Arbor

Think in branches. Keep one note.

Arbor is a writing-first branching editor for Obsidian. It lets you build a note as small Markdown blocks arranged left-to-right while keeping the note itself as a normal .md file.

No separate canvas file. No sidecar database.

The core idea:

• write in short blocks instead of one long wall of text
• see the current branch, nearby alternatives, and next steps at the same time
• reorganize ideas without copy-paste chaos
• stay inside one note instead of splitting thoughts across many files

Arbor works on desktop, phones, and tablets. It requires Obsidian >= 1.7.2.

Why Arbor

Arbor is for notes where order matters, but thought does not arrive linearly.

Good fit:

• article and essay drafting
• study notes with branches and alternatives
• argument building
• structured brainstorming
• rewriting and rearranging long notes without losing the original Markdown

Arbor is not a canvas, mind map, or whiteboard. It is still note editing, just with a branching spatial view.

Core Features

• Left-to-right branching editor for one Markdown note
• Stable block tree with inline editing
• Normal readable Markdown body as the source document
• Visible block markers plus a readable in-note structure footer for exact recovery
• Selected block panel with focused preview and inline editing
• Context-aware dimming so the active branch stays readable
• Drag-and-drop reorder and reparent
• Keyboard-first navigation and structure editing
• Search overlay for block-level search
• Zoom, breadcrumbs, view menu, and context menus
• Whole-tree Overview map with connected, fully rendered Markdown cards
• Tree Overview export as a PNG or one-page PDF
• Touch-first phone editor with a focused sibling column and 44 px action controls
• One-finger Tree Overview pan and two-finger pinch zoom
• Automatic and custom palettes through Theme Studio
• Mouse-wheel navigation through sibling blocks and visible branch columns
• Auto-open managed Arbor notes in Arbor view
• File Explorer labels that mark managed notes with ARBOR
• Clean Markdown export copies with an optional YAML frontmatter
• Named Output Profiles for producing several clean versions from one complete tree
• Safe rebuild when the note changed in plain Markdown mode

Use a clean export copy as the Markdown handoff for Pandoc or another DOCX converter; Arbor does not generate DOCX directly.

Output Profiles

Output Profiles let one Arbor note hold the complete tree while producing different versions such as Draft, Short version, or Final.

• Full tree is built in, always includes every block, and is the default for existing notes.
• Use the profile pill in the Arbor toolbar, then Manage output profiles…, to create, duplicate, rename, delete, or switch profiles.
• In a custom profile, right-click a card to Include block only, Exclude block only, Include subtree, or Exclude subtree. Inherited exclusions stay visible in the editor and explain which parent rule caused them.
• Presets in Output profiles provide Include all, Exclude all, Invert selection, Include only selected branch, Root blocks only, and Reset profile.
• Output preview renders only the included Markdown in the current Arbor view. It never creates a temporary file or changes the source note.
• Export clean copy… exports the active profile and can either omit excluded blocks or keep them as HTML comments. YAML frontmatter can be kept or removed independently.

The source .md always retains the complete Arbor tree. Switching profiles, previewing, and exporting change the output version—not the source content.

Install

Community Plugins

Once Arbor is approved in the Obsidian community catalog:

1. Open Settings -> Community plugins -> Browse.
2. Search for Arbor.
3. Install it.
4. Enable it.

Manual install

If you want to install Arbor before it appears in the community catalog:

1. Download manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css from the latest GitHub release.
2. Create this folder in your vault:

.obsidian/plugins/arbor

3. Place those three files inside it.
4. Open Obsidian.
5. Go to Settings -> Community plugins.
6. Enable Arbor.

Quick Start

1. Open any Markdown note.
2. Run Open view for current note.
3. Create a root block.
4. Press Enter on a selected card to edit it on desktop, or double-tap it on mobile.
5. Use Ctrl/Cmd + Arrow to grow the structure.
6. Use the right-click menu to duplicate, move, delete, or continue a branch.
7. Turn on Selected block panel from the Arbor menu if you want a focused preview/editor panel.

Mobile controls

On a phone, Arbor keeps the selected block's sibling column on screen and puts navigation in a bottom action bar. Tap a card to select it; double-tap a card or use Edit to edit it. Save and Cancel are always visible while editing. Plain Enter makes a new line, while Ctrl/Cmd + Enter on a hardware keyboard saves. Pinch with two fingers in the branch editor to adjust card and text density without leaving the active sibling column.

In Tree Overview, drag with one finger to pan and pinch with two fingers to zoom. A drag never opens a card editor. Use the top-left map button to return to the branch editor.

