Obsidian Vault Management

Unified vault operations using two CLI tools. No Obsidian app required.

Tool	Role	Install
doc-qmd	Search (keyword, semantic, hybrid)	`npm i -g @anthropic/qmd` or check `which qmd`
doc-notesmd	CRUD, move, frontmatter, daily notes, backlinks	`brew install yakitrak/yakitrak/notesmd-cli`

Setup

First-Time Setup

bash

# 1. Set default vault for notesmd-cli
notesmd-cli set-default "VaultName"

# 2. Index vault in qmd
qmd collection add ~/path/to/vault --name vault --mask "**/*.md"
qmd embed    # generate vector embeddings for semantic search

Verify

bash

notesmd-cli print-default    # shows vault name + path
qmd status                   # shows indexed docs + embedding status

Keep Index Fresh

bash

qmd update       # re-index changed files
qmd embed        # embed new/changed docs

Tool Selection

Task	Tool	Command
Search by keyword	qmd	`qmd search "term"`
Search by meaning	qmd	`qmd vsearch "conceptual question"`
Best search quality	qmd	`qmd query "complex question"`
Create note	notesmd-cli	`notesmd-cli create "name" --content "text"`
Append to note	notesmd-cli	`notesmd-cli create "name" --content "text" --append`
Read note	notesmd-cli	`notesmd-cli print "name"`
Partial edit	notesmd-cli + Edit	Read with `print` , edit via vault path + `Edit` tool
Move/rename	notesmd-cli	`notesmd-cli move "old" "new"` (updates all links)
Delete note	notesmd-cli	`notesmd-cli delete "name"` (permanent, no trash)
Daily note	notesmd-cli	`notesmd-cli daily`
Frontmatter	notesmd-cli	`notesmd-cli fm "name" --print / --edit / --delete`
Backlinks	notesmd-cli	`notesmd-cli print "name" --mentions`
List files	notesmd-cli	`notesmd-cli list [path]`
Recently modified	qmd	`qmd ls vault` (sorted by date, includes size)
Get document	qmd	`qmd get vault/note.md`
Batch retrieve	qmd	`qmd multi-get "folder/*.md" --json`

Search Workflows

Quick Lookup (keyword)

bash

qmd search "authentication" -n 10
qmd search "authentication" --json      # structured output
qmd search "authentication" --md        # markdown for LLM context

Conceptual Search (semantic)

bash

qmd vsearch "how do we handle user sessions"
qmd vsearch "error recovery patterns" --json -n 5

Deep Search (hybrid -- best quality)

bash

qmd query "what decisions did we make about the API design?"
qmd query "deployment strategy" --full   # full document content

Search + Read Pattern

bash

# Find relevant notes, then read full content
qmd search "auth" --json -n 3    # find candidates
notesmd-cli print "auth-design"  # read the one you need

Note CRUD

Create

bash

notesmd-cli create "project/meeting-notes" --content "# Meeting\n\n## Agenda\n"
notesmd-cli create "inbox" --content "\n- New thought" --append
notesmd-cli create "scratch" --content "Replaced" --overwrite

--append

and

--overwrite

are mutually exclusive. Without either, existing files are unchanged.

Content supports escape sequences:

\n

\t

\r

\\

\"

\'

Read

bash

notesmd-cli print "architecture"                # raw content to stdout
notesmd-cli print "architecture" --mentions      # with backlinks appended
qmd get vault/architecture.md                    # via qmd (by indexed path)

Move/Rename (with link updates)

bash

notesmd-cli move "drafts/post" "published/post"

All

[[wikilinks]]

and

[markdown](links)

across the vault are updated automatically.

