Depends
Aru Gyani21 downloadsManage your cross-file dependencies and view them in the native graph view.
- Overview
- Scorecard
- Updates1
Manage file dependencies for better graph viewing.
What it does
Declare relationships between notes by id in frontmatter, and Depends writes real
[[wikilinks]] into managed sections of each note. The native Obsidian graph
view picks up those edges automatically. The user only types ids. Depends resolves
them to filenames, so renaming a note does not break the graph.
Frontmatter example
---
id: ini1
solved: true
dependencies: [ini0]
dependents: [ini2, ini3]
---
The plugin maintains two sections in the note:
# Depends on
- [[intro]]
# Dependents
- [[advanced]]
- [[expert]]
You do not have to add the headings yourself. They appear (and disappear) as soon as the relationships are present (or removed).
Settings
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mode | auto |
auto rewrites sections whenever frontmatter changes. manual only writes when you run a command. The index stays current in both modes. |
| Id field | id |
Frontmatter key holding each note's unique id. |
| Dependencies field | dependencies |
Ids this note depends on. |
| Dependents field | dependents |
Ids that depend on this note (declared). |
| Gate field | empty | Optional. Set to a frontmatter key (such as solved); when that key is present and falsy, both managed sections are removed. Leave blank to disable gating. |
| Render dependencies | on | Toggle the upstream direction. |
| Render dependents | on | Toggle the inverse direction. |
| Dependents source | both | declared, inferred, or both. Inferred dependents come from inverting every other note's dependencies. |
| Depends on heading | # Depends on |
Heading line for the upstream section. Any heading level (#..######) works. |
| Dependents heading | # Dependents |
Heading line for the inverse section. |
| Include / exclude folders | empty | Empty include means the whole vault is in scope. Exclude wins over include. |
A managed section owns its heading plus the contiguous bullet lines beneath it. Anything that is neither a bullet nor a blank line ends the section, so prose written after the bullets is preserved.
Commands
- Depends: Register dependencies for all files
- Depends: Register dependencies for current file
- Depends: Show index stats
In manual mode these commands are how you ask Depends to write. In auto mode you rarely need them, but they remain useful for forcing a refresh.
Install
From the community plugin directory
Once Depends is published, install it from inside Obsidian via Settings, Community plugins, Browse. Search for "Depends", install, and enable.
Manually from a release
- Download
main.jsandmanifest.jsonfrom the latest release. - Drop them into
<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/depends/. - Reload Obsidian and enable "Depends" under Community plugins.
From source (for local development)
- Run
npm install. - Run
npm run build. This producesmain.jsnext tomanifest.json. - Run
scripts/install.sh vaults verboseto pick a vault interactively, orscripts/install.sh install <vault-name>to target one directly. - Reload Obsidian and enable "Depends" under Community plugins.
For development, npm run dev will watch and rebuild on save.
Develop
npm run buildproduces a singlemain.js.npm testruns the test suite (Vitest).npm run typecheckruns TypeScript with no emit.
License
MIT