Flag Reference
| Flag | Long form | Argument | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
-t | --time | HH:mm[:ss] or h:mm[:ss] AM/PM | Override the timestamp for a new entry. Seconds default to 00 if omitted. See Adding Entries. |
-l | --list | — | List entries instead of adding one. Default action when no entry text and no other action flag is given. See Listing Entries. |
-b | — | <days> | List (or edit) entries from <days> days ago. 0 = today (default). See Listing Entries. |
-e | --edit | — | Open today’s (or -b-selected) file in $EDITOR (defaults to vim). See Editing Entries. |
-s | --silent | — | Suppress all output, including error messages. |
-S | --stdin | — | Read the log entry text from stdin instead of the command line. See Reading from stdin. |
-H | --header | — | Include the table header row when listing in table format. |
-c | --category | <name> | Target/filter by category. Repeatable. Use all with -l to list every category. See Section Headers and Categories. |
-p | --phrase | <name> | Use a predefined phrase from the config, with optional trailing arguments for placeholder expansion. See Predefined Phrases. |
-T | — | bullet | table | Override list_type for this invocation. |
-f | — | 12 | 24 | Override time_format for this invocation. |
-v | --version | — | Print the version string and exit. |
-h | --help | — | Print command-line help and exit. |
| (positional) | <entry>... | The log entry text. If omitted (and no -l/-e/-S), entries are listed instead. |
Notes
-Tand-ftake their value as a separate word (e.g.-T table,-f 12), not-Ttable.-c/--categorymay be given multiple times on a single command line; when adding an entry, only the first-cvalue is used as the target category, while when listing, all given values are used as filters.- Running with absolutely no flags and no entry text (
obsidian-logging) is shorthand forobsidian-logging -l. -v/--versionand-h/--helpshort-circuit all other behavior — they print and exit immediately, regardless of any other flags present.
Built-in help text
Running obsidian-logging -h prints usage, every flag, a list of usage examples, the configuration
file locations, the $OBSIDIAN_VAULT_DIR environment variable, and the full set of template
placeholders, all generated directly from the CLI’s argument parser.