Floating Notes

A lightweight Obsidian plugin that opens a floating popout window for instant note capture — inspired by Raycast Notes.

Listing: https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/floating-notes — or add it to Obsidian directly.

Why

Raycast Notes lets you jot down ideas instantly with a global hotkey and a clean, floating editor. macOS makes truly global hotkeys hard to wire up to a single Obsidian command, so this plugin combines:

• An in-app command (Toggle floating notes) you can bind in Obsidian's hotkey settings
• An obsidian://floating-notes URI handler you can trigger from Raycast / Shortcuts / Alfred for a system-wide hotkey
• A loopback HTTP endpoint (http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle) for shell scripts and other tools

The result: press one hotkey from anywhere, get a distraction-free Obsidian editor floating above your work, press again to hide it.

Features

• Toggle popout — show / hide a native Obsidian editor window without losing state
• Always on top — popout floats above other apps (optional)
• Hide tab bar — strip the tab bar for a bare capture window (optional)
• Side panels — two collapsible panels inside the popout, each running any installed view (file explorer, backlinks, a plugin's own sidebar view)
• Keep the main window awake — render plugin content (Tasks, Dataview) in the popout while the main window is minimized (optional)
• Auto-launch — the bundled script starts Obsidian if it isn't running, then toggles
• Five capture modes
  • Current active note — opens whatever note you're viewing
  • Fixed note — always opens a specific note (e.g. Inbox.md)
  • New note every time — creates a fresh timestamped note in a folder
  • Today's daily note — opens (or creates) today's daily note
  • Plugin view — opens any registered view, e.g. Journal View or Calendar
• Multiple triggers — Obsidian command, obsidian://floating-notes URI, or local HTTP endpoint

Installation

From the plugin store (recommended)

1. Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins → Browse
2. Search for Floating Notes
3. Install, then Enable

Or open the listing in a browser and click Add to Obsidian.

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a folder <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/floating-notes/
3. Copy the files into that folder
4. Enable Floating Notes in Settings → Community plugins

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/haotiencheng/obsidian-floating-notes.git
cd obsidian-floating-notes
npm install
npm run build

Then copy main.js and manifest.json into your vault's plugin folder.

Usage

In Obsidian (local hotkey)

Settings → Hotkeys → search Toggle floating notes → bind a key. No default hotkey is set.

This hotkey only fires when Obsidian is the active app. For a truly global hotkey, see below.

Global hotkey (system-wide)

Obsidian plugins can't register OS-level hotkeys directly (the only API that allows it, electron.remote.globalShortcut, is deprecated and forbidden by the community plugin guidelines). The standard workaround — used by QuickAdd and others — is to delegate to a system-wide launcher that triggers the plugin externally.

Floating Notes exposes two external triggers:

Pair one of those triggers with the system-wide launcher of your choice.

Prerequisites

1. Floating Notes is installed and enabled in Obsidian
2. A system-wide launcher installed (Raycast, macOS Shortcuts, Alfred, Hammerspoon, Karabiner-Elements — pick one)

Recipes

Raycast (macOS — recommended)

1. Create a file named floating-notes.sh anywhere you like (e.g. ~/raycast-scripts/) with this content:

   #!/bin/bash
   
   # @raycast.schemaVersion 1
   # @raycast.title Toggle Floating Notes
   # @raycast.mode silent
   # @raycast.icon 📝
   # @raycast.packageName Obsidian
   # @raycast.description Toggle the Obsidian Floating Notes popout window.
   
   PORT="${FLOATING_NOTES_PORT:-51234}"
   URL="http://127.0.0.1:${PORT}/toggle"
   
   toggle() { curl -fsS --max-time 2 "$URL" > /dev/null 2>&1; }
   
   toggle && exit 0
   
   # Obsidian is closed or still starting: launch it, then retry.
   open -a Obsidian > /dev/null 2>&1 || open "obsidian://" > /dev/null 2>&1
   
   deadline=$((SECONDS + 30))
   while [ "$SECONDS" -lt "$deadline" ]; do
     sleep 0.5
     toggle && exit 0
   done
   exit 1
   

2. Make it executable: chmod +x ~/raycast-scripts/floating-notes.sh
3. Raycast → Preferences → Extensions → Script Commands → Add Directory → pick the folder containing the script
4. Open Raycast → search Toggle Floating Notes → click the gear (⌘ ⇧ ,) → Record Hotkey → press your combo

If you cloned this repo, skip steps 1–2 and point Raycast at the cloned folder — floating-notes.sh is already there.

The macOS recipes below use a bare curl, which toggles only when Obsidian is already running. For auto-launch, call the script instead of curl: ~/raycast-scripts/floating-notes.sh. Windows and Linux equivalents are further down.

macOS Shortcuts (built-in, no extras)

1. Shortcuts app → + new shortcut, name it Floating Notes
2. Add action Run Shell Script → paste:

   curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null
   

3. Shortcut Details (sidebar) → Add Keyboard Shortcut → press key combo

Alfred (Powerpack required)

1. Workflows → + → Blank Workflow
2. Right-click canvas → Triggers → Hotkey → set key
3. Connect to Actions → Run Script (/bin/bash) → paste:

   curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null
   

Hammerspoon (free, scriptable)

Add to ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua:

hs.hotkey.bind({"alt"}, "N", function()
  -- swap for os.getenv("HOME") .. "/raycast-scripts/floating-notes.sh" to auto-launch
  hs.execute("/usr/bin/curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle")
end)

Reload config from the Hammerspoon menu bar icon.

