CLI: command hangs when piping CLI output to the `head` command

Bug reports
,
1

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open a terminal
  2. Run obsidian help | head -10

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y/N]

Yes.

Expected result

The command prints 10 lines then exit.

Actual result

The command prints 10 lines but doesn’t exit.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: 1.12.3
	Installer version: 1.10.6
	Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 25.2.0: Tue Nov 18 21:09:40 PST 2025; root:xnu-12377.61.12~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000 25.2.0
	Login status: logged in
	Language: en
	Catalyst license: insider
	Insider build toggle: on
	Live preview: on
	Base theme: adapt to system
	Community theme: Cupertino 3.2.5
	Snippets enabled: 0
	Restricted mode: off
	Plugins installed: 46
	Plugins enabled: 20
		1: Style Settings v1.0.9
		2: Vault Statistics v0.1.3
		3: Paste URL into selection v1.11.4
		4: Outliner v4.10.0
		5: Quick Switcher++ v6.0.0
		6: QuickAdd v2.11.0
		7: Local Images Plus v0.16.4
		8: AttachFlow v0.4.5
		9: Paste image rename v1.6.1
		10: Advanced URI v1.46.1
		11: BRAT v2.0.2
		12: Dataview v0.5.68
		13: Image Captions v1.1.7
		14: Image Converter v1.4.1
		15: Kanban v2.0.51
		16: Linter v1.31.0
		17: File Cleaner Redux v1.13.4
		18: Collapsible Code Blocks v1.0.6
		19: Claudian v1.3.65
		20: Terminal v3.21.0

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	Custom theme and snippets: for cosmetic issues, please first try updating your theme and disabling your snippets. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community theme and snippets.
	Community plugins: for bugs, please first try updating all your plugins to latest. If still not fixed, please try to make the issue happen in the Sandbox Vault or disable community plugins.

Additional information

In kepano’s Obsidian CLI skill it says, “Run obsidian help to see all available commands.” Coding agents that read this will often run “obsidian help” and pipe its output to the head command to quickly verify it. Because the command hangs, the agents’ execution also stalls until it times out.

2

In the Troubleshooting guide, you are asked to download and reinstall obsidian, did you do it?

3

I didn’t reinstall before. After reinstalling, the problem persists.

4

Is obsidian already running?

because the cli works only if obsidian is already running.

5

Yes, it’s running.

If I remove the head part from the command, it works normally.

6

Thanks, this seems to be a mac specific problem

7

Hello,

I ran into the same problem. For what its worth, the LLM I’m using thinks the app isn’t handling SIGPIPE properly but I’m not really that makes sense if its a macOS only problem.

I did figure out though that while obsidian | head never exits, obsidian | cat | head works fine. This at least is able to be put in skill files to work around the issue for me.

I tested with version 1.12.5 and installer 1.11.7. Mainly posting to share the workaround I found.

8

Hello, you do need to try this with the new installer.

Please, go on discord channel #insider-desktop and after you have downloaded and reinstalled obsidian report back.

Thanks

9

Thanks WhiteNoise. I’ve added a post there. I updated to the 1.12.4 installer and am seeing the same behavior. I did notice something extra though.

obsidian version | head works fine
obsidian help | head does not.
obsidian help | cat | head works fine.

Seems like longer output causes the problem.