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🎯 What is BPM?

Better Add-on Manager (BPM) is a control center for Obsidian community plugins, designed for vaults that rely on many plugins and need more than simple enable/disable toggles.

It helps you keep startup responsive, organize plugins by workflow, install plugins from GitHub releases, and isolate conflicts when something breaks.

🚀 Startup	📦 Management	🏷️ Organization	📥 Installation	🔍 Diagnosis
Delayed plugin startup and startup self-checks	Batch enable/disable, quick search, and status filters	Groups, tags, notes, descriptions, and custom names	Install from GitHub repositories and release versions	Guided conflict troubleshooting with report generation

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✨ Core Features

BPM is organized around five focused tabs. Each tab owns one workflow, so related controls stay together and the manager remains easy to scan across desktop and mobile.

Tab	Workflow
🧩 Plugin View	Manage installed plugins, metadata, filters, startup behavior, and per-plugin actions
📥 Install Hub	Install plugins or themes from GitHub and manage tracked sources
📦 Transfer Pack	Export, import, and restore plugin/theme packs across vaults
🎛️ Ribbon Order	Control Obsidian ribbon icon order and visibility
🔍 Conflict Diagnosis	Locate plugin problems and generate troubleshooting reports

🧩 Plugin View

The main tab for day-to-day plugin management.

Area	What it does
Plugin list	Browse installed community plugins in a compact, searchable management view
Batch actions	Enable or disable plugins in bulk, including grouped workflows
Filters	Filter by enabled state, group, tag, delay setting, and keyword
Organization	Add custom names, descriptions, notes, groups, and tags
Startup control	Assign delayed startup presets and keep startup behavior visible from the list
Plugin actions	Check updates, download updates, restart a plugin, temporarily start a plugin, open settings, open folders, copy IDs, open repositories, clear config, hide, or delete
BPM tags	Automatically marks BPM-installed plugins with bpm-install and supports ignored plugins with bpm-ignore

📥 Install Hub

The Install Hub handles GitHub-based installation and the sources BPM can track after installation.

Area	What it does
Install type	Switch between plugin and theme installation
Repository input	Accepts user/repo or full GitHub repository URLs
Release selection	Fetch available GitHub releases and install latest or a selected version
Release notes	Shows release information before installation when available
Recent installs	Keeps recently used repositories for faster repeated installs
Source tracking	Optionally tracks installed repositories for later checks, updates, and reinstalls
Source management	Review tracked plugin/theme sources, update targets, reinstall items, and keep source metadata current

📦 Transfer Pack

The Transfer Pack tab moves plugin setups between vaults without turning the README into a manual checklist.

Area	What it does
Export list	Select local plugins and themes to include in a JSON transfer pack
Plugin configs	Export selected plugin configuration files when needed
Taxonomy	Export BPM groups, tags, and delay presets
Layout data	Export manager order, hidden items, and ribbon layout
Sources	Export GitHub repository maps, source subscriptions, and install history
Workspace preferences	Export style, delay mode, tag display, and startup-check preferences
Import preview	Load a pack, review bundled plugins, themes, sources, configs, and layout data before applying
Restore options	Install missing plugins/themes, merge plugin config, restore enabled state, apply layout, merge sources, and import themes

🎛️ Ribbon Order

The Ribbon Order tab keeps Obsidian's left ribbon predictable, especially when delayed plugins register icons after startup.

Area	What it does
Icon ordering	Drag ribbon items into a stable order
Visibility control	Show or hide individual ribbon icons
Native sync mode	Manages ribbon layout in BPM data without relying on Obsidian workspace config
Reset action	Show all ribbon items and sort them by name
Reload guidance	Prompts for reload when hidden startup icons need Obsidian to refresh

🔍 Conflict Diagnosis

The Conflict Diagnosis tab guides plugin conflict testing step by step, keeping the tested state and result in one place.

Area	What it does
Pre-check	Confirms whether the issue still appears when other plugins are disabled
Binary narrowing	Uses guided split testing to reduce the suspect plugin set
Conflict pair search	Helps locate two-plugin conflicts, including cross-group cases
Manual feedback loop	Asks you to test each step and mark whether the problem still exists
State controls	Undo the previous step, restart Obsidian, exit troubleshooting, restore the original state, or keep the current state
Result report	Generates a Markdown conflict report with the detected plugins and suggested next actions

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📦 Installation

Community Plugins

Recommended for most users.

1. Open Obsidian Settings → Community Plugins.
2. Search for Better Add-on Manager.
3. Install and enable the plugin.

Manual Install

Use this when you want to install a GitHub release directly.

1. Download the latest release.
2. Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css into .obsidian/plugins/better-plugins-manager/.
3. Restart Obsidian.
4. Enable Better Add-on Manager from Settings → Community Plugins.

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🚦 Quick Start

Open BPM

After enabling the plugin, open BPM in either way:

• Click the BPM icon in the left ribbon.
• Run Open the plugin manager from the command palette.

First Steps

1. Start in Plugin View to review installed plugins, filters, groups, tags, and delay settings.
2. Use Install Hub when installing plugins or themes from GitHub.
3. Use Transfer Pack when moving a plugin setup between vaults.
4. Use Conflict Diagnosis when a plugin issue needs guided isolation.

