Obsidian

Obsidian is a local-first knowledge base and note-taking app built on plain Markdown files. Obsidian itself does not publish a hosted SaaS API; programmatic access is provided through (1) the in-app Plugin API for community plugins, (2) the community-built Local REST API plugin that exposes vault operations over localhost HTTPS, and (3) optional paid add-on services Obsidian Sync and Obsidian Publish.

Obsidian publishes 10 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Active File API, Commands API, Open API, and 7 more. Tagged areas include Productivity, Knowledge Management, Markdown, Notes, and Local-First.

The Obsidian catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

Obsidian’s developer surface includes authentication, documentation, pricing, GitHub presence, engineering blog, and 12 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

34.9/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 30/100 agent ready Front door AI 1/6 silent Heartbeat 99/100 alive saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-13 · rubric v0.28.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 published contract

Productivity Knowledge Management Markdown Notes Local-First

What this lets a business do 1

Business capabilities this provider's published APIs can perform, derived from its own contracts. Browse all capabilities →

Knowledge Management

BC-830

Vault Files

PUT /vault/{filename}

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-13 · rubric v0.28.0

Composite quality — 34.9/100 · thin

Contract Quality 8.8 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 5.7 / 15

Access Clarity 2.2 / 15

Operational Transparency 2.1 / 10

Contract Governance 1.2 / 9

Discoverability 5.5 / 8

Regulatory Posture 2.6 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 1.1 / 10

Agent readiness — 30/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship Ask about this →
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented) Ask about this →
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0 Ask about this →
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document Ask about this →
Delegated User Identity +6 pts — a served discovery document listing authorization_code in grant_types_supported (served), else an oauth2 authorizationCode flow or openIdConnect declared in an OpenAPI (documented) Ask about this →
Typed Event Surface +6 pts — AsyncAPI document, OR webhooks/callbacks objects in the as-published OpenAPI, OR common[].type includes Webhooks Ask about this →

7 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Access Clarity scores 14.9 — up to +17.0 composite points Ask about this →
Contract Quality scores 47.1 — up to +13.2 composite points Ask about this →
Developer Ergonomics scores 38.1 — up to +12.4 composite points Ask about this →

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Not sure how this applies to your stack? Ask about any one item. Kin Lane reads every question, looks at your profile and your situation, and replies with what a fix would take — scoped to that one area, priced up front, yours whether you ship it or not. Ask a question →

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/obsidian/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/obsidian to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
Browser Extension Stores (company-published Firefox add-ons; Chrome Web Store unreadable)	coverage	51.8	-	-
Raycast Store Extensions (first-party publishers + community-wrapped products)	coverage	51.8	-	-
Obsidian Community Plugins (third-party APIs the Obsidian plugin ecosystem integrates)	coverage	51.8	-	-
Flathub Linux App Publishers (company-published, domain-verified Linux desktop apps)	coverage	51.8	-	-

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 2

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

Markdown

tagged — the provider's own APIs.json carries the standard as a tag; implementation not verified

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 10

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Obsidian Plugin API

In-app TypeScript/JavaScript Plugin API for building Obsidian plugins. Plugins access the Vault, Workspace, MetadataCache, file system, command palette, settings, editor, and Ma...

Obsidian Active File API

The Active File API from Obsidian — 1 operation(s) for active file.

Obsidian Commands API

The Commands API from Obsidian — 2 operation(s) for commands.

Obsidian Open API

The Open API from Obsidian — 1 operation(s) for open.

Obsidian Periodic Notes API

The Periodic Notes API from Obsidian — 2 operation(s) for periodic notes.

Obsidian Search API

The Search API from Obsidian — 2 operation(s) for search.

Obsidian System API

The System API from Obsidian — 3 operation(s) for system.

Obsidian Tags API

The Tags API from Obsidian — 1 operation(s) for tags.

Obsidian Vault Directories API

The Vault Directories API from Obsidian — 2 operation(s) for vault directories.

Obsidian Vault Files API

The Vault Files API from Obsidian — 1 operation(s) for vault files.

