obsidian-official-cli-skills
Agent skill for the Obsidian CLI (1.12+). Guides coding agents to use Obsidian CLI safely — avoiding silent failures in tasks, tags, search, properties, and file creation.
Why do you need this!
[!WARNING] Without this skill, your agent will silently get wrong answers from Obsidian CLI. Commands succeed with exit code 0 — but return empty or incorrect data.
From 57 scenario tests against Obsidian CLI 1.12 (tested Feb. 13, 2026):
- 13 silent failures (22.8%) — command "succeeds" but returns wrong/empty data
- 24 material issues (42.1%) — skill-guided usage is meaningfully safer
| Trap | What happens without the skill | With skill |
|---|---|---|
| Task scope | tasks todo → 0 results (scoped to "active file" = nothing) | tasks all todo |
| Tag scope | tags counts → empty | tags all counts |
| Property format | properties format=json → returns YAML | properties format=tsv |
| Search format | search query="x" → plain text, no structure | search query="x" format=json matches |
| Create silent | create name="x" content="y" → opens Obsidian UI | add silent flag |
| Exit codes | error message but $? = 0 | parse output for Error: |
Every one of these looks like it worked. None of them did. Full evidence: HIGH_RISK_REPORT.md
Install
Recommended: Claude Code plugin marketplace (auto-updates)
/plugin marketplace add jackal092927/obsidian-official-cli-skills
/plugin install obsidian-cli@obsidian-official-cli-skills
Auto-updates on startup — no manual action needed after initial install.
Cross-agent: npx (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, etc.)
npx skills add jackal092927/obsidian-official-cli-skills
Works with 20+ AI coding agents that support the Agent Skills standard.
Manual
Claude Code
mkdir -p .claude/skills/obsidian-cli
curl -o .claude/skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.md \
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jackal092927/obsidian-official-cli-skills/main/plugins/obsidian-cli/skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.md
Codex / Cursor / other agents
# Codex
mkdir -p .codex/skills/obsidian-cli
curl -o .codex/skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.md \
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jackal092927/obsidian-official-cli-skills/main/plugins/obsidian-cli/skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.md
# Or copy SKILL.md into your agent's context/system prompt
Updating
| Method | How to update |
|---|---|
| Plugin marketplace | Automatic at startup — no action needed |
| npx | npx skills update |
| Manual | Re-run the curl command above (overwrites existing SKILL.md) |
Prerequisites
- Obsidian 1.12+ installed
- Enable CLI: Settings > General > Command line interface > follow the registration prompt
- Restart terminal (
obsidianshould be in PATH)
What's included
| File | Covers |
|---|---|
plugins/obsidian-cli/skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.md | 34 commands with correct syntax, gotcha warnings, safety rules, error handling |
HIGH_RISK_REPORT.md | 5 severe issues with reproduction commands and raw CLI evidence |
reports/ | Raw stdout captures and command matrix from benchmark runs |
Contributing
If you find a new gotcha or a command that changed behavior:
- Reproduce the issue and capture CLI output
- Open an issue with: naive command, expected output, actual output
- PRs welcome — edit
plugins/obsidian-cli/skills/obsidian-cli/SKILL.mddirectly
License
MIT