obsidian-tasks-cli

Managing Tasks via CLI

Use the obsidian CLI to read and update tasks. Obsidian must be running.

Start with simple CLI commands. Only use obsidian eval when you need filtering that CLI flags can't express (by priority, dates, tags, or custom logic).

Listing Tasks

obsidian tasks todo                    # all incomplete tasks
obsidian tasks done                    # completed tasks
obsidian tasks todo format=json        # JSON output for parsing
obsidian tasks verbose                 # grouped by file
obsidian tasks todo total              # count only
obsidian tasks todo path="Projects"    # filter by folder
obsidian tasks todo file="Shopping"    # filter by file name
obsidian tasks daily todo              # tasks from daily note

JSON output shape:

[
  {
    "status": " ",
    "text": "- [ ] Buy groceries 📅 2025-04-10",
    "file": "Projects/Shopping.md",
    "line": "12"
  }
]

Status characters: " " = TODO, "/" = IN_PROGRESS, "x" = DONE, "-" = CANCELLED.

Updating Tasks

obsidian task path="note.md" line=12 toggle      # toggle status
obsidian task path="note.md" line=12 done         # mark done
obsidian task path="note.md" line=12 todo         # mark todo
obsidian task path="note.md" line=12 status="/"   # set in-progress

To add a new task to a file:

obsidian append path="note.md" content="- [ ] New task 📅 2025-04-10"

append writes whatever text you give it verbatim — match the vault's Task Format setting (Settings → Tasks → Task Format). If it's set to Dataview format, write [due:: 2025-04-10] instead of 📅 2025-04-10 (see obsidian-tasks-syntax for the full field mapping). Check taskFormat in the Tasks plugin's data.json ("emoji" or "dataview") if unsure.

Advanced Queries via Plugin API

For filtering by priority, dates, tags, or any combination — use obsidian eval to access the Tasks plugin cache. The cache holds all parsed task objects with rich queryable properties.