Branch Mover
Mohan Das Adhikari5 downloadsRight-click a note in Graph View to move its branch of linked notes into folders, with links kept intact.
- Overview
- Scorecard
- Updates2
Right-click a note in Obsidian's Graph View and move its branch (the notes it links to, and optionally theirs) into a folder. Every link keeps working.
Handy when a topic has grown in the vault root: pick the topic note in the graph, and its notes are filed in one step.
How to use
- Open Graph View (or the local graph) and right-click a note: Move child notes to folder.
- Choose a folder. The picker is pre-filled with a new folder named after the note, next to it. Press Enter to use it, search your existing folders, or type a path such as
Biology/Carbohydrates; missing folders are created. - Check the list and click Move. Nothing is moved, and no folder is created, until you do.
The same dialog is available from the command palette: Move child notes of the current note to a folder.
Branch Mover has nothing to configure. Its page in Settings only holds a Support me on Ko-fi button.
What moves
Children are the notes and files the parent links to or embeds. Notes that link to the parent are its parents, so they stay where they are.
Levels (1 · 2 · All, starting at 2) choose how far down the branch to go: 1 is the children only, 2 adds their children, All takes everything below. Each file is listed once, under the first note it's reached from.
Layout: a note with ticked notes below it gets its own subfolder and moves into it with them. For Carbohydrates at level 2:
Carbohydrates/
A. Monosaccharides (Simple Sugars)/
A. Monosaccharides (Simple Sugars).md
isomers.md
B. Disaccharides (Two Sugars)/
B. Disaccharides (Two Sugars).md
Dehydration synthesis.md
Hydrolysis.md
C. Polysaccharides (Many Sugars)/
C. Polysaccharides (Many Sugars).md
Cellulose.md
Chitin.md
Glycogen.md
Starch.md
With level 1, or with nothing ticked below a note, everything lands flat in the chosen folder. Each row shows where it will go (→ C. Polysaccharides (Many Sugars)/).
What starts unticked, so you decide:
| The parent note | It stays where it is unless you tick it; then it moves into the chosen folder. |
| Shared attachments | A PDF or image that notes outside the branch also link to, such as a textbook many notes cite. |
| Shared notes below the children | A grandchild (or deeper) that notes outside the branch also link to. |
It never climbs. The parent's own parents, and anything above them, are never included, even when a note in the branch links back up to them. The dialog names anything it left out for that reason.
Name clashes
If a file with the same name is already where a note would go, the dialog asks what to do for that file: Skip it, or Keep both (it moves as Glucose 1.md). Move stays disabled until every clash has an answer. Nothing is ever overwritten.
If the folder you typed already exists, you're asked whether to use it or create a numbered one (Carbohydrates 1).
Links
Files are moved with Obsidian's own rename, so links to them are updated the same way as when you move a file yourself. That follows Settings → Files and links → Automatically update internal links. When it's off, Obsidian asks about each moved file, and the dialog says so before you start.
Installation
From Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Branch Mover, install, and enable it.
Manually: download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release into <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/branch-mover/, then enable Branch Mover under Settings → Community plugins.
Known limitations
- The menu item is on graph nodes (Graph View and the local graph). In the file explorer, use the command instead.
- A note below the parent that links up to the parent, or to a note above it, counts as above the parent and isn't included. It's named in the dialog. A child that links back to its parent is still a child.
- Not tested on mobile yet.
Development
npm install
npm run dev # rebuild main.js on every change
npm test # unit tests
npm run build # type-check and build for release
npm run install-plugin -- "path/to/vault"
npm run dev-test -- "path/to/dev-vault" runs the in-Obsidian checks: it installs the plugin and a test harness (dev/harness) into a vault that already allows community plugins, opens it, drives the graph menu and dialogs, moves test notes inside a Child mover test folder, and prints the results. Use a throwaway vault.
To release, run npm version patch (or minor / major) and push the tag (git push --follow-tags). The release workflow builds the plugin and drafts a GitHub release with the three files; review it and publish.