External Namespaces

An Obsidian plugin for linking to files and folders outside your vault, even when those folders live in different local paths on different devices.

This is useful when you keep shared work in services like Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, or a network drive. The same synced folder might be D:\Dropbox on one computer and C:\Users\Joe\Dropbox on another. External Namespaces lets you write links with a stable prefix, such as dropbox:, while each device stores its own local folder path for that prefix.

Desktop only · Requires Obsidian 1.5.0+

How it works

You register folders with short prefix names in the plugin settings. The prefix is saved with your vault, while the folder path is stored only on the current device:

When you paste a Windows path from one of those folders into a note, the plugin converts it automatically:

D:\Dropbox\papers\smith2020.pdf
  →  [smith2020.pdf](obsidian://ens?p=dropbox:papers/smith2020.pdf)

In reading or preview mode, only the filename label is visible. Clicking it opens the file (or folder) in its default application via Obsidian's internal obsidian://ens handler — no Windows protocol registration required.

Folder paths work too: pasting D:\Dropbox\papers produces a link that opens that folder in Explorer.

On another device, you can use the same dropbox: links after setting that device's local Dropbox folder path in the plugin settings.

Installation

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. In your vault create .obsidian/plugins/external-namespaces/
3. Copy the three files into that folder
4. Restart Obsidian, then go to Settings → Community Plugins and enable External Namespaces

Setup

1. Go to Settings → External Namespaces
2. Click + Add root
3. Enter a short prefix (e.g. dropbox) and the full path to the folder (e.g. D:\Dropbox)
4. On each other device, use the same prefix but enter that device's local path to the same synced folder
5. Repeat for any other folders you want to link from

Usage

Paste a path

Copy any file or folder path from Windows Explorer (right-click → Copy as path, or just copy from the address bar), then paste it into a note while in editing mode. If the path falls under a registered root, the plugin replaces it with a formatted link. If it doesn't match any root, the path is pasted unchanged.

Write links manually

Links use standard Markdown syntax with an obsidian://ens?p= URL:

[smith2020.pdf](obsidian://ens?p=dropbox:papers/smith2020.pdf)
[Q1 report](obsidian://ens?p=work:reports/Q1.xlsx)
[Papers folder](obsidian://ens?p=dropbox:papers)

In reading or preview mode these render as ordinary links showing only the label text.

If a name contains a space, &, # or %, percent-encode it — a raw space would end the Markdown link early, and a raw & would cut the URL short:

[Lecture Framework.pdf](obsidian://ens?p=gdrive:Teaching/Lecture%20Framework.pdf)
[Q1&Q2 notes.md](obsidian://ens?p=gdrive:Teaching/Q1%26Q2%20notes.md)

Pasted links are encoded for you. Leave / between folders as-is.

Migrate from an older version

If you used a previous version of this plugin with Dropbox, OneDrive, or custom root settings, those will be imported into the new format automatically on first load.

Privacy and security

This plugin accesses files and folders outside your Obsidian vault. That is its purpose: it exists to link notes to documents you keep in synced folders such as Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive, which by definition live outside the vault. Without out-of-vault access the plugin could not do anything useful.

That access is deliberately narrow:

• It only opens paths beneath a folder root that you have registered yourself in the plugin settings. Nothing else on your computer is reachable.
• A link that resolves outside a registered root — for example one using .. to climb above it — is refused rather than opened.
• Opening is delegated to the operating system's default application for the file. The plugin never reads, writes, or modifies file contents.
• All resolution is local filesystem only. No network requests, no cloud APIs, no telemetry.
• Folder paths are stored on each device separately and are never synced.

License

MIT © Joseph N. Cohen

Status

Active development. Core functionality (paste conversion and link opening) is stable.