After enabling the CLI in Settings → General → Command line interface and clicking “Register”, the CLI works correctly while Obsidian is running. However, after quitting and relaunching
the Obsidian desktop app, running obsidian commands in the terminal opens/focuses the GUI window instead of executing CLI commands. The only way to restore CLI functionality is to toggle
the setting off/on and click “Register” again.
Environment
macOS (Apple Silicon, Darwin 25.2.0)
Obsidian 1.12.2 (early access)
Steps to reproduce
Open Obsidian Settings → General → Command line interface
Enable the CLI toggle and click “Register”
Verify CLI works: run obsidian help in terminal (should display help text)
Quit Obsidian completely (Command+Q or quit from menu)
Relaunch Obsidian (from Dock or by running obsidian in terminal)
Run obsidian help or any other CLI command in terminal
Expected behavior
CLI commands should continue to work after quitting and relaunching Obsidian, without requiring re-registration.
Actual behavior
After quit/relaunch, running obsidian or any obsidian subcommand in the terminal opens/focuses the GUI window instead of executing the CLI command.
Additional observations
The following persist correctly across quit/relaunch cycles:
PATH entry in ~/.zprofile: export PATH=“$PATH:/Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS”
CLI setting in ~/Library/Application Support/obsidian/obsidian.json: “cli”: true
which obsidian returns /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS/obsidian in both working and broken states
This suggests the issue is not with the shell configuration or settings persistence, but with how the Obsidian binary determines whether to launch in GUI mode or CLI mode after a fresh
launch of the application.
Workaround
Toggle the CLI setting off, then back on, and click “Register” again in Settings → General → Command line interface. This temporarily restores CLI functionality until the next
quit/relaunch.
```
SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.12.2
Installer version: 1.8.10
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 25.2.0: Tue Nov 18 21:07:05 PST 2025; root:xnu-12377.61.12~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T6020 25.2.0
Login status: logged in
Language: en-GB
Catalyst license: insider
Insider build toggle: on
Live preview: on
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: Minimal 7.6.0
Snippets enabled: 1
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 27
Plugins enabled: 24
1: Readwise Official v3.0.1
2: Templater v2.18.1
3: Tag Wrangler v0.6.4
4: Paste URL into selection v1.11.4
5: Omnisearch v1.28.0
6: Dataview v0.5.68
7: Linter v1.31.0
8: Natural Language Dates v0.6.2
9: Paste image rename v1.6.1
10: Remember cursor position v1.0.9
11: Mononote v1.2.2
12: Folder notes v1.8.18
13: File Explorer Note Count v1.2.4
14: Iconize v2.14.7
15: Actions URI v1.8.4
16: Advanced URI v1.46.1
17: Calendar v1.5.10
18: Code Styler v1.1.7
19: Hider v1.6.1
20: Minimal Theme Settings v8.2.1
21: Style Settings v1.0.9
22: Outliner v4.9.0
23: GitHub Link v1.2.0
24: Taskdn v0.2.4
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.
```
Facepalm confirmed. The 1.11.7 installer fixed this.
It might be an idea to make that bit of the CLI doc a little more shouty because:
Requiring a clean download of an installer (which on macOS isn’t even really an installer, it’s a DMG) is kinda unexpected when an app has a built-in update mechanism.
I read that doc at least twice before raising this issue and still missed it.
PS. I’m sure there’s other threads on this but it feels weird thatobsidian is both the CLI and a launcher for the desktop app, especially because it “fails” in a super-unexpected way if the desktop app isn’t open… a CLI tool falling back to “run the desktop app from this shell” is mad confusing. Assuming backwards-compatibility is important, It’d much rather have two separate binaries which behave predictably.
Agreed. I wish it was also in the “RECOMMENDATIONS” section of the Show debug info”. It comes up a lot. Many people don’t realize.
There were 4 or 5 times the release notes suggested reinstalling since your last version. But that doesn’t clearly let users know auto-updating doesn’t count.
