check all files of an obsidian vault

readme.md

Obsidian Date Adder

A simple Deno CLI tool to manage the date field in Obsidian vault markdown files' frontmatter.

Features

• Scans markdown files in an Obsidian vault recursively
• Identifies files missing the date field in their frontmatter
• Automatically adds the date field using file creation date when run with write permissions
• Preserves existing frontmatter structure and other fields

Prerequisites

• Deno version 2.x or higher

Usage

Run the script directly:

deno run --allow-read --allow-write jsr:@zanza00/obsidian-date-adder /path/to/vault

If you want to only view files without modifying them, omit the --allow-write flag:

deno run --allow-read jsr:@zanza00/obsidian-date-adder /path/to/vault

Example output:

File: /path/to/vault/notes/example-note.md
Created: 2024-01-15T10:30
Current Frontmatter:
id: abc123
tags:
  - note
  - example
File updated with new date field
---

Date Format

The date is added in the format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm

For example: 2024-01-15T10:30

Notes

• The script will only modify files that don't already have a date field
• The script uses the file's creation date for the date field
• Only .md files are processed
• Files without frontmatter are ignored
• Existing frontmatter fields are preserved
• Run with --allow-write to automatically update files, omit it to only view files

Links

• Package on JSR
• Source Code

License

MIT

obsidian-date-adder.ts

import { parse } from "jsr:@std/yaml@1";
import { walk } from "jsr:@std/fs@1/walk";

interface Frontmatter {
  date?: string;
  [key: string]: unknown;
}

const folderPath = Deno.args[0];

if (!folderPath) {
  console.error("Please provide a folder path");
  console.error("Usage: deno run --allow-read --allow-write obsidian-date-adder.ts <folder_path>");
  Deno.exit(1);
}

try {
  const stats = await Deno.stat(folderPath);
  if (!stats.isDirectory) {
    console.error("The provided path is not a directory");
    Deno.exit(1);
  }
} catch {
  console.error(`Folder ${folderPath} does not exist`);
  Deno.exit(1);
}

const canWrite = (await Deno.permissions.query({ name: "write", path: folderPath })).state === "granted";

for await (const entry of walk(folderPath, {
  includeDirs: false,
  match: [/\.md$/],
  skip: [/\.git/],
})) {
  try {
    const content = await Deno.readTextFile(entry.path);
    if (!content.startsWith("---")) {
      continue;
    }

    const endOfFrontmatter = content.indexOf("---", 3);
    if (endOfFrontmatter === -1) {
      continue;
    }

    const frontmatterContent = content.slice(3, endOfFrontmatter).trim();
    const frontmatter = parse(frontmatterContent) as Frontmatter;

    if (!frontmatter.date) {
      const fileInfo = await Deno.stat(entry.path);
      const creationTime = fileInfo.birthtime || new Date();
      const formattedDate = creationTime.toISOString().slice(0, 16);

      console.log(`File: ${entry.path}`);
      console.log(`Created: ${formattedDate}`);
      console.log("Current Frontmatter:");
      console.log(frontmatterContent);

      if (canWrite) {
        const newFrontmatter = {
          ...frontmatter,
          date: formattedDate,
        };
        const newContent = `---\n${Object.entries(newFrontmatter)
          .map(([key, value]) => `${key}: ${value}`)
          .join("\n")}
---${content.slice(endOfFrontmatter + 3)}`;

        try {
          await Deno.writeTextFile(entry.path, newContent);
          console.log("File updated with new date field");
        } catch (error: unknown) {
          if (error instanceof Error) {
            console.error(`Error updating file ${entry.path}: ${error.message}`);
          } else {
            console.error(`Unknown error updating file ${entry.path}`);
          }
        }
      }
      console.log("---");
    }
  } catch (error: unknown) {
    if (error instanceof Error) {
      console.error(`Error processing file ${entry.path}: ${error.message}`);
    } else {
      console.error(`Unknown error processing file ${entry.path}`);
    }
  }
}