Karabiner-Elements (free, low-level)

Save as ~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/floating-notes.json, then enable it under Complex Modifications → Add predefined rule. The shell command is self-contained: it toggles the popout if Obsidian is running, otherwise launches Obsidian and retries for up to 30 seconds.

{
  "title": "Floating Notes",
  "rules": [
    {
      "description": "Toggle Obsidian floating notes",
      "manipulators": [
        {
          "type": "basic",
          "from": { "key_code": "n", "modifiers": { "mandatory": ["right_option"] } },
          "to": [
            {
              "shell_command": "PORT=\"${FLOATING_NOTES_PORT:-51234}\"; URL=\"http://127.0.0.1:${PORT}/toggle\"; toggle() { curl -fsS --max-time 2 \"$URL\" > /dev/null 2>&1; }; toggle && exit 0; open -a Obsidian > /dev/null 2>&1 || open 'obsidian://' > /dev/null 2>&1; deadline=$((SECONDS + 30)); while [ \"$SECONDS\" -lt \"$deadline\" ]; do sleep 0.5; toggle && exit 0; done; exit 1"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Karabiner rejects unknown keys such as "//", so keep notes in the description field.

Raycast (Windows)

1. Create a file named floating-notes.bat (e.g. in %USERPROFILE%\raycast-scripts\) with this content:

   @echo off >nul 2>&1
   chcp 65001 >nul 2>&1
   setlocal
   
   REM @raycast.schemaVersion 1
   REM @raycast.title Toggle Floating Notes
   REM @raycast.mode silent
   REM @raycast.icon 📝
   REM @raycast.packageName Obsidian
   REM @raycast.description Toggle the Obsidian Floating Notes popout window.
   
   set "URL=http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle"
   
   curl.exe -fsS -m 2 -o nul "%URL%" >nul 2>&1 && exit /b 0
   
   REM Obsidian is closed or still starting: launch it, then retry for 30s.
   start "" "obsidian://"
   
   for /l %%i in (1,1,30) do (
     timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul
     curl.exe -fsS -m 2 -o nul "%URL%" >nul 2>&1 && exit /b 0
   )
   
   exit /b 1
   

2. Raycast → Preferences → Extensions → Script Commands → Add Directory → pick the folder containing the script
3. Open Raycast → search Toggle Floating Notes → assign a hotkey

Windows (AutoHotkey v2 — alternative to Raycast)

!n:: {
    if Toggle()
        return
    Run("obsidian://")                      ; closed or still starting
    deadline := A_TickCount + 30000
    while (A_TickCount < deadline) {
        Sleep(500)
        if Toggle()
            return
    }
}

Toggle() {
    return RunWait('curl.exe -fsS -m 2 -o NUL "http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle"', , "Hide") = 0
}

Linux (e.g. sxhkd)

Save this as ~/bin/floating-notes.sh and chmod +x it:

#!/bin/sh
URL="http://127.0.0.1:${FLOATING_NOTES_PORT:-51234}/toggle"

toggle() { curl -fsS --max-time 2 "$URL" > /dev/null 2>&1; }

toggle && exit 0

# Obsidian is closed or still starting: launch it, then retry.
(obsidian > /dev/null 2>&1 &) || xdg-open "obsidian://" > /dev/null 2>&1

i=0
while [ "$i" -lt 60 ]; do
    sleep 0.5
    toggle && exit 0
    i=$((i + 1))
done
exit 1

Then add to ~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc:

alt + n
    ~/bin/floating-notes.sh

Upgrading

From 1.2.x to 1.3.x — the plugin update is automatic, but the trigger script is not. Your launcher runs your own copy of floating-notes.sh, so it keeps the old one-line curl until you replace it. Without that, everything still works except auto-launch.

If you cloned this repo and pointed your launcher at the clone:

git pull

If you copied the script somewhere (e.g. ~/scripts/floating-notes.sh), replace the body with the current version, keeping your own @raycast.* metadata lines so your recorded hotkey stays bound:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/haotiencheng/obsidian-floating-notes/main/floating-notes.sh \
  -o ~/scripts/floating-notes.sh
chmod +x ~/scripts/floating-notes.sh

Changed the port in settings? Export it for the script: FLOATING_NOTES_PORT=51235.

Settings

Notes

• Desktop only. The plugin uses Electron and Node http APIs that aren't available on Obsidian Mobile.
• The local HTTP server only accepts connections from 127.0.0.1.

Inspiration

Raycast Notes — a beautiful, instant note-taking experience via a global hotkey. Floating Notes brings that frictionless capture workflow into Obsidian.

License

MIT