Obsidian Vault File Operations Skill

Obsidian Vault File Operations

Comprehensive guidance for managing files, folders, and daily notes in Obsidian vaults using the official Obsidian CLI.

Prerequisites

Obsidian desktop v1.12.4+ installed
CLI enabled in Settings → General → Command line interface
Obsidian must be running (CLI communicates with the running instance)

When to Use

Use this skill automatically when:

User requests reading, creating, or editing Obsidian notes
User mentions listing files or folders in a vault
User wants to move or delete notes
User needs daily note operations (open, read, append, prepend)
User wants vault statistics or file counts

Path Conventions

All paths are vault-relative — use folder/note.md, not absolute filesystem paths
create omits .md extension (added automatically)
move requires full target path including .md extension
Quote values containing spaces: file="My Note Title"
Newlines: \n, tabs: \t

Core File Operations

List Files

# All files in vault
obsidian files

# Files in specific folder
obsidian files folder=Projects/Active

# Total note count
obsidian files total

# JSON output for parsing
obsidian files format=json

List Folders

# All directories
obsidian folders

# Tree view
obsidian folders format=tree

Read a Note

# Read by name (wikilink resolution)
obsidian read file="Note Name"

# Read by path
obsidian read path="Projects/spec.md"

Create a Note

# Basic create (no .md needed)
obsidian create name="New Note"

# Create in folder with content
obsidian create name="Projects/Feature Spec" content="# Feature Spec\n\nDescription here."

# Create from template
obsidian create name="Meeting Notes" template="Templates/Meeting"

# Overwrite existing
obsidian create name="Draft" content="Fresh start" --overwrite

Append / Prepend

# Add to end of note
obsidian append file="Daily Log" content="\n## New Section\nContent here."

# Add to beginning of note
obsidian prepend file="Inbox" content="- [ ] New task\n"

Move a Note

# Move to folder (requires .md extension on target)
obsidian move file="Draft" to=Archive/Draft.md

# Rename in place
obsidian move file="Old Name" to="New Name.md"

Delete a Note

# Move to Obsidian trash
obsidian delete file="Old Note"

# Permanent deletion (irreversible)
obsidian delete file="Old Note" --permanent

Daily Notes

# Open today's daily note (creates if needed)
obsidian daily

# Read today's content
obsidian daily:read

# Append to today's note
obsidian daily:append content="- Met with team about roadmap"

# Prepend to today's note
obsidian daily:prepend content="## Morning Goals\n- Review PRs"

# Open specific date
obsidian daily:open date=2026-02-15

Common Flags

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | format=json | JSON output for machine parsing | | format=csv | CSV output | | format=tree | Tree view for folders | | --silent | Suppress output | | --overwrite | Replace existing note on create | | --permanent | Irreversible delete (skip trash) | | --copy | Copy result to clipboard | | limit=N | Limit result count | | sort=name\|date | Sort order |

Agentic Optimizations

| Context | Command | |---------|---------| | List files (structured) | obsidian files format=json | | File count | obsidian files total | | Folder listing (structured) | obsidian folders format=json | | Read note content | obsidian read file="Name" | | Quick capture to daily | obsidian daily:append content="text" | | Batch file listing | obsidian files folder=X format=json |

Related Skills

search-discovery — Find notes by content, tags, or links
properties — Manage YAML frontmatter on notes
tasks — Task management across the vault

Agent Skills: Obsidian Vault File Operations

Install this agent skill to your local

Skill Files