pi-obsidian

A Pi extension for the Obsidian CLI — search, read, browse, and edit an Obsidian vault through a typed tool that calls the local obsidian CLI directly (not via an MCP server).

Why

Pi can already shell out to the obsidian CLI via bash, but a bare skill describing CLI flags is easy to misuse: the model reaches for the mcp gateway (there is no obsidian MCP server), forgets to set format=json, or runs delete permanent by accident. This extension packages the CLI behind a typed tool with:

• a command enum so the model can't typo a subcommand
• an args map that serializes to the CLI's key=value token format (booleans → bare flags, no shell quoting needed)
• prompt guidance injected when a prompt mentions obsidian / vault / notes
• a bundled skill documenting every command
• safety guards — refuses delete permanent, detects "CLI not enabled" and returns actionable fallback guidance
• output truncation consistent with Pi's built-in tools

Requirements

• The obsidian CLI on your PATH (Settings > General > Advanced > Enable Command Line Interface)
• The Obsidian desktop app running with the CLI enabled

When the CLI is unavailable, the skill instructs the agent to fall back to rg over the vault folder.

Install

As a Pi package (recommended)

pi install npm:@sfroment/pi-obsidian

Or pin a version:

pi install npm:@sfroment/pi-obsidian@1.0.0

Then /reload in Pi. The package appears in the pi.dev gallery because it's tagged pi-package on npm.

From git

pi install git:github.com:sfroment/pi-obsidian@v1.0.0

Manually

Copy or symlink this directory into ~/.pi/agent/extensions/obsidian/, then /reload.

Tool reference

The obsidian tool takes:

param	type	description
command	enum (required)	CLI subcommand: search, search:context, read, files, folders, outline, tags, properties, property:read, property:set, backlinks, links, orphans, deadends, unresolved, create, append, prepend, move, rename, delete, daily:read, daily:append, tasks, vaults, vault, …
args	object	Key/value flags. Booleans become bare flags ({counts: true} → counts). Strings/numbers become key=value tokens. Use \n for newlines and \t for tabs inside content.
vault	string	Target vault by name. Defaults to the active vault.
timeoutSeconds	int	Default 30, max 120.

Examples

// search notes
{ "command": "search", "args": { "query": "mistral", "format": "json", "limit": 10 } }

// read a note (wikilink-style name resolution)
{ "command": "read", "args": { "file": "My Note" } }

// backlinks with counts
{ "command": "backlinks", "args": { "file": "My Note", "counts": true, "format": "json" } }

// append to today's daily note
{ "command": "daily:append", "args": { "content": "- did a thing\n" } }

Develop

git clone git@github.com:sfroment/pi-obsidian.git
cd pi-obsidian
bun install
bun test

The tests mock only the system boundary (pi.exec) via dependency injection — runObsidian(params, exec) takes the exec function as a parameter, so tests pass a fake that records argv and returns canned results. Internal helpers (buildArgv, assertSafeCommand, formatOutput) are pure and tested directly.

The pretest script (scripts/link-pi-deps.sh) symlinks the pi runtime packages (@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent, @earendil-works/pi-ai, typebox) into node_modules/ so Bun can resolve the extension's imports during tests.

License

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.