NotesMD CLI

Interact with Obsidian vaults using notesmd-cli. Works without Obsidian running — operates directly on the vault’s Markdown files.

Vault basics

Obsidian vault = a normal folder on disk containing *.md files.

Vault config lives at ~/Library/Application Support/obsidian/obsidian.json on macOS.

Setup

Set default vault (once):

notesmd-cli set-default "{vault-name}"

Check current default:

notesmd-cli print-default
notesmd-cli print-default --path-only

All commands accept --vault "{vault-name}" to target a specific vault.

Commands

Read

notesmd-cli print "{note-name-or-path}"
notesmd-cli list                          # vault root
notesmd-cli list "subfolder"

Search

notesmd-cli search                        # fuzzy search note names
notesmd-cli search-content "term"         # search inside note content

Add --editor to open selected note in $EDITOR instead of Obsidian.

Create / Update

notesmd-cli create "{note-name}" --content "..."
notesmd-cli create "{note-name}" --content "..." --overwrite   # replace existing
notesmd-cli create "{note-name}" --content "..." --append      # append to existing
notesmd-cli create "{note-name}" --open                        # open after create

Move / Rename

Updates [[wikilinks]] across the vault automatically.

notesmd-cli move "{old-path}" "{new-path}"

Delete

notesmd-cli delete "{note-path}"

Daily note

notesmd-cli daily

Open in Obsidian

notesmd-cli open "{note-name}"
notesmd-cli open "{note-name}" --section "{heading}"

Frontmatter

notesmd-cli frontmatter "{note}" --print
notesmd-cli frontmatter "{note}" --edit --key "status" --value "done"
notesmd-cli frontmatter "{note}" --delete --key "draft"

Tips

• Note paths are relative to vault root (e.g. "Folder/Note")
• For direct edits, modify the .md file directly — Obsidian picks up changes
• Prefer notesmd-cli move over mv to keep wikilinks consistent
• --editor flag uses $EDITOR env var (defaults to vim)
• For CLI bugs or unexpected behavior, refer to notesmd-cli