Pins Save

Obsidian plugin that remembers which Markdown tabs you pinned and automatically re-opens and re-pins them every time you restart Obsidian.

Author: SATOSprod
License: MIT — see LICENSE

Why Pins Save?

Obsidian does not remember pinned tabs between restarts. Pin five notes you are actively working on, close the app — or it crashes, or your system reboots — and the next time you open Obsidian, those tabs are gone and everything is unpinned again. Pins Save fixes that by tracking every pinned Markdown note and restoring it automatically.

Features

• Auto scan in background — while you work, the plugin listens for pin/unpin actions and saves the list automatically, with no manual step required
• Auto restore on startup — when Obsidian loads, every previously pinned note is reopened as a pinned tab, exactly as you left it
• Rename-safe — if a pinned file is renamed or moved, the saved path is updated automatically so the pin is never lost
• Delete-safe — if a pinned file is deleted, it is automatically removed from the saved list on the next scan
• Manual actions — three on-demand commands in the Command Palette:
  • Scan pinned tabs now — force an immediate save of the current pinned notes
  • Restore pinned notes now — force an immediate reopen/re-pin of all saved notes
  • Clear saved pinned notes list — remove all saved entries without touching open tabs
• Status panel — live list of every note path currently tracked
• SVG icons, no emoji — clean, consistent settings UI

Requirements

• Obsidian 1.7.2 or later
• Works on desktop and mobile

Installation

From source

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/SATOSprod/pins-save.git
cd pins-save

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Build
npm run build
# Produces: main.js

Copy the following files into your vault:

<your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/pins-save/
├── main.js          ← compiled output
├── manifest.json
└── styles.css

Open Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins → Installed plugins and enable Pins Save.

Development mode (auto-rebuild on save)

npm run dev

Configuration

Open Settings → Pins Save.

Restore pinned notes on startup toggle

Show notice after restoring

Manual Actions

All actions are available from the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P) or as buttons in the settings panel.

Status Panel

The settings page shows a live list of tracked notes:

File Structure

pins-save/
├── main.ts               ← TypeScript source
├── main.js               ← compiled output (gitignored, built locally)
├── styles.css             ← plugin styles
├── manifest.json           ← Obsidian plugin manifest
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
├── esbuild.config.mjs
├── version-bump.mjs
├── versions.json
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

How It Works

1. On load, the plugin waits for onLayoutReady, then attaches a pinned-change listener to every open Markdown leaf via Obsidian's Workspace API.
2. Whenever a tab is pinned or unpinned, the listener triggers a debounced save that writes the current list of pinned note paths to the plugin's local data.json.
3. On the next startup, if auto-restore is enabled, the plugin opens each saved path with workspace.getLeaf("tab") and calls leaf.setPinned(true) to restore the pin.
4. Listeners on vault.on("rename") and vault.on("delete") keep the saved list accurate as files move or disappear.
5. All operations go through app.vault and app.workspace, so they are compatible with local vaults and sync services alike.

License

This project is released under the MIT License.
See LICENSE for full terms.

© 2026 SATOSprod