Installation

Choose your interface

aiobsidian supports two interfaces for interacting with Obsidian:

Interface	Requirements	Install
CLI (primary)	Obsidian CLI v1.12+	pip install aiobsidian
REST (optional)	Local REST API plugin + httpx	pip install aiobsidian[rest]

CLI setup

1. Obsidian — download from obsidian.md

2. Obsidian CLI — included with Obsidian v1.12+. Verify installation:

   obsidian version
   

3. Install aiobsidian:

pipuvPoetry

pip install aiobsidian

uv add aiobsidian

poetry add aiobsidian

Verify CLI setup

import asyncio
from aiobsidian import ObsidianCLI

async def main():
    async with ObsidianCLI("MyVault") as cli:
        files = await cli.vault.list()
        print(f"Found {len(files)} files")

asyncio.run(main())

Note

Obsidian must be running in the background for the CLI to work — it communicates with the desktop app via IPC.

REST setup

1. Obsidian — download from obsidian.md

2. Local REST API plugin — install from the Obsidian Community Plugins:

   • Open Obsidian Settings → Community Plugins → Browse
   • Search for "Local REST API"
   • Install and enable the plugin
   • Copy the API key from the plugin settings

3. Install aiobsidian with REST support:

pipuvPoetry

pip install aiobsidian[rest]

uv add aiobsidian[rest]

poetry add aiobsidian[rest]

SSL certificates

The Local REST API plugin uses self-signed HTTPS certificates by default. aiobsidian disables SSL verification (verify_ssl=False) to handle this automatically.

Warning

If you need strict SSL verification (e.g. behind a reverse proxy with real certificates), pass verify_ssl=True when creating the client:

client = ObsidianClient(api_key="...", verify_ssl=True)

Verify REST setup

import asyncio
from aiobsidian import ObsidianClient

async def main():
    async with ObsidianClient(api_key="your-api-key") as client:
        status = await client.system.status()
        print(f"Connected! Obsidian v{status.versions.obsidian}")

asyncio.run(main())