Mindslate

Edits touch only the lines you changed, so properties, links, comments and formatting in the note stay byte-for-byte intact, apart from the list tidying the format rules describe.

Open a note as a keyboard-first mind map and edit it in place. The note stays an ordinary heading with a nested list.

Mindslate draws a Markdown note as a mind map: the note's # heading is the root and its nested - list is the tree. You build and rearrange the map with the keyboard, the mouse or touch, and every change is a change to the note itself. Obsidian saves it like any other note, and everywhere else (reading view, search, links, Obsidian Publish, GitHub) it stays a plain outline.

Features

• Any note, as a map. Open the note you are in as a map, in the same tab or beside its Markdown view, and switch back at any time.
• Notes that always open as maps. One property, mindslate: map, makes a note open as a map wherever Obsidian opens it: the file explorer, links, the quick switcher, search.
• Keyboard first. Tab adds a child, Enter a sibling, typing edits the selected node and Esc cancels. Arrow keys move around the map.
• Mouse and touch too. Click to select and click again to edit; drag a branch onto another node; the "+" buttons add a child or a sibling; a ring folds a branch and its count badge unfolds it; select several nodes to delete, move or fold them together; pan, zoom and pinch. A click or a tap on the empty map clears the selection while you read; the next key that acts on the selection, such as an arrow, brings it back on the node you left.
• Your note stays your note. An edit rewrites only the lines it touches: properties, text under items, links, tags and comments come back byte for byte, and opening a note as a map never changes it. The exceptions are list tidying (format rules): a list whose items you add, remove or reorder takes one bullet style and indent (a numbered one is renumbered), an item that moves to another depth, or whose number gains a digit, takes the text under it along at its new indent, and in a note with mixed line endings the list gets one kind.
• Saved the Obsidian way. Obsidian saves the note 2 seconds after a change, when the tab closes and when you quit; Cmd/Ctrl+S saves at once.
• Edits from elsewhere show up in place. A change made in the Markdown view, by Obsidian Sync or on another device appears in the open map, with its folds, selection and zoom kept. Unsaved changes in the map are merged with it when they touch other lines; when both changed the same lines, nothing is lost: the map shows the note's new version and Undo brings yours back.
• Each map as you left it. Folded branches, the selected node and the zoom are kept for every note.
• Your theme. Light or dark, with your accent colour, also when you switch.
• Phones and tablets. Undo, Redo, Delete and Fit in the view's header, and large touch targets.
• Maps from your AI agent. An agent skill teaches Claude, or another agent, to write notes that open as maps (For AI agents).

How it compares

Several Obsidian plugins open a Markdown note as a mind map you can edit. The table sets out what each one says about itself on its page in the community directory (read on November 1, 2026); "—" means the page doesn't say.

The others also do things Mindslate doesn't: Rich Mindmap adds priority, progress and flag marks to nodes; linkmind, OMM MindMap and Stratify Mindmap export a map as an image; Stratify Mindmap embeds a map in another note.

Getting started

Open a note as a mind map

• Command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+P): Mindslate: Open as mind map, or Open as mind map in a split to keep the Markdown view beside it.
• Right-click: a note in the file explorer, or the note's text while you edit it (Live Preview or Source mode; reading view has no such menu), or open the tab's ⋯ menu, then Open as mind map.
• Back to Markdown: the page button in the map's header, ⋯ > Open as Markdown, or the command Mindslate: Open as Markdown.
• Always as a map: the command Mindslate: Always open this note as a mind map (or Always open as mind map in the note's menu) adds mindslate: map to the note's properties and changes nothing else. Run it again to take the property out. In a tab where you choose Open as Markdown, that note stays Markdown.
• New mind map: right-click a folder in the file explorer (or the empty space below the files, for the vault's top folder) and choose New mind map to make the map in that folder. The command and the map button in the ribbon make it where Obsidian puts new notes. The map opens with its root ready to type, and the note takes its name from the root.
• Fit the map to the view is a command too; give it a hotkey in Settings > Hotkeys if you like.