Partial Edit (surgical updates)

notesmd-cli has no partial edit — only

--append

and

--overwrite

. For surgical changes (replace a section, update a table row, fix a line), use this workflow:

bash

# 1. Get vault path
VAULT=$(notesmd-cli print-default --path-only)

# 2. Read the note
notesmd-cli print "note-name"

# 3. Edit in place using the Edit tool with the full file path:
#    "$VAULT/path/to/note.md"

Rules:

ALWAYS read with
```
notesmd-cli print
```
first — never guess content
ALWAYS resolve the vault path via
```
notesmd-cli print-default --path-only
```
NEVER hardcode the vault path
Use the
```
Edit
```
tool for targeted string replacement, not
```
sed
```
or
```
awk
```
For full rewrites, prefer
```
notesmd-cli create --overwrite
```
instead

Delete

bash

notesmd-cli delete "scratch-note"    # permanent, no undo

Does NOT update links in other files referencing the deleted note.

Daily Notes

bash

notesmd-cli daily              # create/open today's note
notesmd-cli daily --editor     # open in $EDITOR

Reads

.obsidian/daily-notes.json

for folder, date format (Moment.js), and template. Template content is applied only when creating a new note.

Append to Daily Note

bash

DATE=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d')
notesmd-cli create "$DATE" --content "\n- $(date '+%H:%M') Task completed" --append

Templates

notesmd-cli does not have a

--template

flag. Templates are plain markdown files stored in

meta/templates/

— create them once, reuse via

cp

Create Templates

bash

notesmd-cli create "meta/templates/meeting" --content "# Meeting Notes\n\n**Date:** \n**Attendees:** \n\n## Agenda\n\n## Discussion\n\n## Action Items\n\n- [ ] "

notesmd-cli create "meta/templates/project" --content "# Project Name\n\n## Overview\n\n## Goals\n\n## Timeline\n\n## Status\n"

notesmd-cli create "meta/templates/decision" --content "# Decision: \n\n## Context\n\n## Options\n\n## Decision\n\n## Rationale\n\n## Consequences\n"

Create Note from Template

bash

VAULT=$(notesmd-cli print-default --path-only)
cp "$VAULT/meta/templates/meeting.md" "$VAULT/meetings/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).md"

Daily note templates are handled automatically — configure in

.obsidian/daily-notes.json

with a

template

field pointing to the template note path.

Frontmatter

bash

notesmd-cli fm "note" --print
notesmd-cli fm "note" --edit --key "status" --value "done"
notesmd-cli fm "note" --edit --key "tags" --value "[cli,tools]"
notesmd-cli fm "note" --delete --key "draft"

Type inference:

true

false

-> boolean,

[a,b]

-> array, else string.

AI Agent Memory

Use the vault as persistent memory for Claude Code or other AI agents.

Store Knowledge

bash

notesmd-cli create "memory/session-$(date +%Y%m%d)" \
  --content "# Session Notes\n\n## Learnings\n- Key insight here" \
  --overwrite

Retrieve Context

bash

# Semantic search for relevant memories
qmd vsearch "how did we solve the caching issue" --md -n 5

# Hybrid search for best results
qmd query "authentication architecture decisions" --full -n 3

Append Learnings

bash

notesmd-cli create "memory/patterns" \
  --content "\n\n## $(date '+%Y-%m-%d')\n- New pattern discovered" \
  --append

Build LLM Context

bash

# Get structured results for injection into prompts
qmd search "relevant topic" --json -n 10
qmd multi-get "memory/*.md" --json --max-bytes 20480

For detailed search patterns and agent memory workflows, see:

```
references/search.md
```
-- qmd search modes, output formats, score interpretation
```
references/agent-memory.md
```
-- Memory organization, retrieval patterns, automation

doc-obsidian

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Obsidian Vault Management

Setup

First-Time Setup

Verify

Keep Index Fresh

Tool Selection

Search Workflows

Quick Lookup (keyword)

Conceptual Search (semantic)

Deep Search (hybrid -- best quality)

Search + Read Pattern

Note CRUD

Create

Read

Move/Rename (with link updates)

Partial Edit (surgical updates)

Delete

Daily Notes

Append to Daily Note

Templates

Create Templates

Create Note from Template

Frontmatter

AI Agent Memory

Store Knowledge

Retrieve Context

Append Learnings

Build LLM Context