Obsidian Publish & Sync
When to Use This Skill
| Use this skill when... | Use the alternative instead when... |
|---|---|
| Listing, adding, removing, or auditing the change set on Obsidian Publish | Creating or moving the underlying notes themselves — use vault-files |
| Pausing/resuming Obsidian Sync or checking sync status & usage | Restoring a previous sync version of a file — use file-history |
| Recovering a file that sync deleted | Recovering a file from local File Recovery — use file-history |
| Auditing which notes are currently public vs private | Discovering orphaned or unresolved-link notes — use search-discovery |
Manage Obsidian Publish and Obsidian Sync services from the CLI.
Sync version history (per-file diff and restore) lives in file-history.
Prerequisites
- Obsidian desktop 1.12.7+ installer with CLI enabled
- Obsidian must be running
- Active Obsidian Publish and/or Sync subscription for the respective commands
Obsidian Publish
Site Info
# Slug, URL, status of the connected Publish site
obsidian publish:site
List & Compare
# All currently published files
obsidian publish:list
obsidian publish:list total
# What would change on next publish (new / changed / deleted)
obsidian publish:status
obsidian publish:status new
obsidian publish:status changed
obsidian publish:status deleted
obsidian publish:status total
Publish & Unpublish
# Publish the active file
obsidian publish:add
# Publish a specific file
obsidian publish:add file="Public Note"
obsidian publish:add path="blog/post.md"
# Publish *all* changed files in one shot
obsidian publish:add changed
# Unpublish
obsidian publish:remove file="Draft Post"
# Open the file's published page in the browser
obsidian publish:open file="Public Note"
Obsidian Sync
Status & Pause/Resume
# Sync state, last sync time, usage
obsidian sync:status
# Pause / resume sync
obsidian sync off
obsidian sync on
Files Deleted via Sync
# Files removed via sync (recoverable)
obsidian sync:deleted
obsidian sync:deleted total
To restore one of those files, use file-history:
obsidian sync:restore file=X version=N.
Per-file Sync Versions
For listing, reading, or restoring a specific sync version of a file, use
the file-history skill (sync:history, sync:read, sync:restore,
sync:open).
Common Patterns
"Publish every note tagged #publish"
# Find candidates
obsidian search query="tag:#publish" format=json
# Or rely on the change set after the user tags them
obsidian publish:status new
obsidian publish:add changed
"Pre-publish dry run"
obsidian publish:status # all changes
obsidian publish:status new # adds only
obsidian publish:status deleted # removes only
"Snapshot the public surface"
obsidian publish:list > published-$(date +%F).txt
obsidian publish:site
"Recover a synced file the agent deleted"
obsidian sync:deleted
# Identify the file, then restore via file-history:
obsidian sync:restore file="Notes/Important" version=1
Agentic Optimizations
| Context | Command |
|---|---|
| Site info | obsidian publish:site |
| List published | obsidian publish:list |
| What's changed since last publish | obsidian publish:status |
| New files only | obsidian publish:status new |
| Publish all changes | obsidian publish:add changed |
| Publish one file | obsidian publish:add file=X |
| Unpublish | obsidian publish:remove file=X |
| Sync status | obsidian sync:status |
| Pause sync | obsidian sync off |
| Resume sync | obsidian sync on |
| Sync-deleted files | obsidian sync:deleted |
Related Skills
- vault-files — Create or modify notes before publishing
- properties — Set publish-related frontmatter on notes
- search-discovery — Find notes tagged for publishing
- file-history — Per-file sync history (
sync:history,sync:read,sync:restore)