obsidian-livesync/src/apps/cli/README.md

Self-hosted LiveSync CLI

Command-line version of Self-hosted LiveSync plugin for syncing vaults without Obsidian.

Features

• ✅ Sync Obsidian vaults using CouchDB without running Obsidian
• ✅ Compatible with Self-hosted LiveSync plugin settings
• ✅ Supports all core sync features (encryption, conflict resolution, etc.)
• ✅ Lightweight and headless operation
• ✅ Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux)

Architecture

This CLI version is built using the same core as the Obsidian plugin:

CLI Main
  └─ LiveSyncBaseCore<ServiceContext, IMinimumLiveSyncCommands>
     ├─ NodeServiceHub (All services without Obsidian dependencies)
     └─ ServiceModules (wired by initialiseServiceModulesCLI)
        ├─ FileAccessCLI (Node.js FileSystemAdapter)
        ├─ StorageEventManagerCLI
        ├─ ServiceFileAccessCLI
        ├─ ServiceDatabaseFileAccessCLI
        ├─ ServiceFileHandler
        └─ ServiceRebuilder

Key Components

1. Node.js FileSystem Adapter (adapters/)

   • Platform-agnostic file operations using Node.js fs/promises
   • Implements same interface as Obsidian's file system

2. Service Modules (serviceModules/)

   • Initialised by initialiseServiceModulesCLI
   • All core sync functionality preserved

3. Service Hub and Settings Services (services/)

   • NodeServiceHub provides the CLI service context
   • Node-specific settings and key-value services are provided without Obsidian dependencies

4. Main Entry Point (main.ts)

   • Command-line interface
   • Settings management (JSON file)
   • Graceful shutdown handling

Installation

# Install dependencies (ensure you are in repository root directory, not src/apps/cli)
# due to shared dependencies with webapp and main library
npm install
# Build the project (ensure you are in `src/apps/cli` directory)
npm run build

Usage

Basic Usage

As you know, the CLI is designed to be used in a headless environment. Hence all operations are performed against a local vault directory and a settings file. Here are some example commands:

# Sync local database with CouchDB (no files will be changed).
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json sync

# Push files to local database
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json push /your/storage/file.md /vault/path/file.md

# Pull files from local database
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json pull /vault/path/file.md /your/storage/file.md

# Verbose logging
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json --verbose

# Apply setup URI to settings file (settings only; does not run synchronisation)
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json setup "obsidian://setuplivesync?settings=..."

# Put text from stdin into local database
echo "Hello from stdin" | npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json put /vault/path/file.md

# Output a file from local database to stdout
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json cat /vault/path/file.md

# Output a specific revision of a file from local database
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json cat-rev /vault/path/file.md 3-abcdef

# Pull a specific revision of a file from local database to local storage
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json pull-rev /vault/path/file.md /your/storage/file.old.md 3-abcdef

# List files in local database
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json ls /vault/path/

# Show metadata for a file in local database
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json info /vault/path/file.md

# Mark a file as deleted in local database
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json rm /vault/path/file.md

# Resolve conflict by keeping a specific revision
npm run --silent cli -- /path/to/your-local-database --settings /path/to/settings.json resolve /vault/path/file.md 3-abcdef

Configuration

The CLI uses the same settings format as the Obsidian plugin. Create a .livesync/settings.json file in your vault directory:

{
    "couchDB_URI": "http://localhost:5984",
    "couchDB_USER": "admin",
    "couchDB_PASSWORD": "password",
    "couchDB_DBNAME": "obsidian-livesync",
    "liveSync": true,
    "syncOnSave": true,
    "syncOnStart": true,
    "encrypt": true,
    "passphrase": "your-encryption-passphrase",
    "usePluginSync": false,
    "isConfigured": true
}

Minimum required settings:

• couchDB_URI: CouchDB server URL
• couchDB_USER: CouchDB username
• couchDB_PASSWORD: CouchDB password
• couchDB_DBNAME: Database name
• isConfigured: Set to true after configuration

Command-line Reference

Usage:
  livesync-cli [database-path] [options] [command] [command-args]

Arguments:
  database-path           Path to the local database directory (required except for init-settings)

