Obsidian SQLSeal

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Query your Vault content ​

You can query your vault content using SQLSeal built-in tables files, tags, tasks and links. You can use them to query specific files in the fault based on Properties (Frontmatter) and associated tags.

Example: Get all files from the vault ​

To get all files from the fault you can run the following query:

SELECT * FROM files

Filter by Properties ​

If your files have frontmatter properties, you can query by them using SQL WHERE clause. SQLSeal automatically maintains SQL schema and creates columns when needed. Let's assume we have files with property type. We can query only specific notes by running the following:

SELECT * FROM files WHERE type = 'resource'

The query above will return only files that have property type set to value resource.

Filter by Tags ​

Tags are kept in a separate table tags. To select all files that have a specific tag, perform a simple join:

SELECT files.* FROM files JOIN tags ON files.path=tags.path WHERE tag = '#important'

Filter by Multiple Tags (AND logic) ​

Filtering by multiple tags with a plain AND clause always returns zero results. This is because each row in the tags table holds only one tag — a single row can never simultaneously satisfy tag = '#project' AND tag = '#active'.

SQLSeal provides two ways to correctly select files that have all of the listed tags:

Use the built-in TAGS() macro in your WHERE clause:

SELECT * FROM files WHERE TAGS('#project', '#active')

SQLSeal rewrites this into an efficient INTERSECT query automatically. You can combine it with other conditions too:

SELECT * FROM files WHERE TAGS('#project', '#active') AND name LIKE '%meeting%'

Option 2 — Auto-detection (transparent) ​

If you accidentally write the broken pattern, SQLSeal detects it and fixes it for you:

SELECT * FROM files WHERE tag = '#project' AND tag = '#active'

This is automatically rewritten to the same INTERSECT query as the TAGS() macro — no change needed on your part.

Advanced users: to disable the transparent rewrite and handle the SQL yourself, enable Disable Tag Auto-Detection in the SQLSeal settings under Behavior.

How it works under the hood ​

Both approaches produce an INTERSECT subquery:

sql
SELECT * FROM files
WHERE path IN (
  SELECT path FROM tags WHERE tag = '#project'
  INTERSECT
  SELECT path FROM tags WHERE tag = '#active'
)

Table Structure ​

See full breakdown in Data Sources: Vault Data.