CLI reference¶

ope and obsidian-pdf-exporter are the same command. Run ope --help or ope <command> --help for the same information in the terminal.

ope [--version] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Command	Summary
`version`	Print the installed version.
`setup`	Install missing system dependencies (Pango/HarfBuzz/Fontconfig, pandoc).
`list-templates`	List all known PDF templates (built-in, packaged, user-config, runtime).
`list-plugins`	List all installed Obsidian-plugin support modules (built-in + third-party).
`export`	Export an Obsidian-format folder tree to a single PDF file.
`redline`	Generate a redline (tracked-changes) PDF between two versions.

`version`¶

Print the installed version.

ope version

Prints the installed version. ope --version does the same.

ope version

`setup`¶

Install missing system dependencies (Pango/HarfBuzz/Fontconfig, pandoc).

ope setup [OPTIONS]

Installs missing native dependencies (Pango, HarfBuzz, Fontconfig and pandoc) with the package manager of the platform. See Installation.

Option	Description	Default
`--check`	Diagnose only — do not install anything (exit 1 if something is missing)	off
`-y`, `--yes`	Skip the confirmation prompt	off

ope setup --check   # report only
ope setup --yes     # install without asking

`list-templates`¶

List all known PDF templates (built-in, packaged, user-config, runtime).

ope list-templates

Prints every known template with its source: built-in, packaged entry point, user-config folder or registered at runtime. See Templates.

ope list-templates

`list-plugins`¶

List all installed Obsidian-plugin support modules (built-in + third-party).

ope list-plugins

Prints every installed plugin support module, sorted by priority. See Plugins.

ope list-plugins

`export`¶

Export an Obsidian-format folder tree to a single PDF file.

ope export ROOT [OPTIONS]

Builds one PDF from a vault folder. Git is not required. When the folder is in a git repository and --version is not set, the short commit hash is shown as the version label. See Folder Notes for how the folder becomes sections.

Argument	Description
`ROOT`	Path to the vault folder to export (required)

Option	Description	Default
`-T NAME\\|PATH`, `--template NAME\\|PATH`	Template name (see `list-templates`) or path to a custom template (.css file or directory with template.yaml)	`default`
`-o PATH`, `--output PATH`	Output PDF path (default: ./.export/<title>.pdf)
`-t TEXT`, `--title TEXT`	Document title (default: folder name)
`--subtitle TEXT`	Document subtitle
`-v TEXT`, `--version TEXT`	Document version (e.g. 3.1.0)
`-d YYYY-MM-DD`, `--date YYYY-MM-DD`	Document date (YYYY-MM-DD, default: today)
`--include NAME`	Only include these subfolder names. Repeatable.
`--exclude NAME`	Exclude these subfolder names. Repeatable.
`-O KEY=VALUE`, `--option KEY=VALUE`	Pass key=value options to plugins / template (repeatable)
`--disable-plugin NAME`	Skip the named Obsidian plugin (repeatable; see `list-plugins`)
`--toc/--no-toc`	Include a table of contents at the start of the document	`--toc`
`--blame`	Add a strip next to every page with the last commit that changed each block (author, date, message; details on hover)	off
`--debug`	Keep the intermediate build directory for inspection	off

ope export ./Vault/Handbook \
  --title "Team handbook" --subtitle "How we work" \
  --version 3.1.0 --date 2026-05-07 \
  --include "Chapter A" --include "Chapter B" \
  --disable-plugin meta_bind \
  -O mermaid.landscape=off -O tables.landscape=off

`redline`¶

Generate a redline (tracked-changes) PDF between two versions.

ope redline ROOT [OPTIONS]

Builds a tracked-changes PDF between two git commits of ROOT (--from-commit, run inside the git repository that holds ROOT), or between two folders or notes on disk without git (--from-path). See Redline and Comparing versions.

