Folder Focus

A Finder-like folder navigation view for Obsidian.

Screenshots

Folder view	Search and file badges

Features

Navigation

• Focused folder view in the right sidebar
• Finder-compatible keyboard shortcuts
• Selection history - remembers your position when navigating back
• Favorite folders - pin folders and jump back to them from the header
• Live refresh - automatically updates when files change externally (e.g., in Finder)

File Operations

• Multi-selection - Cmd+Click to toggle, Shift+Click for range selection
• Context menu - right-click for file operations
• New folder/note buttons - quick creation from the header
• Rename/Delete folders - directly from context menu
• Create folder with selection - group selected items into a new folder
• Move items between folders - drag selected items onto a folder row
• Import from Finder - drag external files or folders into the current folder or a folder row
• Clear drag feedback - valid, invalid, and import drop targets are shown while dragging

Search

• Search mode toggle - switch between file-name search and file names plus Markdown note text
• Subfolder search - includes all nested files
• Folders only filter - toggle to show only folders
• Highlighted matches - matching file and folder name text is highlighted in results
• Clear button - quickly reset search
• IME-safe search shortcuts - composition Enter/Escape events do not accidentally run or clear searches

Opening Files

• Single click - select item
• Double click - open file or enter folder
• Cmd+Double click - open file in new tab
• Cmd+Enter - open selected file in new tab

File Type Badges

• Compact badges for Markdown, Obsidian Canvas, Obsidian Base, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs, images, code, JSON, text, diagrams, ebooks, databases, design files, fonts, configs, notebooks, archives, audio, and video files

Supported File Types

Folder Focus can show compact badges for these file extensions:

Type	Extensions
Markdown	md, markdown
Obsidian	canvas, base
Text	txt, rtf
Documents	doc, docx, pages, odt, gdoc
Presentations	ppt, pptx, pptm, pps, ppsx, key, keynote, odp, gslides
Spreadsheets	xls, xlsx, xlsm, xlsb, numbers, ods, gsheet, csv, tsv
PDF	pdf
Images	png, jpg, jpeg, gif, webp, svg, bmp, avif, heic
Design	fig, sketch, psd, psb, ai, eps, xd, afdesign
Diagrams	drawio, diagram, mmd, mermaid, excalidraw
Ebooks	epub, mobi, azw, azw3
Databases	db, sqlite, sqlite3
Fonts	ttf, otf, woff, woff2
Data and config	json, toml, ini, env
Notebooks	ipynb
Code	js, ts, jsx, tsx, css, scss, html, xml, yaml, yml, sh, bash, zsh, go, rs, java, kt, swift, c, h, cpp, hpp, cs, php, rb, py, pyw
Archives	zip, 7z, rar, tar, gz
Audio	mp3, wav, m4a, flac, ogg
Video	mp4, mov, mkv, webm, avi

Other files still appear in the list with a generic file badge.

Sorting

• Sort by name, modified date, or created date
• Toggle ascending/descending order

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins

Folder Focus is listed in Obsidian Community Plugins. Obsidian currently marks it as not manually reviewed by Obsidian staff.

1. Open Obsidian Settings
2. Go to Community plugins
3. Click Browse and search for "Folder Focus"
4. Install and enable the plugin

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a folder obsidian-folder-focus in your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory
3. Copy the downloaded files into this folder
4. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Usage

Opening Folder Focus

• Click the folder icon in the left ribbon
• Right-click any folder → "Open in folder focus"
• Use command palette: "Open folder navigation view"

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
↑ / ↓	Move selection up/down
Shift+↑ / Shift+↓	Extend selection up/down
⌘+A / Ctrl+A	Select all
⌘+↑ / Ctrl+↑	Navigate to parent folder
⌘+↓ / Ctrl+↓	Enter folder or open file
Enter	Enter folder or open file
⌘+Enter / Ctrl+Enter	Open file in new tab
⇧⌘+N / Ctrl+Shift+N	Create new note
Escape	Clear search / Collapse selection

Mouse Actions

Action	Result
Single click	Select item
Cmd/Ctrl + Click	Toggle selection (multi-select)
Shift + Click	Range selection
Double click	Enter folder or open file
Cmd/Ctrl + Double click	Open file in new tab
Right click	Context menu
Drag selected items onto a folder	Move selected items into that folder
Drag Finder files/folders into the view	Import them into the vault folder

Context Menu Options

• Rename folder - rename the selected folder
• Delete folder - move folder to trash
• Add/Remove from favorites - pin or unpin a folder
• Create folder with selection - create new folder with selected items
• Standard Obsidian file menu options

Search

1. Type in the search box and press Enter to search
2. Search includes:
   • File and folder names
   • File content (markdown files)
   • All subfolders recursively
3. Toggle "Folders only" to filter results
4. Click × or press Escape to clear search

Commands

All commands are available via the command palette (⌘+P / Ctrl+P):

• Open folder navigation view - Opens the folder navigation panel
• Reveal active file - Shows the current file in the navigation view
• Navigate to parent folder - Go up one level
• Enter folder or open file - Enter selected folder or open selected file
• Create new note in current folder - Creates a new note

Settings

• Open files in new tab - When enabled, files open in a new tab instead of the current one

Releases

• Current version: 1.1.2
• Minimum Obsidian version: 1.13.0
• Release downloads: GitHub Releases
• Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/1spread/obsidian-folder-focus.git
cd obsidian-folder-focus

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build for development (with watch mode)
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

Support

If you find this plugin helpful, consider supporting its development:

Buy me a coffee

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.