Interaction Tips

• Left-click primary controls to toggle, edit, install, import, or run an action.
• Right-click a plugin item to open its context menu.
• Hover toolbar buttons to see tooltips; on touch devices, use long press where supported.

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Security and Disclosure

BPM is a local Obsidian plugin manager, but some features intentionally use external services or browser APIs:

• External network requests: BPM contacts GitHub only for user-visible plugin management features such as fetching community plugin metadata, resolving repositories, checking releases, and installing or updating plugins/themes from GitHub. These requests may use github.com, api.github.com, and raw.githubusercontent.com. BPM also opens github.com repository pages and the project tutorial link on www.bilibili.com only when the user clicks the related buttons.
• Clipboard access: BPM writes to the system clipboard only when the user clicks Copy ID for a plugin.
• Vault file access: BPM reads plugin/theme metadata, selected plugin configuration files, transfer packages, and legacy export folders for management, migration, backup, import/export, and troubleshooting features. It does not upload vault notes to a remote service.
• Base64 encoding/decoding: BPM uses runtime btoa/atob only to pack and restore binary/text files inside local Transfer Pack JSON data. It is not used to hide API keys, URLs, remote code, or executable payloads.
• Scanning limitations: If a plugin catalog or marketplace reports that malware, obfuscation, or network scanning is unavailable, review the source code in this repository and the release assets before installing. BPM does not intentionally obfuscate its source.

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🔍 Conflict Diagnosis Tutorial

Use Conflict Diagnosis when a problem appears after enabling community plugins and you need a structured way to narrow down the cause.

Workflow

1. Open the Conflict Diagnosis tab, or run Troubleshoot plugin conflicts from the command palette.
2. Start a diagnosis session. BPM records the current plugin state before changing anything.
3. Test your vault after each step, then choose Problem Still Exists or Problem Gone.
4. Continue through the guided split tests until BPM narrows the result to a plugin or plugin pair.
5. Review the result, restore the original plugin state or keep the current state, then generate a Markdown report if needed.

Notes

• Diagnosis depends on your feedback at each step; use the same test action every time.
• Intermittent bugs, load-order issues, configuration-specific bugs, or conflicts involving three or more plugins may still need manual verification.
• You can undo the previous step, restart Obsidian during testing, exit the session, restore the original state, or keep the current state.

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🛡️ Startup Takeover

When Delayed Startup is enabled, BPM checks .obsidian/community-plugins.json to make sure Obsidian and BPM are not trying to control the same plugins at startup.

Case	BPM behavior
No unmanaged plugins	Starts normally
Unmanaged plugins detected	Shows a takeover prompt
Auto Takeover enabled	Moves detected plugins under BPM management automatically
Plugin marked bpm-ignore	Leaves it in Obsidian's native startup list

Taking over keeps delayed startup, enabled state, and BPM's plugin records consistent. After a successful takeover, restart Obsidian so the startup list is applied cleanly.

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📦 Transfer & Legacy Export

For current versions, use the Transfer Pack tab to move setups between vaults. It exports and imports plugin lists, themes, selected plugin configs, groups, tags, delay presets, layout data, ribbon order, source subscriptions, install history, and workspace preferences.

The older Markdown/frontmatter export for Obsidian Base is kept only for legacy data compatibility. New setups should use Transfer Pack instead of configuring a Base export folder.

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⚙️ Settings

BPM settings are split into focused pages:

Page	What you can configure
Basic	Language, persistent filters, delayed startup, auto takeover, startup update checks, source update checks, source auto-update, BPM tag visibility, ribbon order, command registration, debug mode, and GitHub token
Main Page Actions	Choose which plugin actions appear directly on plugin cards and which stay in the right-click menu
Style	Plugin list layout, item display style, group/tag styles, and disabled-plugin fading
Groups	Create, rename, recolor, and delete plugin groups
Tags	Create, rename, recolor, and delete plugin tags
Delay	Create and maintain delayed-start profiles; shown only when delayed startup is enabled

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⌨️ Commands

Command	Availability	Description
Open the plugin manager	Always available	Opens the BPM main interface
Control a plugin	Always available	Search a plugin, then enable, disable, single-start, restart, open settings, open folder, open repository, or copy ID
Save current plugin state as profile	Always available	Saves the current enabled/disabled state as a reusable command profile
Restore previous plugin state	Available after a BPM command changes plugin state	Restores the snapshot captured before the last command-driven state change
Troubleshoot plugin conflicts	Always available	Starts the conflict diagnosis workflow
Enable/Disable selected plugin	Optional setting	Registers one command per plugin for direct toggling
One-click Enable/Disable selected group	Optional setting	Registers group-level commands for batch toggling
One-click Enable/Disable selected tag	Optional setting	Registers tag-level commands for batch toggling
Apply selected profile	Optional setting	Registers one command per saved plugin profile

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📱 Compatibility

Platform	Supported
Windows / macOS / Linux	✅
Android	✅
iOS / iPadOS	✅

The plugin automatically switches between desktop/mobile layouts based on the platform.

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🤝 Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome!

• Bug Reports: Please include logs and reproduction steps
• Feature Requests: Consider opening a discussion or issue first

🙏 Acknowledgments

• The ribbon sorting feature is inspired by Obsidian-ribbon-sort

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📄 License

MIT