Command-line options

Every question the wizard asks can be answered up front instead, which is what lets generation be scripted and repeated.

Options

Option	What it does
-y, --yes	Take the default for every unanswered question, and skip the post-scaffold prompts, so nothing is installed, formatted or committed. The closing Next steps line lists what is left, including format on prettier and biome, which the project’s own format:check fails until it has run once. It never asks anything: a question no flag answers stops the run with an error naming the flag
--mode=create|update	Create a new plugin, or update the project in the current directory, without being asked which. Under --yes it is required when the current directory holds a .create-obsidian-plugin.json
--force	Scaffold into an obsidian-<pluginId> directory that already exists, instead of being asked. Under --yes it is required when that directory exists
-h, --help	List every option, including the accepted values for each answer
--answersFile=<path>	Read answers from a JSON file
--customTemplate=<dir>	Layer your own templates over the built-in ones. See Your own templates
--latest	With --preset=official-sample: copy the official sample plugin as it is upstream today, rather than the snapshot this release ships. See Official sample plugin
--<answer>=<value>	Set one answer, e.g. --packageManager=yarn. --help lists every answer and the values it accepts

Passing the flags

npm needs a -- before the generator’s flags, and pnpm, yarn and bun do not:

npm create @mnaoumov/obsidian-plugin "--" --yes --pluginId=my-tool --packageManager=yarn
pnpm create @mnaoumov/obsidian-plugin --yes --pluginId=my-tool --packageManager=pnpm

Caution

Keep the quotes around "--". A bare -- is swallowed by PowerShell, so npm reads the flags as its own. See The – separator in PowerShell.

Which answer wins

Answers are applied in order, so the most specific wins: the built-in defaults, then the answers saved in an existing project, then --answersFile, then individual flags. An answer given this way is not asked about again. On an update, --yes reuses the project’s saved answers with any flags applied over them, instead of asking whether to change them.

The answers file

The answers file is a JSON object using the same names as the flags. It also accepts a whole .create-obsidian-plugin.json, so you can point it at an existing project to scaffold another one like it:

{
  "preset": "all-in-one",
  "bundler": "esbuild",
  "packageManager": "npm",
  "pluginId": "my-tool"
}

Invalid input

Invalid input is refused rather than quietly ignored:

• an unknown answer;
• a value outside what a question accepts;
• a plugin id, name or description the wizard itself would reject;
• --currentYear, which the generator computes rather than asks for;
• --bundler or --uiFramework beside --preset=demo, which picks both itself;
• a tooling flag beside --preset=official-sample, which takes upstream’s tooling as it is.

Saving the answers from an interactive run

At the end of the wizard, before scaffolding, you can save what you just answered, in either form:

• a runnable script, obsidian-<plugin id>-create.cmd on Windows and obsidian-<plugin id>-create.sh elsewhere;
• an answers file, obsidian-<plugin id>-answers.json.

You can save both and then generate: saving does not end the run. Every answer is written, not only the ones that differ from a default, so the recipe keeps producing the same project after a release changes a default.

The saved script carries a bare --, because it is run by cmd.exe or sh rather than by PowerShell. Run it as a file. To run the answers file instead:

npm create @mnaoumov/obsidian-plugin "--" --yes --mode=create --answersFile=obsidian-my-tool-answers.json