CLI: tasks and tags silently return empty when called from terminal,

Bug graveyard
1

Category: Bug Reports
Tag: cli

Issue

Several CLI commands silently return empty or zero results when called from a terminal session. The commands succeed (exit code 0) but produce wrong output because they default to “active file” scope — which doesn’t exist in a CLI context.

This affects tasks, tags, and properties format=json.

Steps to reproduce

Tested in the Obsidian Sandbox vault (Help > Sandbox Vault) — no community plugins or themes enabled.

1. tasks returns empty even when tasks exist

The Sandbox vault contains 6 tasks:

> tasks all
- [x] #tags, [links](), **formatting** supported
- [x] list syntax required (any unordered or ordered list supported)
- [x] this is a complete item
- [?] this is also a complete item (works with every character)
- [ ] this is an incomplete item
- [ ] tasks can be clicked in Preview to be checked off

But without all:

> tasks total
0

> tasks todo
No tasks found.

Same in a 600+ note vault: tasks todo total → 0, tasks all todo total → 684.

2. tags returns empty even when tags exist

> tags counts total
0

> tags all counts total
1

Same in main vault: tags counts → “No tags found.”, tags all counts → 141 lines of data.

3. Error messages still return exit code 0

$ obsidian base:views
Error: Active file is not a base file: ...
$ echo $?
0

4. properties format=json returns YAML-like output instead of JSON

$ obsidian properties path=somefile.md format=json
# Output is YAML-like, not valid JSON

(Tested in main vault. Sandbox vault’s default files have no frontmatter.)

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide? [Y]

Expected result

  • tasks / tags without all scope: either default to vault-wide, or show a warning like “No active file — did you mean tasks all todo?”
  • Commands that print Error: should return a non-zero exit code
  • format=json should return valid JSON

Actual result

  • tasks total → 0 (should be 6 in Sandbox, 684 in main vault)
  • tasks todo → No tasks found. (should be 2 in Sandbox)
  • tags counts total → 0 (should be 1 in Sandbox)
  • All commands return exit code 0, even on error
  • No warning about missing active file context

Environment

  • Obsidian 1.12.1 (installer 1.11.4)
  • macOS Sonoma 14.3
  • CLI called from terminal (no active file)
  • Reproduced in Sandbox vault — no community plugins or themes

Additional information

These issues are especially impactful for programmatic/automation use cases. AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) that call the CLI get “successful” responses with wrong results.

2 Likes
2

A shot in the dark but did you try with the latest installer (1.11.7) ? :woman_shrugging:

I’m a very basic CLI user :sweat_smile: … but from my tests, the “active file” scope does exist :thinking: …
It’s the currently opened/focused file in the currently opened/focused vault in Obsidian (which should be open in the background before trying to interact with it through the CLI/TUI) if you didn’t explicitly target a specific vault with vault= ... .

It’s the same for the base:views: it requires a .base file to be open/focused on in Obsidian to work (otherwise you’ll get the error you’ve run into :blush:).

From my tests, it only returns 0 if the note focused on in Obsidian doesn’t contains any tasks…

I mean, I also get the same result when trying to run the same command and Obsidian is actually focused on Obsidian Sandbox > Start here.md …

SBV - Start here
SBV - Start here696×526 49.5 KB

> tasks total 

0

But if I open Formatting/Task.md instead and run the command in the TUI, I get the expected result :blush: …

SBV - Task
SBV - Task696×526 67.2 KB

> tasks total 

6

The “active file” default can be bypassed by targeting directly a note …

> tasks path="Formatting/Task.md" total

6

Edit: About the point 4: properties format=json returns YAML-like output instead of JSON

From the doc, the format option for properties only accepts yaml or tsv (yaml being the default)

3

tasks will be reworked in 1.12.2. Tasks all will not be necessary.
Please, open a new BR if you still have issues after you get 1.12.2

1 Like