Arbor

Think in branches. Keep one note.

Arbor is a writing-first branching editor for Obsidian. It lets you build a note as small Markdown blocks arranged left-to-right while keeping the note itself as a normal .md file.

No export step. No separate canvas file. No sidecar database.

The core idea:

• write in short blocks instead of one long wall of text
• see the current branch, nearby alternatives, and next steps at the same time
• reorganize ideas without copy-paste chaos
• stay inside one note instead of splitting thoughts across many files

Arbor is desktop-only. It currently requires Obsidian >= 1.5.12 and was tested on Obsidian 1.12.4.

Why Arbor

Arbor is for notes where order matters, but thought does not arrive linearly.

Good fit:

• article and essay drafting
• study notes with branches and alternatives
• argument building
• structured brainstorming
• rewriting and rearranging long notes without losing the original Markdown

Arbor is not a canvas, mind map, or whiteboard. It is still note editing, just with a branching spatial view.

Core Features

• Left-to-right branching editor for one Markdown note
• Stable block tree with inline editing
• Normal readable Markdown body as the source document
• Visible block markers plus hidden in-note metadata for exact recovery
• Selected block panel with focused preview and inline editing
• Context-aware dimming so the active branch stays readable
• Drag-and-drop reorder and reparent
• Keyboard-first navigation and structure editing
• Search overlay for block-level search
• Zoom, breadcrumbs, view menu, and context menus
• Auto-open managed Arbor notes in Arbor view
• Safe rebuild when the note changed in plain Markdown mode

Install

Community Plugins

Once Arbor is approved in the Obsidian community catalog:

1. Open Settings -> Community plugins -> Browse.
2. Search for Arbor.
3. Install it.
4. Enable it.

Manual install

If you want to install Arbor before it appears in the community catalog:

1. Download manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css from the latest GitHub release.
2. Create this folder in your vault:

.obsidian/plugins/arbor

3. Place those three files inside it.
4. Open Obsidian.
5. Go to Settings -> Community plugins.
6. Enable Arbor.

Quick Start

1. Open any Markdown note.
2. Run Open view for current note.
3. Create a root block.
4. Press Enter on a selected card to edit it.
5. Use Ctrl/Cmd + Arrow to grow the structure.
6. Use the right-click menu to duplicate, move, delete, or continue a branch.
7. Turn on Selected block panel from the Arbor menu if you want a focused preview/editor panel.

Support

If Arbor is useful to you, you can support development here:

• Buy Me a Coffee

Built-In View Shortcuts

These work inside Arbor itself. They are not command-palette bindings.

Navigation

Shortcut	Effect
ArrowUp	Select previous sibling
ArrowDown	Select next sibling
ArrowLeft	Select parent
ArrowRight	Select first child
Home	Jump to first sibling
End	Jump to last sibling
Backspace / Delete	Delete the selected block
Enter	Edit the selected block

Editing

Shortcut	Effect
Enter in editor	Save block and leave edit mode
Shift + Enter	Insert newline inside the block
Escape	Cancel current edit
Ctrl/Cmd + Z in editor	Native text undo inside the current textarea

Structural creation

Shortcut	Effect
Ctrl/Cmd + ArrowUp	Create sibling above
Ctrl/Cmd + ArrowDown	Create sibling below
Ctrl/Cmd + ArrowRight	Create child to the right
Ctrl/Cmd + ArrowLeft	Create a block to the left at parent level

Notes:

• Ctrl/Cmd + ArrowLeft is intentionally conservative and does nothing when the selected block is already at the root level.
• Arbor uses event.code for view-level shortcuts where needed, so layout-dependent bindings like search remain stable across keyboard layouts.
• Delete subtree shows a confirmation modal. Normal Delete block does not.

Search and zoom

Shortcut	Effect
Ctrl/Cmd + F	Open Arbor search overlay
Ctrl/Cmd + Z	Undo the last Arbor structural/content change
Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z	Redo the last undone Arbor change
Ctrl/Cmd + Mouse wheel	Zoom the scene if zoom is enabled in settings
Click zoom indicator	Reset zoom to 100%

Command Palette Actions

All of these are exposed as normal Obsidian commands. By default, they have no bound hotkey unless you bind one yourself in Obsidian.

