Obsidian Command Palette
When to Use This Skill
| Use this skill when... | Use the alternative instead when... |
|---|---|
Triggering a command the user would normally pick from the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+P) | Running JavaScript via the developer API — use dev-tools |
| Discovering what commands a plugin registers | Enabling/disabling a plugin entirely — use plugins-themes |
| Looking up which hotkey is bound to a command | Setting up a workspace — use workspaces |
The command palette is Obsidian's universal action surface — every built-in operation and every command registered by a plugin appears here. The CLI exposes the same surface, which is the leverage point for automation: any plugin command becomes scriptable without writing JavaScript.
Prerequisites
- Obsidian desktop 1.12.7+ installer with CLI enabled
- Obsidian must be running
List Commands
# All available command IDs
obsidian commands
# Filter by ID prefix (e.g. only Templater commands)
obsidian commands filter=templater
# Filter to a built-in family
obsidian commands filter=editor
obsidian commands filter=workspace
Command IDs follow the pluginid:action convention — e.g.
editor:toggle-bold, workspace:split-vertical, dataview:dataview-rebuild-current-view.
Execute a Command
# Run a built-in command
obsidian command id=editor:toggle-bold
# Run a plugin-registered command
obsidian command id=templater-obsidian:insert-templater
obsidian command id=dataview:dataview-rebuild-current-view
# Open the command palette itself
obsidian command id=command-palette:open
command always operates against the active editor / active file — there
is no file= parameter. To run a command against a specific note, open
the note first (obsidian open file=Foo), then run command.
Hotkeys
# All bound hotkeys
obsidian hotkeys
# Mark which entries are user-customised vs default
obsidian hotkeys verbose
# Count of bound hotkeys
obsidian hotkeys total
# Lookup the hotkey for one command
obsidian hotkey id=editor:toggle-bold
obsidian hotkey id=editor:toggle-bold verbose
Common Patterns
"Run a Templater template against the current note"
obsidian open file="Notes/Today"
obsidian command id=templater-obsidian:replace-in-file-templater
"Find every Dataview command"
obsidian commands filter=dataview
"Discover what hotkeys conflict with a new binding"
obsidian hotkeys format=json | jq '[.[] | select(.hotkey == "Ctrl+Shift+P")]'
(Requires the user's installed jq; the CLI itself does not pipe.)
Agentic Optimizations
| Context | Command |
|---|---|
| List all commands | obsidian commands |
| Filter commands by prefix | obsidian commands filter=PREFIX |
| Run a command | obsidian command id=PLUGIN:ACTION |
| List hotkeys (structured) | obsidian hotkeys format=json |
| Lookup one hotkey | obsidian hotkey id=PLUGIN:ACTION |
| Show user-customised hotkeys | obsidian hotkeys verbose |
Related Skills
- plugins-themes — Enable the plugin before its commands become available
- workspaces — Set up an editor state, then run a command against it
- dev-tools — When a command doesn't exist for what you need