New Note Fixer

Clicking a link to a note that does not exist yet creates it — and where it lands depends on which shape the link has, in ways Obsidian never explains:

• [[non-existing-note]] respects Settings → Files and links → Default location for new notes.
• [[folder/non-existing-note]] ignores that setting entirely and creates the note at the vault root, under folder/.
• [[../folder/non-existing-note]] creates a file outside the vault, does not open it, and on the second click reports the misleading error Folder already exists.

This plugin makes the first two obey the setting you configured, so where a new note appears no longer depends on how the link that created it happened to be written. A link that starts with ./ or ../ names its folder relative to the note it is in, so the plugin creates the note there — the same place Obsidian would look for it once it exists — and refuses one that would leave the vault.

More screenshots

Demo vault

The documentation is a demo vault. Every case has a note that explains what Obsidian does, what the plugin does instead, and a link you can click to watch it happen.

Start reading here — it is plain markdown, so it works on GitHub with nothing installed.

A copy of the vault ships with every release. You can access it via any of the following:

1. Running the New Note Fixer: Open demo vault command.
2. Downloading new-note-fixer-demo-vault.zip from the Releases. It unzips into a single new-note-fixer-demo-vault-<version> folder.
3. Browsing its source in demo-vault/ in this repository.

What it does

• A link with a folder in it stops ignoring your default-location setting. 01 Subfolder link fix
• A relative link (./ or ../) creates the note relative to the linking note's folder, creating any missing folder on the way. One that climbs out of the vault stops creating files outside it, and stops the Folder already exists message that follows. 02 Relative link fix
• Same folder as current file keeps working the way you would expect for every link shape. 03 Current note folder
• Every setting, by the key it is stored under. 04 Settings

See also

My other Obsidian resources

Last searched for similar plugins on 2026-10-26.

Installation

The plugin is available in the official Community Plugins repository.

Beta versions

To install the latest beta release of this plugin (regardless if it is available in the official Community Plugins repository or not), follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have the BRAT plugin installed and enabled.
2. Click Install via BRAT.
3. An Obsidian pop-up window should appear. In the window, click the Add plugin button once and wait a few seconds for the plugin to install.

Debugging

By default, debug messages for this plugin (id: new-note-fixer) are hidden.

If you need to enable them refer to the documentation.

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in the CHANGELOG.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING to get set up.

Support

Filing an issue (for AI agents and humans)

Open issues through the issue forms, not as blank issues.

To report a bug from inside Obsidian, run the New Note Fixer: Report a bug command. It opens the bug form with the plugin version, the Obsidian version and your operating system already filled in.

Filing from the CLI or the API (gh issue create --body, or an AI agent filing for you) skips the form, and gh issue create --template cannot load an issue form. In that case, open the matching form in .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/, copy every field as a ### <label> heading in the form's order, and fill in each one. Always state the plugin version, the Obsidian version and your operating system.

License

© Michael Naumov