Auto-expand backlinks
younggyolee42 downloadsAutomatically expand the surrounding context of each match in the backlinks panel, similar to Roam Research.
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An Obsidian plugin that automatically expands the context shown in the bottom backlinks panel (and the standalone backlinks pane) so you don't have to click the chevrons on every match — giving you a Roam Research-style backlinks view where each linked mention appears with its surrounding bullets / paragraph already expanded.
Inspired by this forum request: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/backlink-to-display-more-context-by-default/102810
What it does
When you open a note, this plugin:
- Forces the backlinks panel's "Show more context" toggle on.
- Programmatically clicks each match's "show more above" / "show more below" chevrons a configurable number of times — revealing the surrounding lines (or sub-bullets) without manual clicks.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Enabled | on | Master toggle. |
| Show more context | on | Forces the panel's "Show more context" header toggle on by default. |
| Expand below (levels) | 5 |
How many times to click each match's "show more below" chevron. Tune to taste. |
| Expand above (levels) | 0 |
How many times to click each match's "show more above" chevron. |
| Apply delay (ms) | 200 |
Wait between file open and applying expansion. Increase for slow vaults. |
| Per-click delay (ms) | 20 |
Pause between successive expand clicks. |
Install via BRAT (recommended for now)
- Install the BRAT plugin.
- Open BRAT settings → Add Beta plugin.
- Enter this repo URL.
- Enable Auto-Expand Backlinks in Community plugins.
Install manually
Download main.js, manifest.json, styles.css from the latest release into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/auto-expand-backlinks/, then enable in Settings → Community plugins.
How it works
Obsidian's backlinks panel doesn't expose a documented API for default expansion. This plugin reaches into the internal view.backlinks.backlinkDom to flip extraContext, then clicks the per-match .search-result-hover-button.mod-bottom / .mod-top DOM buttons that Obsidian uses for context expansion.
Because it relies on internal/undocumented APIs, it may break on future Obsidian releases.
Known limitations
- Only the bottom backlinks panel and the standalone backlinks pane are touched. The left-sidebar search panel is not (intentionally — different use case).
- Each "level" of expansion = one click of the chevron = one more line of context in Obsidian's source file.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.