Argument	Description
`ROOT`	Folder or note to compare (with --from-path: the newer version on disk) (required)

Option	Description	Default
`--from-commit REF`	Older git commit ref (baseline)
`--to-commit REF`	Newer git commit ref (default: HEAD)
`--from-path PATH`	Older version as a folder or note on disk (baseline), compared with ROOT on disk without git; not with --from-commit, --to-commit or --blame
`-T NAME\\|PATH`, `--template NAME\\|PATH`	Template name (default: redline) or path to a custom template (.css file or directory with template.yaml)	`redline`
`-o PATH`, `--output PATH`	Output PDF path (default: ./.export/<title>_redline.pdf)
`-t TEXT`, `--title TEXT`	Document title (default: folder or note name)
`--subtitle TEXT`	Document subtitle
`-O KEY=VALUE`, `--option KEY=VALUE`	Pass key=value options to plugins / template (repeatable), e.g. redline.style=side-by-side or redline.collapse=on
`--disable-plugin NAME`	Skip the named Obsidian plugin (repeatable; see `list-plugins`)
`--toc/--no-toc`	Include a table of contents at the start of the document	`--toc`
`--blame`	Add a strip next to every page with the last commit that changed each block (author, date, message; details on hover)	off
`--debug`	Keep the intermediate build directory for inspection	off

ope redline ./Vault/Handbook --from-commit v3.0.0 --to-commit HEAD

Options for `-O key=value`¶

-O (--option) passes free-form settings to the core steps, the plugins and the template. These keys are read by ope itself:

Key	Values	Default	Described in
`line_breaks`	`hard`, `soft`	from `.obsidian/app.json`	Line breaks
`links.outside`	`text`, `italic`	`text`	Wiki links
`tables.landscape`	`auto`, `on`, `off`	`auto`	Tables
`tables.landscape_min_cols`	number	`6`	Tables
`mermaid`	`off`	on	Mermaid
`mermaid.config`	path to JSON	none	Mermaid
`mermaid.max_height`	CSS length	none	Mermaid
`mermaid.landscape`	`on`, `off`	`on`	Mermaid
`mermaid.landscape_ratio`	number	`1.4`	Mermaid
`mermaid.landscape_min_font`	points	`7`	Mermaid
`mermaid.fit`	`on`, `off`	`on`	Mermaid
`footnotes`	`page`, `end`	`page`	Footnotes
`pdf_embeds`	`pages`, `link`	`pages`	Embeds
`pdf_embeds.max_pages`	number	`10`	Embeds
`pdf_embeds.dpi`	number	`150`	Embeds
`citations`	`off`	on	Citations
`citations.bibliography`	paths, separated by `,`	auto	Citations
`citations.csl`	path to a CSL style	Chicago author-date	Citations
`citations.title`	text	`References`	Citations
`excalidraw.auto_export`	`on`, `off`	`on`	Excalidraw

Third-party plugins and templates can read any other key. By convention a plugin uses <plugin>.<key> and a template <template>.<key>.

Environment variables¶

Name	Purpose
`OBSIDIAN_PDF_GTK_PATH`	Extra folders, separated by `os.pathsep`, that are searched for the GTK and Pango libraries (Windows and macOS).
`OBSIDIAN_PDF_EXPORTER_TEMPLATES_DIR`	Folder scanned for named user templates. Default: `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/obsidian-pdf-exporter/templates`, or `~/.config/obsidian-pdf-exporter/templates`.
`XDG_CONFIG_HOME`	Moves the default user templates folder.

Exit codes¶

Code	Meaning
`0`	Success.
`1`	The export failed, `setup --check` found a missing dependency, an install command failed, or `redline` ran outside a git repository.
`2`	Bad arguments, for example an unknown template or a malformed `-O` value.
`130`	Aborted at the `setup` confirmation prompt.

CLI reference¶

version¶

setup¶

list-templates¶

list-plugins¶

export¶

redline¶

Options for -O key=value¶