Keys

Obsidian's own shortcuts keep working while a map has the keyboard: Cmd/Ctrl+P, Cmd/Ctrl+O, Cmd/Ctrl+N, Cmd/Ctrl+W and Cmd/Ctrl+1 to 9. A right-click on a node shows its actions.

What a map looks like as a note

---
mindslate: map
---
# Weekend in Lisbon

- See
    - Belém Tower
    - Tram 28
- Eat
    - Pastéis de nata

The # heading is the root (a note without one shows its file name instead) and each list item is a node, nested by tabs. Other lists (*, +, numbers, spaces) open too, and text under an item stays with it.

More maps to open are in examples/: study notes on sharding (114 nodes), a trip plan, a project plan and meeting notes. Copy the folder into your vault; each note opens as a map.

For AI agents

The agent skill in skills/markdown-mind-map teaches an AI agent (Claude Code, the Claude apps, or any agent that reads instructions) to make mind maps in your vault: how to plan a good map, the writing and escaping rules, and how to add to a map without breaking it. Its command-line tool is built from Mindslate's own Markdown reader and writer, so a map it writes is byte for byte what the plugin writes, and its validator prints the tree the map will show. In a vault where Mindslate is installed, the agent gives each new map the mindslate: map property, so with the plugin turned on the note opens as a map when you click it (if the plugin is off, the agent tells you to turn it on).

Install it in Claude Code by copying the folder into your skills folder, then start a new session:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wilsonneto-swe/mindslate-obsidian.git
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -R mindslate-obsidian/skills/markdown-mind-map ~/.claude/skills/

Then ask, for example: "Make a mind map for our team offsite (venue, agenda, budget) in my Obsidian vault." For the Claude apps and other agents, and more example prompts, see skills/README.md. The skill is not part of the plugin: Obsidian never loads it, and the plugin's releases do not include it.

Installation

• From Community plugins: Settings > Community plugins > Browse, search for "Mindslate", then select Install and Enable. Or select Add to Obsidian on its page in the community directory.
• Manually: download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/mindslate/, reload Obsidian, then enable Mindslate in Settings > Community plugins.
• On your phone: install it from Community plugins there too, or let Obsidian Sync bring it (turn on "Installed community plugins" and "Active community plugin list" in Settings > Sync on both devices).

Mindslate needs Obsidian 1.7.4 or later and runs on desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux) and mobile (iOS, iPadOS, Android). It has been tested with Obsidian 1.13.7 and 1.14.5 on macOS and in Obsidian's mobile emulation, and with 1.7.4 on macOS.

Privacy

Mindslate works offline. It makes no network requests, has no telemetry or ads, and needs no account. It reads and writes only the notes you open as maps (and the notes its commands flag, create or rename), and keeps each map's folds, selection and zoom in the plugin's own folder (data.json). It never reads or writes files outside your vault.

Building from source

npm install
npm run build      # main.js and styles.css, next to manifest.json
npm run dev        # the same, rebuilt on every change
npm run check      # Obsidian's lint rules, type checks, tests and the build

The plugin's code is in src/; core/ is the Mindslate editor it bundles (the Markdown reader and writer, the layout, the rendering and the keyboard and pointer input); skills/ holds the agent skill, outside the build. Copy main.js, manifest.json and styles.css into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/mindslate/. Releases are built by GitHub Actions when a version tag is pushed (.github/workflows/release.yml), with build attestations. CONTRIBUTING.md covers trying a build in a test vault, reporting a bug and sending a pull request.

Feedback

What would make you switch from your current mind map plugin, or from the mind map app you use outside Obsidian? Tell us in Discussions, where questions and ideas are welcome too.

Found a bug? Open an issue. The plugin is developed together with its tests in a separate repository and exported here for each release, so a pull request is welcome and ships with the next version: CONTRIBUTING.md explains how.

Sponsor

Mindslate is free, works offline and has no ads or accounts. If it is useful to you, you can support its development on GitHub Sponsors.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.

More plugins by the author

Plain Deck: study flashcards written in your notes, with spaced repetition (FSRS); each review is saved as a hidden line under its card, in the same note, so your progress syncs with the vault.