doc-obsidian

Original：🇺🇸 English
Translated

Obsidian vault management combining qmd (search) and notesmd-cli (CRUD). No Obsidian app needed. Use for: (1) searching notes with keyword, semantic, or hybrid search, (2) creating/editing/moving/deleting notes, (3) daily journaling, (4) frontmatter management, (5) backlink discovery, (6) AI agent memory workflows, (7) vault automation and scripting. Triggers: obsidian vault, obsidian notes, vault search, note management, daily notes, agent memory, knowledge base, markdown vault.

3installs
Sourcemolechowski/claude-skills
Added on

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add molechowski/claude-skills doc-obsidian

Tags

Translated version includes tags in frontmatter
obsidian-vault-managementqmd-toolnotesmd-clicli-workflowsai-agent-memory

SKILL.md Content

View Translation Comparison →

Obsidian Vault Management

Unified vault operations using two CLI tools. No Obsidian app required.
ToolRoleInstall
doc-qmdSearch (keyword, semantic, hybrid)
npm i -g @anthropic/qmd
or check 
which qmd
doc-notesmdCRUD, 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

TaskToolCommand
Search by keywordqmd
qmd search "term"
Search by meaningqmd
qmd vsearch "conceptual question"
Best search qualityqmd
qmd query "complex question"
Create notenotesmd-cli
notesmd-cli create "name" --content "text"
Append to notenotesmd-cli
notesmd-cli create "name" --content "text" --append
Read notenotesmd-cli
notesmd-cli print "name"
Partial editnotesmd-cli + EditRead with 
print
, edit via vault path + 
Edit
tool
Move/renamenotesmd-cli
notesmd-cli move "old" "new"
(updates all links)
Delete notenotesmd-cli
notesmd-cli delete "name"
(permanent, no trash)
Daily notenotesmd-cli
notesmd-cli daily
Frontmatternotesmd-cli
notesmd-cli fm "name" --print / --edit / --delete
Backlinksnotesmd-cli
notesmd-cli print "name" --mentions
List filesnotesmd-cli
notesmd-cli list [path]
Recently modifiedqmd
qmd ls vault
(sorted by date, includes size)
Get documentqmd
qmd get vault/note.md
Batch retrieveqmd
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