Agent skill

siyuan

SiYuan Note API for searching, reading, creating, and managing blocks and documents in a self-hosted knowledge base via curl.

View SKILL.md on GitHub Repository
Stars 56,643
Forks 7,481

Install this agent skill to your Project

npx add-skill https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/tree/main/optional-skills/productivity/siyuan

Metadata

Additional technical details for this skill

hermes 
{
    "tags": [
        "SiYuan",
        "Notes",
        "Knowledge Base",
        "PKM",
        "API"
    ],
    "homepage": "https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan",
    "related_skills": [
        "obsidian",
        "notion"
    ]
}

SKILL.md

SiYuan Note API

Use the SiYuan kernel API via curl to search, read, create, update, and delete blocks and documents in a self-hosted knowledge base. No extra tools needed -- just curl and an API token.

Prerequisites

  1. Install and run SiYuan (desktop or Docker)
  2. Get your API token: Settings > About > API token
  3. Store it in ~/.hermes/.env: 
    SIYUAN_TOKEN=your_token_here
SIYUAN_URL=http://127.0.0.1:6806
    SIYUAN_URL defaults to http://127.0.0.1:6806 if not set.

API Basics

All SiYuan API calls are POST with JSON body. Every request follows this pattern:

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/..." \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"param": "value"}'

Responses are JSON with this structure:

json
{"code": 0, "msg": "", "data": { ... }}

code: 0 means success. Any other value is an error -- check msg for details.

ID format: SiYuan IDs look like 20210808180117-6v0mkxr (14-digit timestamp + 7 alphanumeric chars).

Quick Reference

Operation Endpoint
Full-text search /api/search/fullTextSearchBlock
SQL query /api/query/sql
Read block /api/block/getBlockKramdown
Read children /api/block/getChildBlocks
Get path /api/filetree/getHPathByID
Get attributes /api/attr/getBlockAttrs
List notebooks /api/notebook/lsNotebooks
List documents /api/filetree/listDocsByPath
Create notebook /api/notebook/createNotebook
Create document /api/filetree/createDocWithMd
Append block /api/block/appendBlock
Update block /api/block/updateBlock
Rename document /api/filetree/renameDocByID
Set attributes /api/attr/setBlockAttrs
Delete block /api/block/deleteBlock
Delete document /api/filetree/removeDocByID
Export as Markdown /api/export/exportMdContent

Common Operations

Search (Full-Text)

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/search/fullTextSearchBlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "meeting notes", "page": 0}' | jq '.data.blocks[:5]'

Search (SQL)

Query the blocks database directly. Only SELECT statements are safe.

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/query/sql" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"stmt": "SELECT id, content, type, box FROM blocks WHERE content LIKE '\''%keyword%'\'' AND type='\''p'\'' LIMIT 20"}' | jq '.data'

Useful columns: id, parent_id, root_id, box (notebook ID), path, content, type, subtype, created, updated.

Read Block Content

Returns block content in Kramdown (Markdown-like) format.

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/getBlockKramdown" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "20210808180117-6v0mkxr"}' | jq '.data.kramdown'

Read Child Blocks

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/getChildBlocks" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "20210808180117-6v0mkxr"}' | jq '.data'

Get Human-Readable Path

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/filetree/getHPathByID" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "20210808180117-6v0mkxr"}' | jq '.data'

Get Block Attributes

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/attr/getBlockAttrs" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "20210808180117-6v0mkxr"}' | jq '.data'

List Notebooks

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/notebook/lsNotebooks" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}' | jq '.data.notebooks[] | {id, name, closed}'

List Documents in a Notebook

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/filetree/listDocsByPath" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"notebook": "NOTEBOOK_ID", "path": "/"}' | jq '.data.files[] | {id, name}'

Create a Document

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/filetree/createDocWithMd" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "notebook": "NOTEBOOK_ID",
    "path": "/Meeting Notes/2026-03-22",
    "markdown": "# Meeting Notes\n\n- Discussed project timeline\n- Assigned tasks"
  }' | jq '.data'

Create a Notebook

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/notebook/createNotebook" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "My New Notebook"}' | jq '.data.notebook.id'

Append Block to Document

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/appendBlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "parentID": "DOCUMENT_OR_BLOCK_ID",
    "data": "New paragraph added at the end.",
    "dataType": "markdown"
  }' | jq '.data'

Also available: /api/block/prependBlock (same params, inserts at the beginning) and /api/block/insertBlock (uses previousID instead of parentID to insert after a specific block).

Update Block Content

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/updateBlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "id": "BLOCK_ID",
    "data": "Updated content here.",
    "dataType": "markdown"
  }' | jq '.data'

Rename a Document

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/filetree/renameDocByID" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "DOCUMENT_ID", "title": "New Title"}'

Set Block Attributes

Custom attributes must be prefixed with custom-:

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/attr/setBlockAttrs" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "id": "BLOCK_ID",
    "attrs": {
      "custom-status": "reviewed",
      "custom-priority": "high"
    }
  }'

Delete a Block

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/deleteBlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "BLOCK_ID"}'

To delete a whole document: use /api/filetree/removeDocByID with {"id": "DOC_ID"}. To delete a notebook: use /api/notebook/removeNotebook with {"notebook": "NOTEBOOK_ID"}.

Export Document as Markdown

bash
curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/export/exportMdContent" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "DOCUMENT_ID"}' | jq -r '.data.content'

Block Types

Common type values in SQL queries:

Type Description
d Document (root block)
p Paragraph
h Heading
l List
i List item
c Code block
m Math block
t Table
b Blockquote
s Super block
html HTML block

Pitfalls

  • All endpoints are POST -- even read-only operations. Do not use GET.
  • SQL safety: only use SELECT queries. INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/DROP are dangerous and should never be sent.
  • ID validation: IDs match the pattern YYYYMMDDHHmmss-xxxxxxx. Reject anything else.
  • Error responses: always check code != 0 in responses before processing data.
  • Large documents: block content and export results can be very large. Use LIMIT in SQL and pipe through jq to extract only what you need.
  • Notebook IDs: when working with a specific notebook, get its ID first via lsNotebooks.

Alternative: MCP Server

If you prefer a native integration instead of curl, install the SiYuan MCP server:

yaml
# In ~/.hermes/config.yaml under mcp_servers:
mcp_servers:
  siyuan:
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "@porkll/siyuan-mcp"]
    env:
      SIYUAN_TOKEN: "your_token"
      SIYUAN_URL: "http://127.0.0.1:6806"

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