Flow Writer

A distraction-free writing mode for Obsidian that promotes flow and focus.

Why

Visual distractions make it difficult to stay focused while writing, so flow mode goes entirely full-screen. Editing while drafting is the most reliable way to not finish a draft, so flow mode removes the option. You can only move forward, so you do.

What it does

• Full screen, nothing else. What you're writing gets your full attention. No ribbon, no side panes, no tab bar, no status bar, no properties panel, no note title. Only your words.
• Everything written dims. Text you have already committed drops to a faint opacity so it stays out of your way without disappearing.
• Finished words are sealed. Backspace works freely inside the word you are typing. The moment you press space or Enter, that word is permanent — it cannot be edited, deleted, undone, or navigated back to until you leave flow mode.
• Your theme, untouched. Flow mode sets no fonts, colours or background. It inherits whatever your Obsidian looks like, in light mode and dark, including a theme switch mid-session.

Using it

1. Open a note in editing mode.
2. Run Flow Writer: Toggle flow mode from the command palette. Bind it to a hotkey in Settings → Hotkeys — it ships without one to avoid clashing with anything you already use.
3. Write.
4. Leave with the Esc key, the same command from the palette, or your hotkey.

Flow mode starts writing at the end of the note, and everything already in the note is sealed. It never modifies or removes existing content.

If the active view is not a note in editing mode — no note open, a PDF, the graph, or a note in Reading mode — the command tells you and does nothing.

Settings

Turn off Esc exits flow mode if leaving should take deliberate intent. The command palette and your hotkey always work.

Turn off typewriter centering if you already run a typewriter-scroll plugin.

Installing

Search for Flow Writer in Settings → Community plugins → Browse, then install and enable it.

Desktop only. The full-screen behaviour flow mode relies on does not exist in Obsidian mobile.

Credit

This Obsidian plugin was developed by @dctanugi using Claude Code.

The idea, and the mechanic, come from Flow Writer by @paveli — Flow-Writer-App, and the essay that goes with it, Write in flow, edit later.

This plugin is an independent reimplementation for Obsidian. It shares no code with the original — different language, framework and editor engine — and exists because that mechanic deserved to write into a real note instead of a scratch buffer you have to copy out of.

License

MIT. The original Flow Writer is GPL-3.0; no code from it is used here.