Agent Skills for Obsidian: Markdown, Bases, JSON, CLI, and More
The Problem
Obsidian is great for knowledge management, but its flexibility can also feel like a black hole of features. Writing custom scripts to interact with Obsidian vaults, manage files in different formats, or automate workflows often means reinventing the wheel every time. If you're working with agents like Claude Code or Codex CLI, you need standardized tools to make your life easier.
What This Does
At its core, obsidian-skills is a set of pre-defined skills for agents that integrate directly with Obsidian. The skills/ directory contains five modular skills: obsidian-markdown: Handles .md files using Obsidian's extended Markdown syntax, like wikilinks and callouts. obsidian-bases: Edits .base files for creating filtered views, formulas, and summaries. json-canvas: Works with .canvas files, managing nodes, edges, and connections in JSON Canvas format. obsidian-cli: Automates vault interactions via the Obsidian CLI, perfect for plugin or theme developers. defuddle: Cleans web pages into usable Markdown, cutting out junk content, and saving tokens.
Installation is straightforward—either grab it from the plugin marketplace or manually drop the files into your agent’s skill path (~/.codex/skills for Codex or /.claude for Claude Code). The .claude-plugin/ folder handles plugin metadata for marketplace compatibility.
Real-World Use
Let’s say you're working on a research vault in Obsidian and need to clean up web pages for notes, automate file organization, and create data views. Use defuddle to convert messy web pages into clean .md files. Leverage obsidian-markdown to add wikilinks, embeds, and callouts for better structure. Tap into obsidian-bases to create a .base file for filtering notes based on tags or properties. Automate vault backups or plugin installs with obsidian-cli.
Here’s a quick snippet for Claude Code to apply these skills:
The Bottom Line
obsidian-skills is a solid toolkit if you’re deep into Obsidian workflows and already using agents like Claude Code or Codex CLI. The modular skill structure is smart, but don’t expect hand-holding—if you’re unfamiliar with the Agent Skills spec, the learning curve might sting. Great for devs and power users; overkill for casual note-takers.