kepano/obsidian-skills

A set of agent skills that teach AI coding agents to work with Obsidian's CLI and open file formats.

What it is

obsidian-skills is a collection of Agent Skills that let any skills-compatible AI agent create and edit Obsidian content and drive an Obsidian vault. It packages instructions for Obsidian Flavored Markdown, Bases, JSON Canvas, the Obsidian CLI, and web-content extraction, so agents produce valid Obsidian-specific syntax instead of guessing. It is aimed at Obsidian users who run agents such as Claude Code, Codex, or Open Code against their vaults.

Key features

obsidian-markdown — create and edit Obsidian Flavored Markdown with wikilinks, embeds, callouts, and properties.
obsidian-bases — author Obsidian Bases (.base) with views, filters, formulas, and summaries.
json-canvas — create and edit JSON Canvas (.canvas) files with nodes, edges, groups, and connections.
obsidian-cli — interact with vaults through the Obsidian CLI, including plugin and theme development.
defuddle — extract clean Markdown from web pages to reduce token use.
Built to the Agent Skills specification, so the same skills work across multiple compatible agents.

Tech stack

Content is authored as SKILL.md files following the Agent Skills specification (no application source language).
Distributed as a Claude Code plugin (.claude-plugin/marketplace.json, plugin.json) and via npx skills.
Reference material for callouts, embeds, properties, functions, and examples ships alongside each skill.
Targets the Obsidian CLI and Obsidian open formats (Markdown, Bases, JSON Canvas); the defuddle skill uses the Defuddle extractor.

When to reach for it

You use Obsidian and want an agent to reliably produce correct Obsidian syntax and file formats.
You want to automate vault edits, Bases, or Canvas files through a coding agent.
You are on a skills-compatible agent (Claude Code, Codex, Open Code) and want a drop-in install.
You want agents to save web content into your vault as clean Markdown.

When not to reach for it

You do not use Obsidian or its open formats — the skills are Obsidian-specific.
Your agent does not support the Agent Skills specification.
You need a runtime plugin or automation service rather than instructions an agent reads.
You want general note-taking automation independent of Obsidian's syntax and CLI.

Maturity signal

Created in early January 2026 and last pushed in June 2026, the repository has a large following and a small, focused surface of five skills. The roughly six-week gap between the last push and this writing, combined with a low open-issue count and a stable specification-based format, suggests a compact project in light maintenance rather than one under constant churn. MIT licensing and authorship by a prominent Obsidian community figure lend it credibility.

Alternatives

sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills — use it when you want a broad, general-purpose catalog of agent skills rather than an Obsidian-focused set.
Obsidian MCP servers — use one when you want a running server exposing vault operations to agents instead of skill instructions.
Obsidian community plugins — use these when you want in-app automation without an external AI agent.

Notes

The README warns that Open Code users must clone the whole repository (not just the inner skills/ folder) so the directory structure resolves correctly, and notes that Open Code auto-discovers SKILL.md files with no config changes. The repository carries no application manifests — it is purely skill content and packaging.

Wiki: kepano/obsidian-skills