Quick Access Dashboard

A privacy-conscious Obsidian sidebar that keeps files and folders you add, recently opened files, recently created files, and most-opened files together.

Features

• Add files and expandable folders to Quick Access.
• See the most recently opened files.
• See the most recently created files, so a new note is one click away even before search has indexed it.
• Rank files by opens over the current local day and six preceding local calendar days.
• Rank files by opens since tracking began or was reset.
• Choose how many entries each section shows (1 to 50, default 12) and hide sections you do not use.
• Follow file and folder renames, and remove deleted paths automatically.
• Reset all device-local access statistics without removing Quick Access items.

Usage

• Select the dashboard icon in the ribbon or run Open dashboard from the command palette.
• Right-click a file or folder and select Add to Quick Access.
• Run Add or remove active file from Quick Access to toggle the current file.
• Select a file to open it. Ctrl-click, Cmd-click, or middle-click opens it in a new tab.
• Run Reset access statistics to clear recent and most-opened data on the current device.
• Open Settings → Quick Access Dashboard to set entries per section and show or hide sections.

Quick Access items are entries in this dashboard only. They do not pin Obsidian tabs or modify Bookmarks.

What counts as an access

A file is counted when it becomes the active file in Obsidian's interface. This includes normal navigation and CLI or URI commands that open a file in the interface.

Background reads, searches, indexing, sync, edits, hover previews, and embedded notes do not count. Duplicate events for the same active file are ignored; switching away and back counts as another access. Restored startup tabs establish a baseline without incrementing it.

Statistics begin after installation. The plugin cannot reconstruct earlier access history.

Recently created lists files in the order Obsidian saw them appear in the vault on this device, whether created in Obsidian, by another app, or by sync. It follows renames, so a note created as Untitled keeps its place after you name it. Filesystem creation timestamps are not used because copying, syncing, and atomic saves reset them. Paths matching Obsidian's Excluded files setting (Settings → Files and links) are left out, so folders that other tools fill automatically do not crowd the list.

Data and privacy

The plugin has no runtime dependencies, network calls, telemetry, advertising, shell access, dynamic code execution, editor-transaction listeners, or note-content access.

Quick Access items and display settings use Obsidian's normal plugin data. Access activity uses Obsidian's vault-specific local storage and stays on the device. Stored activity is limited to file paths, recent-path and created-path lists, aggregate totals, last-open timestamps, and seven local-date count buckets. The plugin does not retain a raw event log.

Installation

Community plugins

1. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse.
2. Search for Quick Access Dashboard.
3. Select Install, then Enable.

Manual installation

Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest GitHub release and place them in:

<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/quick-access-dashboard/

Reload Obsidian, then enable Quick Access Dashboard under Settings → Community plugins.

Compatibility

The current beta supports Obsidian 1.13.0 or later on desktop. Mobile support has not yet been validated.

Development

There are no packages to install. The build and tests use only Node.js standard-library modules.

node build.js
node --test test/*.test.js

build.js combines model.js and plugin.js into the self-contained main.js required by Obsidian.

Security

Please report vulnerabilities through this repository's private vulnerability reporting. Use synthetic paths and note names in reports rather than real vault data.

License

MIT