Open in New Tab and Preserve Tabs

Open in New Tab and Preserve Tabs changes Obsidian's file-opening behavior so opening a different file opens a new tab while preserving the current file tab.

Behavior

• If the current tab contains file A and you open file B, file B opens in a new tab and becomes active.
• If file B is already open in another tab, Obsidian switches to that existing tab instead of opening a duplicate.
• If the current tab is empty, Obsidian reuses the empty tab.
• If you open the same file that is already active, Obsidian keeps the current tab.

This applies to file opens that use Obsidian's normal openFile flow, including the file explorer, search results, recent files, and calendar daily notes.

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins

After the plugin is accepted into the community directory:

1. Open Obsidian Settings.
2. Go to Community plugins.
3. Search for "Open in New Tab and Preserve Tabs".
4. Install and enable the plugin.

Manual installation

1. Download manifest.json and main.js from a release.

2. Place them in:

   <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/open-in-new-tab-and-preserve-tabs/
   

3. Reload Obsidian.

4. Enable the plugin in Community plugins.

Notes

The plugin wraps Obsidian's WorkspaceLeaf.openFile method and restores the original method when unloaded.

License

MIT