Support

If Arbor is useful to you, you can support development here:

• Buy Me a Coffee

Built-In View Shortcuts

These work inside Arbor itself. They are not command-palette bindings.

Navigation

Editing

Structural creation

Notes:

• The table describes the Left to right layout. In Right to left, horizontal arrows and Ctrl/Cmd + horizontal-arrow creation mirror visually: ArrowLeft selects a child and ArrowRight selects the parent.
• Ctrl/Cmd + ArrowLeft is intentionally conservative and does nothing when the selected block is already at the root level.
• Arbor uses event.code for view-level shortcuts where needed, so layout-dependent bindings like search remain stable across keyboard layouts.
• Delete subtree shows a confirmation modal. Normal Delete block does not.

Search and zoom

Tree overview

Use Tree overview from the view menu or Command Palette to see every block in one connected map. Drag empty space to pan; Ctrl/Cmd + mouse wheel changes zoom. Cards render normal Obsidian Markdown and grow to fit their content. Select a card, then press Enter or double-click it to edit directly in place; Arbor smoothly reveals the editor when it is outside the viewport. Export the whole map as a PNG or one-page PDF from the overview menu. Overview always shows collapsed descendants and does not support drag-and-drop reparenting.

Command Palette Actions

All of these are exposed as normal Obsidian commands. By default, they have no bound hotkey unless you bind one yourself in Obsidian.

View Menu

Arbor includes a compact view menu in the top-right corner of the editor.

Current menu actions:

• switch the active Output Profile or open Manage output profiles…
• open Output preview
• toggle Selected block panel
• toggle breadcrumb path
• toggle breadcrumb flow
• toggle Ctrl/Cmd + wheel zoom
• reset zoom to 100%
• open Arbor settings

Settings

How Notes Stay Normal Markdown

Arbor does not move your note into a database or sidecar file.

Each Arbor note contains:

• the visible Markdown body
• machine-written block markers before each block in the visible body
• an optional %% arbor:output comment for custom Output Profiles
• one readable structure footer at the end of the same note

Example shape:

<!-- arbor:block:v1 id="root-1" parent="" order="0" -->
# A visible markdown note

This text is still readable in normal Obsidian.

%% arbor:structure
```json
{
  "arbor-plugin": "tree",
  "version": 2,
  "blocks": [{ "id": "root-1", "parent": null, "order": 0 }]
}
```
%%

Important behavior:

• frontmatter is preserved
• the visible body stays readable if the plugin is disabled
• Arbor keeps stable block IDs in both visible markers and the readable structure footer
• if the structure footer is stale, Arbor recovers the exact block tree from the visible markers
• if you open an older Arbor note without visible markers, Arbor upgrades it automatically to the precise marker format
• if you edit the note in normal Markdown mode, Arbor will safely rebuild the tree from the visible note body instead of silently dropping content

Beautiful blocks in the > [!note] style are still normal Markdown callouts. In the screenshots and demo notes, that styling comes from Callout Manager.

Privacy and disclosures

• No account is required.
• No telemetry is collected.
• No ads are shown.
• Arbor does not make network requests for its core functionality.
• Arbor stores plugin settings with Obsidian's plugin data system.
• Arbor stores branch structure inside the note itself as a readable Obsidian comment footer.
• If you paste an image into a block, Arbor writes that image into your vault as a normal attachment.

Demo Notes

Arbor ships with a built-in demo note generator.

Use the command palette action:

• Create demo note

The command creates a new Arbor-managed demo note in the current note folder, or in the vault root if there is no active note.

Compatibility

• Desktop, Android, and iOS
• Obsidian >= 1.7.2
• Plugin ID: arbor
• Current version: 0.2.9

Known Limitations

• Plain-Markdown rebuild is conservative by design. It protects content first and structure second.
• Undo and redo are Arbor view history, not native editor history.
• Very large notes can still benefit from future virtualization work.
• Mobile Tree Overview exports are capped at 4,096 px on a side and 8 MP before rendering, to avoid unsafe raster allocations.

Roadmap

• richer block search navigation
• stronger conflict handling when Arbor view and plain Markdown both change the same note
• more refinement for very large note trees

Development

Contributor workflow:

npm install
npm run dev

Release checks:

npm run lint
npm run build
npm test

Arbor includes a local eslint-plugin-obsidianmd setup so the same reviewer-facing checks can be run before submission updates.

Manual interaction checks live in:

• docs/manual-qa.md

Repository Layout

arbor/
  assets/
  demo/
  docs/
  src/
    model/
    storage/
    view/
  tests/
  manifest.json
  package.json
  styles.css