Obsidian Properties Management

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when...	Use the alternative instead when...
Reading, setting, or removing a single YAML property on a live note via the running CLI	Doing offline bulk frontmatter rewrites across many files — use `vault-frontmatter`
Updating `status:`, `aliases:`, or a date property on a note Obsidian currently has open	Editing note body content rather than frontmatter — use `vault-files`
Auditing which property names exist across the vault, and how often	Listing or counting tags — use `search-discovery` (`tags`, `tag`)
Confirming a property change is reflected in Obsidian's metadata cache	Repairing broken wikilinks after a rename — use `vault-wikilinks`

Read, set, and remove YAML frontmatter properties on Obsidian notes using the official CLI.

Prerequisites

Obsidian desktop 1.12.7+ installer with CLI enabled
Obsidian must be running

Command Shape

Property commands are singular (property:set, property:remove, property:read) and address the property by name=, not by a key=value pair. The plural properties command is the vault-wide listing/inspection view.

Command	Purpose
`properties`	List property names across the vault, or on one file
`property:read`	Read one property's value
`property:set`	Set one property (optionally typed)
`property:remove`	Remove one property
`aliases`	List aliases across the vault, or on one file

All four file-scoped commands default to the active file when neither file= nor path= is given.

List / Inspect Properties

# Every property name used in the vault (default format: yaml)
obsidian properties

# With occurrence counts, sorted by frequency
obsidian properties counts sort=count

# Count of distinct property names
obsidian properties total

# Occurrence count for one property name
obsidian properties name=status

# Properties on a specific file, or the active file
obsidian properties file="Project Spec"
obsidian properties path="Projects/Spec.md"
obsidian properties active

# Structured output
obsidian properties file="Project Spec" format=json
obsidian properties format=tsv

Read a Property

obsidian property:read name=status
obsidian property:read name=status file="Project Spec"
obsidian property:read name=due path="Projects/Spec.md"

Set a Property

name= and value= are both required; type= is optional and tells Obsidian how to store the value.

# Text (default type) on the active file
obsidian property:set name=status value=active

# On a specific file
obsidian property:set name=status value=draft file="Post"

# Typed values
obsidian property:set name=due value=2026-03-15 type=date
obsidian property:set name=reviewed value="2026-03-15T09:00" type=datetime
obsidian property:set name=priority value=1 type=number
obsidian property:set name=published value=true type=checkbox
obsidian property:set name=aliases value="JS,ECMAScript" type=list

Setting multiple properties is one invocation per property — there is no multi-property form.

Remove a Property

obsidian property:remove name=draft
obsidian property:remove name=old_field file="Note"

Aliases

# All aliases in the vault
obsidian aliases

# Count, or with the owning file paths
obsidian aliases total
obsidian aliases verbose

# Aliases on the active file, or a specific one
obsidian aliases active
obsidian aliases file="JavaScript"

To add an alias, set the aliases property as a list:

obsidian property:set name=aliases value="JS,js,ECMAScript" type=list file="JavaScript"

Property Types

`type=`	Example value	Notes
`text`	`active`	Default when `type=` is omitted
`list`	`"a,b,c"`	Comma-separated; use for `aliases`, `tags`
`number`	`1`	Numeric
`checkbox`	`true`	Boolean
`date`	`2026-03-15`	ISO 8601 date
`datetime`	`2026-03-15T09:00`	ISO 8601 date + time

Common Patterns

Status workflow

obsidian property:set name=status value=draft file="Post"
obsidian property:set name=status value=review file="Post"
obsidian property:set name=status value=published file="Post"
obsidian property:set name=published value=true type=checkbox file="Post"

Audit property usage before a schema change

# Which property names exist, and how heavily used
obsidian properties counts sort=count

# How many notes carry the one you're about to rename
obsidian properties name=status

Confirm a write landed

obsidian property:set name=status value=active file="Note"
obsidian property:read name=status file="Note"

Agentic Optimizations

Context	Command
Property names + counts	`obsidian properties counts sort=count`
Properties on one file (structured)	`obsidian properties file=X format=json`
Read one property	`obsidian property:read name=K file=X`
Set a property	`obsidian property:set name=K value=V file=X`
Set a typed property	`obsidian property:set name=K value=V type=date`
Remove a property	`obsidian property:remove name=K file=X`
Usage count for a name	`obsidian properties name=K`
List aliases with paths	`obsidian aliases verbose`

Related Skills

vault-files — Read and create notes
search-discovery — Search by property values with [key:value] syntax; tag listing (tags, tag)
bases — Base views filter on the properties set here