Options:
  --settings, -s <path>   Path to settings file (default: .livesync/settings.json in local database directory)
  --force, -f             Overwrite existing file on init-settings
  --verbose, -v           Enable verbose logging
  --help, -h              Show this help message

Commands:
  init-settings [path]    Create settings JSON from DEFAULT_SETTINGS
  sync                    Run one replication cycle and exit
  p2p-peers <timeout>     Show discovered peers as [peer]<TAB><peer-id><TAB><peer-name>
  p2p-sync <peer> <timeout>   Synchronise with specified peer-id or peer-name
  p2p-host                Start P2P host mode and wait until interrupted (Ctrl+C)
  push <src> <dst>        Push local file <src> into local database path <dst>
  pull <src> <dst>        Pull file <src> from local database into local file <dst>
  pull-rev <src> <dst> <revision>   Pull specific revision into local file <dst>
  setup <setupURI>        Apply setup URI to settings file
  put <vaultPath>         Read text from standard input and write to local database
  cat <vaultPath>         Write latest file content from local database to standard output
  cat-rev <vaultPath> <revision>   Write specific revision content from local database to standard output
  ls [prefix]             List files as path<TAB>size<TAB>mtime<TAB>revision[*]
  info <vaultPath>        Show file metadata including current and past revisions, conflicts, and chunk list
  rm <vaultPath>          Mark file as deleted in local database
  resolve <vaultPath> <revision>   Resolve conflict by keeping the specified revision
  mirror <storagePath> <vaultPath>   Mirror local file into local database.

Run via npm script:

npm run --silent cli -- [database-path] [options] [command] [command-args]

Detailed Command Descriptions

ls

ls lists files in the local database with optional prefix filtering. Output format is:

Note: * indicates if the file has conflicts.

p2p-peers

p2p-peers <timeout> waits for the specified number of seconds, then prints each discovered peer on a separate line:

[peer]<TAB><peer-id><TAB><peer-name>

Use this command to select a target for p2p-sync.

p2p-sync

p2p-sync <peer> <timeout> discovers peers up to the specified timeout and synchronises with the selected peer.

• <peer> accepts either peer-id or peer-name from p2p-peers output.
• On success, the command prints a completion message to standard error and exits with status code 0.
• On failure, the command prints an error message and exits non-zero.

p2p-host

p2p-host starts the local P2P host and keeps running until interrupted.

• Other peers can discover and synchronise with this host while it is running.
• Stop the host with Ctrl+C.
• In CLI mode, behaviour is non-interactive and acceptance follows settings.

info

info output fields:

• id: Document ID
• revision: Current revision
• conflicts: Conflicted revisions, or N/A
• filename: Basename of path
• path: Vault-relative path
• size: Size in bytes
• revisions: Available non-current revisions
• chunks: Number of chunk IDs
• children: Chunk ID list

mirror

mirror is a command that synchronises your storage with your local vault. It is essentially a process that runs upon startup in Obsidian.

In other words, it performs the following actions:

1. Precondition checks — Aborts early if any of the following conditions are not met:

   • Settings must be configured (isConfigured: true).
   • File watching must not be suspended (suspendFileWatching: false).
   • Remediation mode must be inactive (maxMTimeForReflectEvents: 0).

2. State restoration — On subsequent runs (after the first successful scan), restores the previous storage state before proceeding.

3. Expired deletion cleanup — If automaticallyDeleteMetadataOfDeletedFiles is set to a positive number of days, any document that is marked deleted and whose mtime is older than the retention period is permanently removed from the local database.

4. File collection — Enumerates files from two sources:

   • Storage: all files under the vault path that pass isTargetFile.
   • Local database: all normal documents (fetched with conflict information) whose paths are valid and pass isTargetFile.
   • Both collections build case-insensitive ↔ case-sensitive path maps, controlled by handleFilenameCaseSensitive.

5. Categorisation and synchronisation — The union of both file sets is split into three groups and processed concurrently (up to 10 files at a time):

   Group	Condition	Action
   UPDATE DATABASE	File exists in storage only	Store the file into the local database.
   UPDATE STORAGE	File exists in database only	If the entry is active (not deleted) and not conflicted, restore the file from the database to storage. Deleted entries and conflicted entries are skipped.
   SYNC DATABASE AND STORAGE	File exists in both	Compare mtime freshness. If storage is newer → write to database (STORAGE → DB). If database is newer → restore to storage (STORAGE ← DB). If equal → do nothing. Conflicted documents and files exceeding the size limit are always skipped.