Command	ID	Scope	Default hotkey
Open view for current note	open-view	Global	None
Create new note	create-note	Global	None
Create new note in Markdown editor	create-note-markdown	Global	None
Create demo note	create-demo-note	Global	None
Open block actions menu	open-block-actions-menu	Arbor view	None
Create new root block	new-root-block	Arbor view	None
Create sibling above	create-sibling-above	Arbor view	None
Create sibling below	create-sibling-below	Arbor view	None
Create child to the right	create-child-right	Arbor view	None
Create block to the left at parent level	create-parent-level-block-left	Arbor view	None
Select parent block	select-parent-block	Arbor view	None
Select previous sibling block	select-previous-sibling-block	Arbor view	None
Select next sibling block	select-next-sibling-block	Arbor view	None
Select first child block	select-first-child-block	Arbor view	None
Select first sibling block	select-first-sibling-block	Arbor view	None
Select last sibling block	select-last-sibling-block	Arbor view	None
Move block up among siblings	move-block-up	Arbor view	None
Move block down among siblings	move-block-down	Arbor view	None
Move block left to parent level	move-block-left	Arbor view	None
Move block right to become child of previous block	move-block-right	Arbor view	None
Delete block	delete-block	Arbor view	None
Delete subtree	delete-subtree	Arbor view	None
Duplicate block	duplicate-block	Arbor view	None
Duplicate subtree	duplicate-subtree	Arbor view	None
Toggle edit mode	toggle-edit-mode	Arbor view	None
Reveal current block in linear Markdown	reveal-current-block-in-linear-markdown	Arbor view	None
Rebuild linear Markdown from tree	rebuild-linear-markdown-from-tree	Arbor view	None
Rebuild tree from metadata	rebuild-tree-from-metadata	Arbor view	None
Undo branch action	undo-branch-action	Arbor view	None
Redo branch action	redo-branch-action	Arbor view	None

View Menu

Arbor includes a compact view menu in the top-right corner of the editor.

Current menu actions:

• toggle Selected block panel
• toggle breadcrumb path
• toggle breadcrumb flow
• toggle Ctrl/Cmd + wheel zoom
• reset zoom to 100%
• open Arbor settings

Settings

Setting	Default	Meaning
Split direction	Vertical split	Where Arbor opens relative to the current note
Card width	300 px	Base card width in the branching scene
Card minimum height	120 px	Minimum card height before content expands it
Horizontal spacing	20 px	Gap between columns
Vertical spacing	12 px	Gap between sibling cards
Default zoom	100%	Initial scene scale when Arbor opens
Preview snippet length	220 chars	Maximum preview text for compact card snippets
Drag and drop	On	Enable drag reorder and reparent
Ctrl/Cmd + wheel zoom	On	Allow scene zoom with Ctrl/Cmd + mouse wheel
Auto-open managed notes	On	Open Arbor-managed notes directly in Arbor view
Show breadcrumb path	On	Show the active path strip at the top
Show breadcrumb flow	On	Show subtle connectors between breadcrumb items
Preferred breadcrumb line prefix	#	Prefer the first non-empty line that starts with # when generating breadcrumb labels
Breadcrumb fallback	First non-empty line	What Arbor uses when no preferred-prefix line exists
Selected block panel	Off	Show the focused preview/editor panel for the selected block
Managed metadata block style	Multiline	Store hidden Arbor metadata as a multiline or compact HTML comment

How Notes Stay Normal Markdown

Arbor does not move your note into a database or sidecar file.

Each Arbor note contains:

• the visible Markdown body
• machine-written block markers before each block in the visible body
• one hidden metadata block at the end of the same note

Example shape:

<!-- arbor:block:v1 id="root-1" parent="" order="0" -->
# A visible markdown note

This text is still readable in normal Obsidian.

<!-- arbor:metadata:v1
BASE64_ENCODED_JSON
-->

Important behavior:

• frontmatter is preserved
• the visible body stays readable if the plugin is disabled
• Arbor keeps stable block IDs in both visible markers and hidden metadata
• if hidden metadata is stale, Arbor can recover the exact block tree from the visible markers
• if you open an older Arbor note without visible markers, Arbor upgrades it automatically to the precise marker format
• if you edit the note in normal Markdown mode, Arbor will safely rebuild the tree from the visible note body instead of silently dropping content

Beautiful blocks in the > [!note] style are still normal Markdown callouts. In the screenshots and demo notes, that styling comes from Callout Manager.

Privacy and disclosures

• No account is required.
• No telemetry is collected.
• No ads are shown.
• Arbor does not make network requests for its core functionality.
• Arbor stores plugin settings with Obsidian's plugin data system.
• Arbor stores branch structure inside the note itself as hidden metadata comments.
• If you paste an image into a block, Arbor writes that image into your vault as a normal attachment.

Demo Notes

Arbor ships with a built-in demo note generator.

Use the command palette action:

• Create demo note

The command creates a new Arbor-managed demo note in the current note folder, or in the vault root if there is no active note.

Compatibility

• Desktop only
• Obsidian >= 1.5.12
• Tested on Obsidian 1.12.4
• Plugin ID: arbor
• Current version: 0.1.9

Known Limitations

• Arbor is intentionally desktop-first.
• Plain-Markdown rebuild is conservative by design. It protects content first and structure second.
• Undo and redo are Arbor view history, not native editor history.
• Very large notes can still benefit from future virtualization work.

Roadmap

• richer block search navigation
• stronger conflict handling when Arbor view and plain Markdown both change the same note
• more refinement for very large note trees

Development

Contributor workflow:

npm install
npm run dev

Release checks:

npm run lint
npm run build
npm test

Arbor includes a local eslint-plugin-obsidianmd setup so the same reviewer-facing checks can be run before submission updates.

Manual interaction checks live in:

• docs/manual-qa.md

Repository Layout

arbor/
  assets/
  demo/
  docs/
  src/
    model/
    storage/
    view/
  tests/
  manifest.json
  package.json
  styles.css