name: obsidian-publish
description: Enables Claude to publish and manage content on Obsidian Publish sites via Playwright MCP
category: productivity

Obsidian Publish Skill

Overview

Claude can manage your Obsidian Publish site to publish notes, manage site settings, and create a public knowledge base. Publish transforms your markdown notes into a beautiful website.

Quick Install

curl -sSL https://canifi.com/skills/obsidian-publish/install.sh | bash

Or manually:

cp -r skills/obsidian-publish ~/.canifi/skills/

Setup

Configure via canifi-env:

# First, ensure canifi-env is installed:
# curl -sSL https://canifi.com/install.sh | bash

canifi-env set OBSIDIAN_PUBLISH_EMAIL "[email protected]"

Privacy & Authentication

Your credentials, your choice. Canifi LifeOS respects your privacy.

Option 1: Manual Browser Login (Recommended)

If you prefer not to share credentials with Claude Code:
1. Complete the Browser Automation Setup using CDP mode
2. Login to the service manually in the Playwright-controlled Chrome window
3. Claude will use your authenticated session without ever seeing your password

Option 2: Environment Variables

If you're comfortable sharing credentials, you can store them locally:

canifi-env set SERVICE_EMAIL "your-email"
canifi-env set SERVICE_PASSWORD "your-password"

Note: Credentials stored in canifi-env are only accessible locally on your machine and are never transmitted.

Capabilities

• Publish notes to the web
• Unpublish content
• Manage site settings
• Update site navigation
• Configure custom domains
• Set up site appearance
• Manage page links
• Update published content
• View site analytics
• Configure search
• Set page aliases
• Manage access control

Usage Examples

Example 1: Publish Note

User: "Publish my 'Getting Started' note to Obsidian Publish"
Claude: Navigates to publish settings, selects note, publishes.
        Confirms: "Published: yoursite.publish.obsidian.md/getting-started"

Example 2: Update Site

User: "Sync all changed notes to my publish site"
Claude: Checks for changes, publishes updated notes.
        Reports: "Published 5 updated notes, 2 new notes"

Example 3: Manage Navigation

User: "Add 'Resources' to the site navigation"
Claude: Opens site settings, adds Resources to nav.
        Confirms: "Added Resources to site navigation"

Example 4: Unpublish Content

User: "Remove the draft article from the published site"
Claude: Finds note, unpublishes it.
        Confirms: "Unpublished 'Draft Article'"

Authentication Flow

1. Claude navigates to publish.obsidian.md via Playwright MCP
2. Enters OBSIDIAN_PUBLISH_EMAIL for authentication
3. Handles 2FA if required (notifies user via iMessage)
4. Maintains session for publish operations

Selectors Reference

// Site selector
'.site-selector'

// File tree
'.file-tree'

// Publish button
'.publish-button'

// Unpublish button
'.unpublish-button'

// Settings
'.site-settings'

// Navigation editor
'.nav-editor'

// Appearance settings
'.appearance-settings'

// Search config
'.search-settings'

// Custom domain
'.domain-settings'

// File checkbox
'.file-checkbox'

Error Handling

• Login Failed: Retry 3 times, notify user via iMessage
• Session Expired: Re-authenticate automatically
• Publish Failed: Check file validity, retry
• Site Not Found: List available sites, ask user
• Sync Failed: Check for conflicts, retry
• Domain Error: Verify DNS settings

Self-Improvement Instructions

When you learn a better way to accomplish a task with Obsidian Publish:
1. Document the improvement in your response
2. Suggest updating this skill file with the new approach
3. Include specific publishing workflows
4. Note site configuration best practices

Notes

• Publish subscription required
• Selective publishing of notes
• Links between published notes work
• Custom CSS supported
• Password protection available
• Custom domain support
• Search functionality built-in
• Mobile-responsive design
• Google indexing supported