Obsidian Plugin Development - Agent Skill

A comprehensive agent skill for developing high-quality Obsidian plugins that follow best practices, pass code review, and adhere to official submission guidelines.

Overview

This skill provides your coding agent with deep knowledge of Obsidian plugin development standards, including:

• All 36 ESLint rules from eslint-plugin-obsidianmd v0.2.8
• Official Plugin Guidelines from Obsidian documentation
• Submission requirements for the community plugins directory
• Memory management and lifecycle best practices
• Security guidelines and XSS prevention
• Platform compatibility (including iOS considerations)
• Network request best practices (requestUrl vs fetch)

Prerequisites

• A coding agent supporting the Agent Skills standard (Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or Windsurf)
• An Obsidian plugin project (or starting a new one)

Installation

Quick Install

npx skills add https://github.com/gapmiss/obsidian-plugin-skill --skill obsidian

Setup

Option 1: Installer Script (Recommended)

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/gapmiss/obsidian-plugin-skill.git
   cd obsidian-plugin-skill
   

2. Run the installer:

   ./install-skill.sh
   

3. Select your provider(s):

   • All providers — installs to both .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
   • Claude Code — installs to .claude/skills/ with slash commands
   • Codex (OpenAI) — installs to .agents/skills/
   • Windsurf — installs to .agents/skills/

4. Choose installation target (current directory or custom path)

Option 2: Manual Install

git clone https://github.com/gapmiss/obsidian-plugin-skill.git
cd obsidian-plugin-skill

# Copy skill
mkdir -p your-project/.claude/skills/obsidian
cp -r .agents/skills/obsidian/* your-project/.claude/skills/obsidian/

# Copy slash commands
mkdir -p your-project/.claude/commands
cp .claude/commands/obsidian.md your-project/.claude/commands/
cp .claude/commands/create-plugin.md your-project/.claude/commands/

git clone https://github.com/gapmiss/obsidian-plugin-skill.git
cd obsidian-plugin-skill

# Copy skill
mkdir -p your-project/.agents/skills/obsidian
cp -r .agents/skills/obsidian/* your-project/.agents/skills/obsidian/

Option 3: Use as Standalone

Just open this directory with your coding agent — no installation needed!

Skill Structure

The skill uses progressive disclosure for optimal performance:

.agents/skills/obsidian/
├── SKILL.md                          # Main overview (285 lines)
└── reference/                        # Detailed documentation
    ├── memory-management.md          # Lifecycle & cleanup patterns
    ├── type-safety.md                # Type narrowing & safety
    ├── ui-ux.md                      # UI standards & commands
    ├── file-operations.md            # Vault & file API
    ├── css-styling.md                # Theming & styling
    ├── accessibility.md              # A11y requirements (MANDATORY)
    ├── code-quality.md               # Best practices & security
    ├── submission.md                 # Publishing guidelines
    └── eslint-setup.md               # Complete ESLint config guide

SKILL.md provides a concise overview with all 36 rules, while reference files contain comprehensive details on specific topics.

Quick Start: Creating a New Plugin

Interactive Boilerplate Generator

The fastest way to start a new Obsidian plugin with all best practices built-in:

node /path/to/obsidian-plugin-skill/tools/create-plugin.js

Features:

• Generates clean TypeScript boilerplate with no sample code
• Creates src/ directory structure with main.ts and settings.ts
• Validates plugin metadata in real-time against Obsidian's submission bot rules
• Prompts for target directory to avoid overwriting existing files
• Detects existing projects and only adds missing files
• All generated code follows the skill's best practices automatically

What it creates:

your-plugin/
├── src/
│   ├── main.ts           # Plugin class with settings integration
│   └── settings.ts       # Settings interface, defaults, and tab
├── manifest.json         # Validated plugin metadata
├── styles.css           # CSS with Obsidian variables
├── tsconfig.json        # TypeScript configuration
├── package.json         # Dependencies
├── esbuild.config.mjs   # Build configuration
├── eslint.config.mjs    # ESLint configuration
├── version-bump.mjs     # Version management script
├── versions.json        # Version tracking
├── .gitignore          # Git ignore rules
└── LICENSE             # MIT license

Interactive prompts:

1. Target directory (default: current directory)
2. Plugin name (validates: no "Obsidian", can't end with "Plugin")
3. Plugin ID (validates: no "obsidian", can't end with "plugin", lowercase only)
4. Description (validates: no "Obsidian"/"This plugin", must end with punctuation)
5. Author name
6. GitHub username (optional, auto-generates authorUrl)
7. Minimum Obsidian version

Real-time validation catches common mistakes:

❌ Validation Errors:
   • Plugin ID cannot contain "obsidian"
   • Plugin name cannot end with "Plugin"
   • Description must end with punctuation: . ? ! or )

Usage

Invoking the Skill

Skills are automatically discovered by your agent when present in the project directory. You can also invoke them explicitly using the commands above.

