Agent skill · writing content · steipete
obsidian
Obsidian vault: search/read/write notes, backlinks, Bases, Canvas.
Why this skill is useful
Adds specific commands and workflows for managing Obsidian vaults that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires obsidian installed locally. About 2k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-06. 6,510 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Obsidian Use this for local Obsidian vault work. An Obsidian vault is a normal folder of Markdown files plus .obsidian/ config. Sources App config: ~/Library/Application Support/obsidian/obsidian.json Default vault name: obsidian Usual local vault path: ~/obsidian Official CLI: obsidian Vault commands resolve the vault from cwd; run them from ~/obsidian. First Checks Global commands like version and vaults work outside a vault. Vault-content commands may print Vault not found. outside ~/obsidian. Use obsidian commands, not obsidian help, for CLI discovery. If obsidian says CLI is disabled: 1. Prefer asking the user to enable Settings -> General -> Advanced -> Command line interface. 2. If you already confirmed the app config shape, ~/Library/Application Support/obsidian/obsidian.json uses "cli": true. 3. Restart Obsidian after changing app-level CLI config. Read Workflow Prefer official CLI for Obsidian-aware lookups: Use direct filesystem reads when you already know the path and need exact bytes: Report which source you used when freshness or vault choice matters. Write Workflow Choose the narrowest write path: New note: obsidian create path="Folder/Note.md" content="...". Append/prepend daily notes: obsidian daily:append content="...". Simple note edits: use applypatch on the Markdown file. Rename/move notes: prefer obsidian move path="Old.md" to="Folder/New.md" so links can update. Opening UI after a write: add open only when useful or requested. Common commands: For multi-line content, prefer editing the .md file with applypatch once the path is known. Avoid fragile shell quoting for long prose. Bases, Canvas, Plugins Use CLI discovery first: For .canvas, .base, and .json files, read/edit as structured data when possible. Keep formatting stable and validate JSON after edits. Safety Do not bulk rewrite the vault. Use targeted paths and review diffs. Do not edit .obsidian/ unless the user asks or the task is explicitly settings/plugin work. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills steipete/obsidian