Fingerprint Lock

Locks Obsidian behind a full-screen lock screen and unlocks it with your fingerprint — macOS Touch ID or Windows Hello (fingerprint, face, or PIN). Hardware security keys (YubiKey and similar, via WebAuthn) and an optional password fallback are also supported.

What this is not: file encryption. Like every other Obsidian lock-screen plugin, this only hides the UI — your notes on disk are untouched. If you also want encryption at rest, pair this with FileVault/BitLocker or an encrypted disk image (see the "alternatives" note at the end).

How the biometric prompt actually gets called: Obsidian plugins can't call the OS biometric APIs directly — those are native APIs. So the plugin shells out to a tiny per-platform helper in its native/ folder:

• macOS — a Swift command-line helper (native/TouchIDAuth.swift) that talks to the LocalAuthentication framework. The plugin compiles and signs it for you on first load; nothing to do by hand.
• Windows — a PowerShell script (native/WindowsHelloAuth.ps1) that calls the WinRT UserConsentVerifier API. Nothing to build or install — Windows PowerShell 5.1 ships with every Windows 10/11 machine.

Either way, your fingerprint/face never reaches this plugin — the OS handles the scan and the helper only relays a yes/no answer.

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Install

From the Obsidian community plugins directory (recommended)

Install Fingerprint Lock — or, inside Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → turn off "Restricted mode" → Browse → search for Fingerprint Lock → Install, then Enable.

That's the whole install. There is nothing to build and no terminal step: the first time the plugin loads it writes its native helper into the plugin folder and, on macOS, compiles and signs it for you, then offers to set a fallback password. Installing this way also means Obsidian keeps the plugin updated for you.

On macOS the automatic build needs the Xcode Command Line Tools (most developer Macs already have them). If they're missing, the plugin says so and you can install them with xcode-select --install, then press Rebuild helper in the plugin's settings. Your password fallback works either way.

Manually, without the directory

Prefer to install by hand, or want to run an unreleased build? Download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release and put them in a folder in your vault:

<YourVault>/.obsidian/plugins/fingerprint-lock/
├── main.js
├── manifest.json
└── styles.css

Then enable it under Settings → Community plugins. The helper sources are bundled inside main.js, so this path sets itself up exactly like the directory install does.

Release assets carry GitHub artifact attestations, so you can verify they were built from this repository:

gh attestation verify main.js -R alexpazzy/obsidian-fingerprint

Building the native helper yourself (optional)

The plugin does this for you. If you'd rather do it by hand — say you cloned the repo, or you edited TouchIDAuth.swift — the script is still there:

cd native
./build.sh

It compiles TouchIDAuth.swift into a binary named Obsidian and ad-hoc code-signs it (required for LocalAuthentication to show the prompt). The binary is deliberately named Obsidian because macOS displays the requesting process's name in the Touch ID dialog. Test it standalone with:

./Obsidian --reason "test run"

On Windows there is nothing to compile at all: WindowsHelloAuth.ps1 runs under the Windows PowerShell 5.1 that ships with every Windows 10/11 install. You can test it directly with:

powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "<plugin folder>/native/WindowsHelloAuth.ps1" -Reason "test run"

Both helpers print SUCCESS (exit 0), FAILURE:<reason> (exit 1), or UNAVAILABLE:<reason> (exit 2).

Configure in Obsidian

On the very first launch (before any settings exist), the plugin installs the native helper and opens a setup dialog prompting you to create a fallback password — and it will not lock the vault on startup until at least one unlock method can actually succeed, so you can never be dead-ended on a fresh install. This works the same on macOS and Windows 11.

