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Compact Empty Properties

A lightweight Obsidian plugin that hides empty properties in the Properties UI while preserving Markdown and YAML frontmatter unless you explicitly delete a property.

Why

Templates and structured note systems often contain many optional properties. Compact Empty Properties keeps those empty rows visually collapsed while preserving the underlying frontmatter.

Features

• Hides empty strings, null, empty arrays ([]), and empty objects ({})
• Keeps false, 0, and non-empty values visible
• Keeps the default empty-Property hiding behavior while allowing Vault-wide Auto, Show, or Hide rules in Settings
• Supports Note, folder, and Vault visibility rules with Note > most-specific Folder > Vault > Auto precedence
• On macOS, Option-click a Property name; on Windows/Linux, Alt-click it to open the visibility menu
• The menu can Hide or Show a Property in this note, folder, or vault
• The menu also opens a compact Reorder properties scope chooser for This folder or This vault; drag handles and Done change UI order only
• Provides Vault-wide decorative Property icons with a searchable runtime icon picker
• Provides a lightweight Show hidden properties (N) reveal toggle
• Provides a Scoped rules manager in Settings for searching and resetting note/folder rules
• Exposes the plugin settings through Obsidian 1.13+ Settings Search
• Protects focused, edited, and newly created rows while typing
• Recalculates safely when switching notes or when Properties DOM is replaced
• Works with regular Markdown notes
• Uses Obsidian theme variables for Light and Dark themes
• Hide, Show, Reveal, and ordering changes do not write Markdown; an explicit Delete from this note action uses Obsidian's public frontmatter API

What it does not do

• Does not delete properties automatically; the Property menu provides an explicit Delete from this note action
• Does not rewrite or reorder YAML
• Does not rename properties
• Does not replace Obsidian's native Properties editor
• Does not build a separate content index; Settings reads Property names from Obsidian metadata
• Does not process Reading View

Screenshots

Screenshots will be added after a public, non-personal UI capture is approved. No private Vault screenshots are included.

Installation

For manual installation, copy these files into your Vault's plugin directory:

main.js
manifest.json
styles.css

Destination:

<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/compact-empty-properties/

Then open Settings → Community plugins, enable Community plugins if needed, and enable Compact Empty Properties manually.

Usage

With the default setting enabled, empty Properties rows are hidden. Click Show hidden properties (N) to temporarily reveal Properties hidden by Auto, Note, folder, or Vault rules; click Hide properties to apply the rules again. The reveal is UI-only and never writes to the note.

Use Settings → Compact Empty Properties → Property visibility for Vault-wide Auto, Show, and Hide rules. For quick note-level changes, Option-click a Property name on macOS or Alt-click it on Windows/Linux, then choose Hide, Show, or Delete from this note. Reset scoped rules in the Scoped rules section of Settings to restore inheritance.

To reorder Properties, use the Reorder properties Command Palette command or choose Reorder properties… from the Option/Alt-click menu. Choose This folder or This vault, drag the handles, then select Done. The order is stored in the plugin settings and never written to YAML/frontmatter. Configure decorative icons in Settings → Compact Empty Properties → Property icons; icons are selected from Obsidian's runtime icon list and can be reset to the native/default presentation.

Empty value rules

Privacy and data safety

• No network requests
• Hide/Show/Reveal do not write Markdown or YAML; Delete from this note deliberately removes the selected top-level frontmatter key through Obsidian's public API
• No separate Vault-wide content index
• Operates only on the currently displayed Properties UI
• Plugin settings, if changed, are stored as the plugin's own settings data

Development

npm install
npm test
npm run check
npm run build
node --check main.js

See docs/dom-audit.md for the DOM and lifecycle notes.

License

MIT