugging cycle are described consistently, with a pointer to obsidian help for current commands. However, operation depends on a running Obsidian instance, CLI behavior, and environment state; there is no test suite, reproduced key-path evidence, abnormal-input handling, or diagnosable failure guidance. The score is therefore limited under static review.
The audience and main scenarios are clear: vault operations plus plugin and theme development. Boundaries, exclusion triggers, compatibility ranges, input/output contracts, and Chinese-language support are not specified. The core workflow depends on a local Obsidian CLI and running app, and reachability of the referenced documentation from mainland-China networks is not established, so points are deducted.
The SKILL.md has clear sections for prerequisites, syntax, targeting, common patterns, and development workflow; the README provides multiple installation methods, and the repository supplies an MIT license. The selected skill lacks versioning, changelog information, explicit maintenance ownership, update guidance, FAQs, known limitations, and fuller dependency notes, preventing a high score.
The examples directly cover reading, creating, appending, searching, properties, tasks, backlinks, and plugin debugging, so the claimed core workflow could yield directly usable CLI commands. Static review did not verify execution, output completeness, or marginal benefit over manual alternatives, so the score is capped at the static maximum.
The commands point to Obsidian's official CLI help and documentation, and the examples are auditable. There are no committed tests, CI coverage, version pinning, or third-party execution records, so key claims cannot be independently reproduced from the supplied files and the score remains low.
Open a dimension to read why it scored that way
Evidence confidence：Low — Mostly static review, author material or a limited demo; useful for discovery, not high-risk decisions.
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