Open Settings → Fingerprint Lock:

• Test Touch ID / Test Windows Hello — confirms the plugin can call the helper, without locking anything.
• Rebuild helper / Reinstall helper — re-runs the automatic setup. Use it if biometrics stop working, or after installing the Xcode Command Line Tools on macOS.
• Set a password fallback — strongly recommended. If biometrics ever fail (sensor issue, external display, whatever), this is your way back in without touching the file system.
• Encrypt password data (end-to-end) — optional. Instead of a salted PBKDF2 hash, data.json stores only an AES-256-GCM encrypted verifier; the key is derived from your password on your device and never written anywhere. Toggle it, then (re-)save your password to apply. Uses the built-in Web Crypto API, so it behaves identically on macOS and Windows.
• Security keys — register a YubiKey or other WebAuthn security key, then a "Use security key" button appears on the lock screen. Only keys you registered can unlock the vault. On Windows, the security-key prompt goes through the same native Windows security dialog as Hello.
• Lock on startup / lock on blur / lock on idle — pick whichever triggers you want, each with its own delay.
• Per-note lock — cover individual notes behind the same unlock prompt (see below).

Once a password fallback is set, use the ribbon lock icon or the command palette ("Lock vault now") to test the full flow.

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Locking individual notes

Turn on Per-note lock in settings, then flag a note by adding the property to its frontmatter:

---
fingerprint-lock: true
---

Or put the cursor in the note and run Toggle fingerprint lock for this note from the command palette, which adds and removes the property for you. The property name is configurable, and true, yes and 1 all count.

Flagged notes are covered with an unlock card offering the same methods as the vault lock screen — Touch ID or Windows Hello, a security key, or your fallback password. An unlocked note stays open until the vault locks, at which point every note re-locks with it.

[!warning] This hides notes; it does not encrypt them. The text stays plaintext on disk and is readable by any other plugin, by your sync client, and by anyone opening the file outside Obsidian. Note titles still show up in search and Quick Switcher, and the body can still surface in search results and previews. Treat it as protection from someone reading over your shoulder — not from someone with access to your files. For real protection, keep the vault on an encrypted volume (see the note at the end).

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Rebuilding from source

If you want to modify the plugin itself rather than just use it:

npm install
npm run build      # type-checks with tsc, then bundles main.js with esbuild

npm run dev runs an esbuild watcher for iterative development.

Troubleshooting

macOS

• "The Swift compiler isn't installed" — the automatic build needs swiftc. Run xcode-select --install, then press Rebuild helper in the plugin's settings.
• "Native helper not found" — the automatic build didn't finish, or the vault isn't backed by the local filesystem (this plugin is desktop-only and won't work on mobile). Press Rebuild helper in settings.
• Touch ID prompt never appears / immediate failure — press Rebuild helper; code signing can be invalidated if the binary is moved or edited afterward. Confirm Touch ID works for anything on your Mac first (System Settings → Touch ID & Password).

Windows

• "Windows Hello unavailable: not set up" — enroll a fingerprint, face, or PIN in Settings → Accounts → Sign-in options first.
• Helper script missing — the plugin writes native/WindowsHelloAuth.ps1 on load; if it's gone, press Reinstall helper in the plugin's settings.
• The prompt is slow to appear — the first call spins up PowerShell, which can take a second or two; subsequent calls are usually faster.
• Hello dialog offers PIN, not just fingerprint — that's by design: UserConsentVerifier uses whatever Hello methods you have enrolled. Your Windows PIN is hardware-backed and machine-local.

Security keys

• Registration fails immediately — your Obsidian build's Chromium may not expose WebAuthn to plugins; the settings page will say so. Biometrics and the password fallback are unaffected.
• Key not recognized at unlock — only keys registered in this vault's settings are accepted. Re-register the key if you've reset it.

Any platform

• You're locked out with no password set — quit Obsidian, then delete or rename the plugin folder (<YourVault>/.obsidian/plugins/fingerprint-lock) from your file manager or a terminal. Reopening the vault will start it without the plugin. This is exactly why the settings page nags you to set a password fallback.

An alternative worth knowing about

This plugin (like all Obsidian lock-screen plugins) only controls the UI. If your actual goal is protecting the notes themselves, not just hiding the window, consider storing the vault on an encrypted volume instead — an encrypted APFS disk image unlocked with Touch ID via Keychain on macOS, or a BitLocker/VeraCrypt volume on Windows — so Obsidian never sees the files until the volume is mounted.