Just ask your agent naturally:

Help me implement a new command for my Obsidian plugin

Your agent will automatically use the Obsidian skill guidelines while helping you write code.

What the Skill Helps With

Code Quality

• Prevents common memory leaks
• Enforces type safety (no unsafe casts)
• Ensures proper resource cleanup
• Follows Obsidian's API patterns

UI/UX Standards

• Enforces sentence case for all UI text
• Prevents redundant naming patterns
• Ensures consistent settings UI

Accessibility (A11y)

• MANDATORY keyboard navigation for all interactive elements
• MANDATORY ARIA labels for icon buttons and controls
• MANDATORY focus indicators with proper CSS styling
• Touch target size requirements (44×44px minimum)
• Screen reader support and announcements
• Tooltip positioning with data-tooltip-position

Security

• Prevents XSS vulnerabilities (no innerHTML/outerHTML)
• Validates manifest structure
• Ensures proper path handling

Platform Compatibility

• iOS compatibility checks (no regex lookbehind)
• Cross-platform path handling
• Mobile-friendly API usage

Submission Ready

• Removes template/sample code
• Validates manifest.json
• Ensures LICENSE compliance
• Follows submission requirements

What's Covered

Most Critical Rules (eslint-plugin-obsidianmd v0.2.8)

The main SKILL.md file highlights the most important rules organized by category:

Submission & Naming:

1. Plugin ID: no "obsidian", can't end with "plugin"
2. Plugin name: no "Obsidian", can't end with "Plugin"
3. Plugin name: can't start with "Obsi" or end with "dian"
4. Description: no "Obsidian", "This plugin", etc.
5. Description must end with .?!) punctuation

Memory & Lifecycle: 6. Use registerEvent() for automatic cleanup 7. Don't store view references in plugin 8. Don't call detachLeavesOfType() in onunload

Type Safety: 9. Use instanceof instead of type casting for TFile/TFolder 10. Use .instanceOf(T) for cross-window DOM checks

UI/UX: 11. Use sentence case for all UI text 12. Sentence case in locale JSON files 13. Sentence case in TS/JS locale modules 14. No "command" in command names/IDs 15. No plugin ID/name in command IDs/names 16. No default hotkeys 17. Use .setHeading() for settings headings

API Best Practices: 18. Use Editor API for active file edits 19. Use Vault.process() for background file mods 20. Use FileManager.trashFile() for file deletion 21. Use Vault.getAbstractFileByPath() instead of iterating files 22. Use normalizePath() for user paths 23. Use Platform API for OS detection 24. Use requestUrl() instead of fetch() 25. No console.log in onload/onunload in production 26. Use built-in AbstractInputSuggest 27. Check minAppVersion for API compatibility

Popout Window Compatibility: 28. Use activeDocument/activeWindow instead of globals 29. Use activeWindow.setTimeout() for timers

Event Handling: 30. Check evt.defaultPrevented in editor-drop/paste handlers

Styling: 31. Use Obsidian CSS variables 32. Scope CSS to plugin containers 33. Don't create <link> or <style> elements

Accessibility (MANDATORY): 34. Make all interactive elements keyboard accessible 35. Provide ARIA labels for icon buttons 36. Define clear focus indicators

Security & Compatibility:

• Don't use innerHTML/outerHTML
• Avoid regex lookbehind

Code Quality:

• Remove all sample/template code
• Don't mutate defaults with Object.assign
• Validate LICENSE copyright holder and year

Detailed Coverage by Topic

Memory Management & Lifecycle

• Using registerEvent(), addCommand(), registerDomEvent(), registerInterval()
• Avoiding view references in plugin
• Not using plugin as component
• Proper leaf cleanup

Type Safety

• Using instanceof instead of type casting
• Avoiding any type
• Using const and let over var

UI/UX Standards

• Sentence case enforcement
• Co