Obsidian — OpenClaw Skill

What This Skill Does

The Obsidian skill gives your OpenClaw agent the ability to interact with your Obsidian vault -- the local-first, plain Markdown knowledge base used by millions of knowledge workers. Since an Obsidian vault is just a normal folder of .md files on disk, the agent can both use the obsidian-cli tool for structured operations and directly edit Markdown files for content changes.

The skill supports searching notes by title or full-text content, creating new notes in any folder with initial content, moving and renaming notes with automatic [[wikilink]] updates across the entire vault, deleting notes, and setting a default vault. The wikilink-aware move operation is the key advantage over simple file manipulation -- when you reorganize your vault, all cross-references stay intact.

The agent discovers your vaults by reading Obsidian's registry at ~/Library/Application Support/obsidian/obsidian.json, so it works with any vault configuration -- local folders, iCloud synced vaults, or multiple vaults for different projects. It never touches the .obsidian/ configuration directory, keeping your workspace settings, themes, and plugins safe.

Example Prompts

Create a new note in my "Daily Notes" folder called "2026-03-03" with a template header for date, mood, and top 3 priorities

Search my vault for everything related to "product roadmap" and compile a summary of all the features mentioned across different notes

Move all my notes from "Inbox" to "Projects/Active" and make sure the wikilinks are updated

Find all notes that mention "quarterly review" and add a tag #review-2026-q1 to each one

Create a new note in "Meeting Notes" with today's standup summary: what each person reported, blockers, and action items from our Slack discussion

Search my vault content for any references to the AWS migration and list which notes discuss timelines

Set my "Work" vault as the default and list all notes modified in the last 3 days

Requirements

Binary dependency: obsidian-cli

• macOS: brew install yakitrak/yakitrak/obsidian-cli
• Obsidian app: Must be installed (the CLI uses the obsidian:// URI handler for certain operations)
• Vault access: The agent reads vault paths from Obsidian's config; no manual path configuration needed

Setup on KiwiClaw

This skill is pre-installed and configured on all KiwiClaw plans. The obsidian-cli binary is available on every tenant machine. If your Obsidian vault is accessible from the machine (e.g., synced via iCloud or mounted), the agent can work with it immediately. No setup needed.

Setup Self-Hosted

1. Install obsidian-cli: brew install yakitrak/yakitrak/obsidian-cli
2. Make sure Obsidian desktop is installed and your vault is open at least once
3. Set a default vault: obsidian-cli set-default "YourVaultName"
4. Verify: obsidian-cli print-default --path-only should show your vault path

Related Skills

• Notion -- cloud-based alternative for team wikis and databases
• GitHub -- version-control your Obsidian vault with Git
• Slack -- capture Slack conversations as Obsidian notes
• Coding Agent -- automate vault maintenance scripts

FAQ

What can the Obsidian skill do in OpenClaw?

The Obsidian skill lets your OpenClaw agent search notes by title or content, create new notes in any folder, move and rename notes with automatic wikilink updates, delete notes, and directly edit Markdown files in your vault. It uses obsidian-cli for safe operations and can also edit files directly since Obsidian vaults are just folders of Markdown.

Does the Obsidian skill modify my vault's .obsidian folder?

No. The skill only works with your Markdown note files and folders. It does not touch the .obsidian configuration directory, which stores your workspace settings, themes, and plugin configurations.

Can the Obsidian skill handle multiple vaults?

Yes. The skill reads your Obsidian vault registry to discover all configured vaults. You can set a default vault with obsidian-cli, or the skill will use the currently open vault. It works with vaults stored anywhere -- local folders, iCloud, or Documents.

Does the skill update wikilinks when moving notes?

Yes. When you move or rename a note using the skill's move command, it automatically updates all [[wikilinks]] and common Markdown links across the entire vault. This is the main advantage over using a simple file move command.