FOIA Requests vs Obsidian CLI

FOIA Requests

By James Anditis (Journalism)

Draft and file Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain government records.

Obsidian CLI

By Steph Ango (Kepano / Obsidian)

Control your Obsidian notes from anywhere — create, search, and organize without opening the app.

FOIA Requests

• Provides ready-to-use templates for federal and state FOIA requests with proper legal language
• Explains the 9 federal exemptions and state-specific public records laws across all 50 states
• Guides you through fee waiver requests, appeals processes, and tracking submission status
• Includes reference tables for state-by-state laws and legislative exemptions
• Offers strategic advice on crafting specific, targeted requests that agencies are more likely to fulfill

Obsidian CLI

• Creates and reads notes in your Obsidian vault
• Searches across all your notes and finds backlinks
• Appends content to notes including daily notes and tasks
• Updates note properties and manages tags
• Captures screenshots and inspects vault structure for developers

Reach for FOIA Requests when…

• You're investigating a story and need official documents from a government agency
• You need to understand what records are legally available in your state or at the federal level
• You're appealing a denied FOIA request or requesting a fee waiver
• You're tracking multiple public records requests and need to follow up with agencies

Reach for Obsidian CLI when…

• You want to quickly add something to your daily note without opening Obsidian
• You need to search your entire knowledge base for a specific topic
• You're organizing research and want to create multiple linked notes at once
• You need to bulk-update properties or tags across notes