Explorer

Explorer is an Obsidian plugin for browsing folder contents directly inside a note. It is built for folder-based vaults where folder notes act as navigation hubs.

Available in the Obsidian community plugin store.

Features

• Card and list views for folder contents
• Folder buttons for moving through subfolders
• Automatic folder-note creation
• Optional homepage navigation
• Parent folder and homepage commands
• Sorting by name, created time, or modified time
• Pagination for large folders
• Scoped search within the current explorer
• Mobile-friendly layout
• Optional glass-style controls
• RTL support for Hebrew and Arabic workflows

Usage

Add an Explorer block to any folder note:

```explorer
```

The block displays files from the note's current folder using your default settings.

You can add a block from the command palette with:

• Insert code block

You can create a new folder with a matching folder note from:

• Create folder in current note folder

That command creates Folder/Folder.md, inserts an Explorer block, and opens the new note.

Screenshots

Cards

List

Settings

Dark Mode

Navigation

Explorer treats folder notes as navigation pages. A folder note is a Markdown file named after its folder:

Projects/Projects.md

When you open a folder from Explorer, the plugin looks for the matching folder note. If it does not exist, Explorer creates it with a basic Explorer block.

Homepage

Explorer can also use a root-level homepage when navigating above a root folder note.

By default, homepage navigation is enabled. If the homepage name is left empty, Explorer uses the vault name:

My Vault.md

You can change this in plugin settings:

• Use homepage
• Homepage name

The homepage must be a root note name, not a nested path. If the configured homepage does not exist, Explorer creates it with:

```explorer
view: "cards"
sortBy: "edited"
depth: 10
pageSize: 21
```

If homepage navigation is disabled, the parent button is hidden when it would navigate above a root folder note.

Commands

Explorer registers these command palette commands:

• Insert code block
• Create folder in current note folder
• Go to homepage
• Go to parent folder

Go to homepage opens or creates the configured homepage. Go to parent folder opens the parent folder note, or the homepage when the current note is already in the vault root and homepage navigation is enabled.

Configuration

Most options are available in the plugin settings UI. You can also override block-specific options inside an Explorer code block:

```explorer
view: "cards"
sortBy: "edited"
depth: 2
pageSize: 21
paginationStyle: "modern"
```

Supported block settings:

Plugin-only settings include homepage behavior, the parent button, glass controls, card icons, and list bullets.

Search

Use the search icon in the action bar to filter the current Explorer view.

• Plain text searches file names
• #tag searches frontmatter tags
• @name searches folder notes

Fit

Explorer is designed for vaults organized around folders and folder notes. It is not a vault-wide query engine and does not try to replace Dataview, Bases, or tag/database workflows.

Install

Install from Obsidian's community plugin browser, or clone the repository into your vault:

git clone https://github.com/manemajef/obsidian-explorer "/path/to/vault/.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-explorer"

Then enable Explorer from Obsidian's Community plugins settings.

Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Build:

npm run build

Run development watch mode:

npm run dev

Lint CSS:

npm run lint:css

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. For larger changes, open an issue first so the behavior and scope can be discussed before implementation.

When contributing:

• Keep behavior folder-note focused
• Prefer plugin settings for global behavior and block settings for per-view display
• Keep UI components thin and put reusable vault/navigation behavior in src/vault/actions.ts
• Run npm run build before submitting changes

License

MIT