Scroll for all 10

Open Collections 9

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

Local REST API for Obsidian Active File API

OPEN COLLECTION

Local REST API for Obsidian Active File Commands API

OPEN COLLECTION

Local REST API for Obsidian Active File Open API

OPEN COLLECTION

Local REST API for Obsidian Active File Periodic Notes API

OPEN COLLECTION

Local REST API for Obsidian Active File Search API

OPEN COLLECTION

Local REST API for Obsidian Active File System API

OPEN COLLECTION

Local REST API for Obsidian Active File Tags API

OPEN COLLECTION

Local REST API for Obsidian Active File Vault Directories API

OPEN COLLECTION

Local REST API for Obsidian Active File Vault Files API

OPEN COLLECTION

Scroll for all 9

Obsidian API pricing

Not yet checked against Obsidian's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist on 2026-05-08 from obsidian.md/pricing; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

Plan	Price
Personal Use (Free) free	Free
Commercial License paid	$50 per per-User Annual License
Catalyst Supporter License paid	$25 per one-Time Catalyst License
Obsidian Sync (Add-On) paid	$4 per sync Annual · $5 per sync Monthly
Obsidian Publish (Add-On) paid	$8 per publish Annual · $10 per publish Monthly

Plan details, limits and sources →

Rate limits

Plugin API (In-Process): unlimited none
Local REST API Plugin: unlimited none
Obsidian Sync (Add-On): not published not published

Compiled by API Evangelist, not yet checked against Obsidian's documentation. All 4 limits →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Obsidian Plans Pricing

5 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Obsidian Rate Limits

4 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Obsidian Finops

FINOPS

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs. Counts are the severity each rule declares, not results of running them.

Obsidian API Rules

49 rules · 43 error-severity 5 warn-severity 1 info-severity

SPECTRAL

Security Posture 3

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Obsidian Authentication

http · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Obsidian Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Obsidian Vulnerability Disclosure

no policy recorded

SECURITY

Agentic Access (API Evangelist recommendations) 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Obsidian Agentic Access

31 operations · 18 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 2

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

LlmsText

LlmsText

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHub

GitHub

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

VulnerabilityDisclosure

VulnerabilityDisclosure

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing

Pricing

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 3

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Other 3

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CapabilityMap

CapabilityMap

ProductPage

ProductPage

ProductPage

ProductPage

Source (apis.yml)