6. Initialisation flag — On the very first successful run, writes initialized = true to the key-value database so that subsequent runs can restore state in step 2.

Note: mirror does not respect file deletions. If a file is deleted in storage, it will be restored on the next mirror run. To delete a file, use the rm command instead. This is a little inconvenient, but it is intentional behaviour (if we handle this automatically in mirror, we should be against a ton of edge cases).

Planned options:

• --immediate: Perform sync after the command (e.g. push, pull, put, rm).
• serve: Start CLI in server mode, exposing REST APIs for remote, and batch operations.
• cause-conflicted <vaultPath>: Mark a file as conflicted without changing its content, to trigger conflict resolution in Obsidian.

Use Cases

1. Bootstrap a new headless vault

Create default settings, apply a setup URI, then run one sync cycle.

npm run --silent cli -- init-settings /data/livesync-settings.json
printf '%s\n' "$SETUP_PASSPHRASE" | npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json setup "$SETUP_URI"
npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json sync

2. Scripted import and export

Push local files into the database from automation, and pull them back for export or backup.

npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json push ./note.md notes/note.md
npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json pull notes/note.md ./exports/note.md

3. Revision inspection and restore

List metadata, find an older revision, then restore it by content (cat-rev) or file output (pull-rev).

npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json info notes/note.md
npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json cat-rev notes/note.md 3-abcdef
npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json pull-rev notes/note.md ./restore/note.old.md 3-abcdef

4. Conflict and cleanup workflow

Inspect conflicted revisions, resolve by keeping one revision, then delete obsolete files.

npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json info notes/note.md
npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json resolve notes/note.md 3-abcdef
npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json rm notes/obsolete.md

5. CI smoke test for content round-trip

Validate that put/cat is behaving as expected in a pipeline.

echo "hello-ci" | npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json put ci/test.md
npm run --silent cli -- /data/vault --settings /data/livesync-settings.json cat ci/test.md

Development

Project Structure

src/apps/cli/
├── commands/            # Command dispatcher and command utilities
│   ├── runCommand.ts
│   ├── runCommand.unit.spec.ts
│   ├── types.ts
│   ├── utils.ts
│   └── utils.unit.spec.ts
├── adapters/            # Node.js FileSystem Adapter
│   ├── NodeConversionAdapter.ts
│   ├── NodeFileSystemAdapter.ts
│   ├── NodePathAdapter.ts
│   ├── NodeStorageAdapter.ts
│   ├── NodeStorageAdapter.unit.spec.ts
│   ├── NodeTypeGuardAdapter.ts
│   ├── NodeTypes.ts
│   └── NodeVaultAdapter.ts
├── lib/
│   └── pouchdb-node.ts
├── managers/            # CLI-specific managers
│   ├── CLIStorageEventManagerAdapter.ts
│   └── StorageEventManagerCLI.ts
├── serviceModules/      # Service modules (ported from main.ts)
│   ├── CLIServiceModules.ts
│   ├── DatabaseFileAccess.ts
│   ├── FileAccessCLI.ts
│   └── ServiceFileAccessImpl.ts
├── services/
│   ├── NodeKeyValueDBService.ts
│   ├── NodeServiceHub.ts
│   └── NodeSettingService.ts
├── test/
│   ├── test-e2e-two-vaults-common.sh
│   ├── test-e2e-two-vaults-matrix.sh
│   ├── test-e2e-two-vaults-with-docker-linux.sh
│   ├── test-push-pull-linux.sh
│   ├── test-setup-put-cat-linux.sh
│   └── test-sync-two-local-databases-linux.sh
├── .gitignore
├── entrypoint.ts         # CLI executable entry point (shebang)
├── main.ts              # CLI entry point
├── main.unit.spec.ts
├── package.json
├── README.md            # This file
├── tsconfig.json
├── util/                # Test and local utility scripts
└── vite.config.ts