Obsidian CLI "Unable to find helper app"

jlucktay · March 4, 2026, 2:38pm

Steps to reproduce

My Obsidian install was done via Homebrew.

I had installed version 1.8.x at some point in 2025.

When I saw the new CLI feature in the release notes, I wanted to give it a try.

Running Obsidian version told me my installer was out of date.

I ran brew install obsidian and it reinstalled with the 1.12.4 installer.

The Obsidian GUI app still works fine, just as before.

Running obsidian version (note, lowercase “o” here and uppercase “O” above, if the two different binaries are significant) gives back this:

> obsidian version
[0304/142619.552427:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/142619.557767:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
1.12.4 (installer 1.12.4)
[0304/142619.594981:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/142619.598569:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide?

Yes.

Expected result

Just the version details, nothing else.

Actual result

See above; the same FATAL error repeated a few times, about not being able to find a helper app.

Environment

SYSTEM INFO:
Obsidian version: 1.12.4
Installer version: 1.12.4
Operating system: Darwin Kernel Version 25.3.0: Wed Jan 28 20:48:41 PST 2026; root:xnu-12377.81.4~5/RELEASE_ARM64_T6041 25.3.0
Login status: logged in
Language: en-GB
Catalyst license: none
Insider build toggle: off
Live preview: off
Base theme: adapt to system
Community theme: none
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 9
Plugins enabled: 9
1: Linter v1.31.0
2: LanguageTool Integration v0.3.8
3: Templater v2.18.1
4: Tasks v7.23.0
5: Numerals v1.5.5
6: Plugin Update Tracker v1.7.0
7: Spaced Repetition v1.13.6
8: Global Hotkeys v0.1.2
9: QuickAdd v2.11.0
RECOMMENDATIONS:
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.

Note that this is a work laptop with MDM active, so some apps/binaries are blocked from running. I do use things like VSCode for daily work, though, which is another Electron app.

Additional information

Running just obsidian by itself, with the GUI app already running, should give me a TUI if I understood the docs correctly. Instead, I get this:

obsidian
[0304/143410.839656:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143410.842984:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
▗▄▟██
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▐█████▛ ▟███
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▗ ▜███▎▐█████▌
▗█▙ ▜██▎▐██████
▗███▙ ▜█▙ ▜█████▙
▗█████▙ ▄▄▄▄▃▔▀███▙
▝██████ ██████▄ ▜█▘
▀████▛ ███████▙ ▘
▀█▛ ▟████████▌ Obsidian 1.12.4
▝▀▀▀▀████▀
jlucktay-obsidian
Tab to autocomplete, ↑/↓ for history, Ctrl+C to quit
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[0304/143410.891297:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143410.897142:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143410.919505:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143410.923452:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143410.946795:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143410.949762:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143410.975879:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143410.979258:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143411.007872:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143411.011952:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143411.037047:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143411.039986:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143411.066725:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143411.069687:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[0304/143411.097887:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
[70025:0304/143411.099012:FATAL:content/browser/gpu/gpu_data_manager_impl_private.cc:415] GPU process isn’t usable. Goodbye.
[0304/143411.100867:FATAL:electron/shell/app/electron_main_delegate_mac.mm:65] Unable to find helper app
Trace/BPT trap: 5 obsidian

WhiteNoise · March 4, 2026, 2:40pm

This is not an installation method we support.

Please, uninstall it, then and download and install from our website. Thanks.

derBingle · March 18, 2026, 5:31am

Ran into the same issue, @jlucktay, and this was the first Google result.

Turns out the obsidian shim Homebrew installs is just a wrapper for launching the GUI app. And since /opt/homebrew/bin appears earlier in $PATH, it’ll take precedence over the new CLI binary inside the app bundle.

Running rm /opt/homebrew/bin/obsidian did the trick for me. Hope it helps!

derBingle · March 18, 2026, 5:55am

I totally get a small team not supporting alternative installation methods, I really do. You guys do an amazing job, and I, for one, am grateful.

That said, I just upgraded my computer last week, and it didn’t even occur to me not to install Obsidian via brew… and I don’t think I’m alone in that. Between the current analytics on the Obsidian formula page and some Wayback sleuthing, it looks like well over a quarter of a million installs have come via Homebrew. So PATH conflicts like this are likely to affect a meaningful number of users.

andromediano · March 29, 2026, 1:05am

If you installed Obsidian via Homebrew, “Register CLI” likely won’t work out of the box. Homebrew creates a symlink at /opt/homebrew/bin/obsidian that just launches the GUI, and since Homebrew’s PATH is initialized before the CLI path that Register appends to ~/.zprofile, the symlink always wins.

Fix: manually edit ~/.zprofile so the CLI path comes first:

export PATH="/Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS:$PATH"  # add before Homebrew
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"                       # existing Homebrew line

It would be great if the Register logic could detect this conflict and either prepend the path or warn the user — Homebrew is pretty much standard on macOS, so this probably affects a lot of people.

onelaview · March 29, 2026, 5:14am

The Obsidian CLI binary is located at /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS/obsidian-cli.

When Obsidian registers its CLI in PATH, it creates a symlink:

/usr/local/bin/obsidian → /Applications/Obsidian.app/Contents/MacOS/obsidian-cli

And as @derBingle mentioned, Homebrew also installs obsidian shim in /opt/homebrew/bin which appears in PATH before /usr/local/bin

To instruct Homebrew not to do so, you can use --no-binaries flag:

brew install --cask obsidian --no-binaries

Pch · March 29, 2026, 11:59am

Just a small precision regarding this though :

This is only true since the release of Obsidian’s installer 1.12.7

Obsidian’s installer 1.12.4 doesn’t provide, AFAIK, a dedicated binary/executable for the CLI.

I’m just mentioning this because more often than not, updating the installer (which isn’t the same as the in-app update of Obsidian), can be overlooked and also because the registration of CLI on PATH has indeed changed between 1.12.4 and 1.12.7.