aid: obsidian
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/obsidian/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: Obsidian
kind: company
description: Obsidian is a local-first knowledge base and note-taking app built on plain Markdown files. Obsidian itself does
  not publish a hosted SaaS API; programmatic access is provided through (1) the in-app Plugin API for community plugins,
  (2) the community-built Local REST API plugin that exposes vault operations over localhost HTTPS, and (3) optional paid
  add-on services Obsidian Sync and Obsidian Publish.
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  license_evidence:
    not_product:
    - coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  open_source: unknown
  commercial: true
  callable_host: false
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: low
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  - repository-not-product
  generated: '2026-09-25'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  gated: none
  gated_source:
  - onboarding
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-13'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/obsidian.png
tags:
- Productivity
- Knowledge Management
- Markdown
- Notes
- Local-First
tags_raw:
- Productivity
- Knowledge Management
- Markdown
- Notes
- Local-First
- Knowledge-Management
created: '2026-05-08'
modified: '2026-07-25'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-plugin-api
  name: Obsidian Plugin API
  tags:
  - Plugins
  - Extensions
  - SDK
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  properties:
  - url: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-api
    type: SDKs
  - url: https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-sample-plugin
    type: Sample
  description: In-app TypeScript/JavaScript Plugin API for building Obsidian plugins. Plugins access the Vault, Workspace,
    MetadataCache, file system, command palette, settings, editor, and Markdown post-processing. Distributed as community
    plugins via the Obsidian community plugin browser.
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-active-file-api
  name: Obsidian Active File API
  description: The Active File API from Obsidian — 1 operation(s) for active file.
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  tags:
  - Active File
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/obsidian-active-file-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://coddingtonbear.github.io/obsidian-local-rest-api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-commands-api
  name: Obsidian Commands API
  description: The Commands API from Obsidian — 2 operation(s) for commands.
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  tags:
  - Commands
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/obsidian-commands-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://coddingtonbear.github.io/obsidian-local-rest-api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-open-api
  name: Obsidian Open API
  description: The Open API from Obsidian — 1 operation(s) for open.
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  tags:
  - Open
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/obsidian-open-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://coddingtonbear.github.io/obsidian-local-rest-api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-periodic-notes-api
  name: Obsidian Periodic Notes API
  description: The Periodic Notes API from Obsidian — 2 operation(s) for periodic notes.
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  tags:
  - Periodic Notes
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/obsidian-periodic-notes-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://coddingtonbear.github.io/obsidian-local-rest-api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-search-api
  name: Obsidian Search API
  description: The Search API from Obsidian — 2 operation(s) for search.
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  tags:
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/obsidian-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://coddingtonbear.github.io/obsidian-local-rest-api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-system-api
  name: Obsidian System API
  description: The System API from Obsidian — 3 operation(s) for system.
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  tags:
  - System
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/obsidian-system-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://coddingtonbear.github.io/obsidian-local-rest-api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-tags-api
  name: Obsidian Tags API
  description: The Tags API from Obsidian — 1 operation(s) for tags.
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  tags:
  - Tags
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/obsidian-tags-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://coddingtonbear.github.io/obsidian-local-rest-api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-vault-directories-api
  name: Obsidian Vault Directories API
  description: The Vault Directories API from Obsidian — 2 operation(s) for vault directories.
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  tags:
  - Vault Directories
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/obsidian-vault-directories-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://coddingtonbear.github.io/obsidian-local-rest-api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
- aid: obsidian:obsidian-vault-files-api
  name: Obsidian Vault Files API
  description: The Vault Files API from Obsidian — 1 operation(s) for vault files.
  humanURL: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
  baseURL: local
  tags:
  - Vault Files
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/obsidian-vault-files-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://coddingtonbear.github.io/obsidian-local-rest-api/
  - type: GitHub
    url: https://github.com/coddingtonbear/obsidian-local-rest-api
common:
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/obsidian-capability-edges.yml
  name: Obsidian Business Capability Map
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/obsidian-agentic-access.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/obsidian-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/obsidian-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/obsidian-authentication.yml
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/obsidianmd
- type: Website
  url: https://obsidian.md/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://docs.obsidian.md/Home
- type: Pricing
  url: https://obsidian.md/pricing
- type: GitHub
  url: https://github.com/obsidianmd
- type: Plans
  url: plans/obsidian-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/obsidian-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/obsidian-finops.yml
- type: LlmsText
  url: https://docs.obsidian.md/llms.txt
- type: Blog
  url: https://obsidian.md/feed.xml
- type: ProductPage
  url: https://obsidian.md/sync
- type: ProductPage
  url: https://obsidian.md/publish
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

Obsidian API — frequently asked questions

Does Obsidian have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 10 APIs from Obsidian, including Obsidian Plugin API, Obsidian Active File API and Obsidian Commands API, and 7 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Obsidian API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 9 OpenAPI specifications for Obsidian, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the Obsidian API?

Obsidian uses bearer-token authentication (http · 1 scheme). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Obsidian Authentication.

How much does the Obsidian API cost?

APIs.io lists 5 pricing plans for Obsidian, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the Obsidian API ready for AI agents?

Obsidian has a Kin Score of 34.9 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 30.2 (agent-ready), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-13.

Work with this as data

Every provider here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.

MCP server

One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.

https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for providers

9 MCP tools reach this

find_providersBrowse and filter every provider in the catalog.
get_provider_artifactsEvery artifact this provider publishes, grouped by type.
get_provider_operationsEvery operation across all of their OpenAPIs — one call instead of parsing every spec.
get_provider_toolsEvery MCP tool they ship, with the operation each wraps.
get_provider_evidenceHow each part of their score was established. Free — the basis for a claim should not sit behind it.
get_provider_ratingPRO — composite, band, trend and facet scores.
apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.

All 92 tools →

Call it yourself

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Every operation they expose

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/obsidian/operations?limit=25"

How their score was established

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/obsidian/evidence"

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