Smart Explorer

A tree-first side-pane explorer for browsing, filtering, and manually sorting your Obsidian files.

Built for vaults with hundreds or thousands of notes where the default file tree falls short, especially project folders that need a human priority order instead of only alphabetical sorting.

Features

Manual Drag-and-Drop Sorting

Switch to Manual sort mode to drag the handle beside a file and reorder it, or keep your hands on the keyboard and use Alt+ArrowUp / Alt+ArrowDown on the selected file. The starting order matches whatever sort you were viewing ("what you see is what you drag"), shown in a toolbar hint. Manual ordering uses an ungrouped list; tree and grouped manual ordering are not supported. Use Undo to revert the last reorder. Undo changes order only: it does not reverse creates, renames, or deletions. Renamed files retain their historical positions, deleted files stay removed, and new files remain sortable, including after Undo. The custom order is saved per vault and persists across sessions.

Rename tracking continues while all Smart Explorer panes are closed, provided the plugin remains enabled. Renames made while the plugin is disabled or Obsidian is not running cannot reliably retain positions because order is stored by path.

Installation

Community Plugins (recommended)

1. Open Settings → Community Plugins → Browse
2. Search for Smart Explorer
3. Click Install, then Enable

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create .obsidian/plugins/smart-explorer/ in your vault
3. Copy the three files into that folder
4. Enable in Settings → Community Plugins

Usage

1. Open via ribbon icon or Command Palette → Smart Explorer: Open
2. Use the first toolbar row for tree/list mode, sorting, new notes/folders, search, and filters
3. Click search to reveal the search box; click filters for grouping, extension, file kind, and modified-date filters. Extension and file-kind filters can be combined.
4. Click a file to open it in Obsidian
5. Use the clear button near the file count to clear active search and filters
6. Defaults persist in Settings → Community Plugins → Smart Explorer

Keyboard & Commands

• Cmd/Ctrl+F focuses the search box
• Esc clears search text or closes the filter row
• Arrow Up/Down moves through rows; Home/End jump to the first/last row
• Arrow Right/Left opens/closes the focused folder in tree mode
• Enter or Space opens the focused file or toggles the focused folder
• Alt+ArrowUp / Alt+ArrowDown moves the selected file in Manual sort mode (announced via screen reader)
• Command Palette actions: Smart Explorer: Open, Focus search, Reveal active file, New note, New folder

Compatibility

• Obsidian ≥ 1.7.2
• Desktop and mobile are declared supported; candidate-specific runtime verification is tracked in the 1.0 readiness report.
• The 1.0 candidate is not release-approved until required desktop, real iOS/Android, minimum-version, upgrade, accessibility, and performance gates pass.

Privacy

No network requests. Explicit user actions can create notes or folders, rename files or folders, and move items to the configured trash. Renaming follows Obsidian's internal-link update preference. Plugin settings and manual order are saved locally, including path maintenance after vault renames while the plugin is enabled.

Development

npm install          # install dependencies
npm run dev          # watch mode
npm run build        # type-check + production build
npm test             # unit, DOM, and integration tests
npm run lint         # eslint
npm run test:release # release-validator and workflow tests
npm run test:fixture # fixture-script safety tests
npm run verify       # lint + production build + Jest + release + fixture tests

License

MIT