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Shimmering Obsidian includes a built-in vault backup command that compresses your entire vault into a timestamped zip archive and moves it to a folder of your choice — no third-party software required. A configurable rotation limit ensures old backups are automatically pruned so your backup folder never grows unbounded.

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Running a Backup

Type obackup in Alfred and press ⏎. The workflow immediately compresses your vault and saves the archive to your configured backup destination. A notification confirms the backup path once it completes.

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How It Works

The backup script runs the following steps in sequence:
1

Compress the vault

The entire vault directory is compressed into a zip file named Obsidian-Backup_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM.zip. The timestamp in the filename makes it easy to identify when each backup was taken.
2

Move the archive

The zip file is moved to the folder you specified in backup_destination inside the workflow configuration. The destination folder is created automatically if it does not already exist.
3

Rotate old backups

After the new archive is saved, the script counts the existing backups in the destination folder. If the count exceeds max_number_of_bkps, the oldest backup (determined by file modification time) is deleted automatically.

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What is included and excluded

ItemIncluded in backup
All notes and attachments✅ Yes
.obsidian config folder✅ Yes
.trash folder✅ Yes
.git folder❌ No
The .git folder is deliberately excluded to keep archive sizes manageable. If you need git history preserved, commit and push to a remote repository separately.

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Configuration

Set these two values in the workflow’s configuration panel (Alfred Preferences → Workflows → Shimmering Obsidian → Configure Workflow):
VariableDescription
backup_destinationAbsolute or tilde-prefixed path to the folder where backups are stored (e.g. ~/Backups/Obsidian)
max_number_of_bkpsMaximum number of backup archives to keep before the oldest is deleted

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Automating Backups

For hands-free scheduled backups, you can trigger obackup programmatically using Alfred’s External Trigger via AppleScript. This makes it straightforward to wire the backup into launchd, a Cron job, or a Keyboard Maestro macro. 
tell application id "com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred"
	run trigger "backup-obsidian" in workflow "de.chris-grieser.shimmering-obsidian"
end tell
To suppress the confirmation sound that plays after a successful backup, pass no sound as the trigger argument: 
tell application id "com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred"
	run trigger "backup-obsidian" in workflow "de.chris-grieser.shimmering-obsidian" ¬
		with argument "no sound"
end tell
Common automation hosts:
  • launchd — macOS’s native job scheduler; suitable for time-based or interval-based triggers without any additional software.
  • Cron jobs — the classic Unix scheduler, available in macOS via crontab -e.
  • Keyboard Maestro — a macOS automation app that can trigger the AppleScript above on a schedule, on application quit, or on any other event it supports.
This is a simplistic backup solution designed for convenience, not resilience. It creates a single point-in-time snapshot with no incremental history, no off-site copy, and no verification step. For critical or irreplaceable data, use a dedicated backup solution such as Time Machine, Backblaze, or Arq alongside this command. This workflow is provided without any warranty, as stated in its license.

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