Foyer

approvedunreviewed

by Toni López

A beautiful, minimal start page for your notes. Instant fuzzy search, real recent history, and a warm greeting.

Updated todayMIT

Foyer — A quieter way into Obsidian

Your notes, one quiet starting point.
A minimal, personal home screen for Obsidian. Open a new tab, find what matters, and pick up where you left off.

Download  ·  Installation  ·  Features  ·  Español

Latest release Obsidian 1.8.7 or newer MIT License


Most start pages want to be a dashboard. Foyer is simply a place to begin.

It replaces Obsidian's empty new tabs with a welcoming space that feels like a natural part of your vault. There are no widgets to configure, no feeds to follow, and no extra services to connect: just search, recently opened notes, and a little room to breathe.

Illustrative Foyer interface showing search, greeting and recent notes in dark and light themes

Interface illustration, not an application screenshot. Foyer inherits the colors and typography of your active Obsidian theme.

Features

Find a thought, instantly

Search note titles and file paths with fuzzy matching. Use the keyboard to move between matches, open a note, search within content, or create a new note directly from a query.

Continue where you left off

Your recent notes reflect when you actually opened them, not when they were last edited. Relative timestamps stay fresh while Foyer is open, and history follows notes when you rename or move them.

Make the space yours

A greeting changes with the time of day and can include your name. Add a personal image from your vault or upload one from your computer; leave it unset for a small accent-colored symbol instead.

Fit right into Obsidian

Foyer uses the active theme's colors and typography, works in light and dark modes, and supports English and Spanish. It opens at startup and fills otherwise empty new tabs. Desktop and mobile are supported.

Keyboard shortcuts

ShortcutAction
↑ / ↓Move through search results
EnterOpen the selected note
Ctrl/Cmd + EnterOpen in a new tab
Shift + EnterSearch note content with Obsidian's core Search plugin

If your query does not match an existing note, Foyer also offers to create it in your vault's configured default location for new notes.

Installation

Foyer requires Obsidian 1.8.7 or newer.

Using BRAT

BRAT is an alternative way to install Foyer directly from GitHub, including while its directory review is pending:

  1. Install BRAT from Obsidian's Community Plugins.
  2. Run BRAT: Add a beta plugin for testing from the command palette.
  3. Enter ToniLopezPhoto/foyer.
  4. Enable Foyer in Settings → Community plugins.

Manual installation

  1. Open the latest release.
  2. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css.
  3. Create the folder .obsidian/plugins/foyer/ inside your vault.
  4. Place the three files in that folder, reload Obsidian, and enable Foyer in Community plugins.

Obsidian Community directory

Foyer has a public listing in the Obsidian Community directory. Once its release passes the directory's automated review, you can install it directly from Obsidian's Settings → Community plugins → Browse by searching for Foyer.

If the listing's Add to Obsidian button does not work yet, the review or directory synchronization may still be pending. In the meantime, use BRAT or install the release manually as described above.

Personalization

Open Settings → Community plugins → Foyer to adjust:

SettingWhat it does
Greeting nameAdds your name to the greeting; optional
LanguageFollows Obsidian automatically, or uses English or Spanish
Hero imageSelects an existing vault image or imports one into your attachments folder

The hero image supports PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, and BMP. Its position is shown in the settings preview. Without an image, Foyer displays a subtle symbol in your theme's accent color.

Privacy, by design

Foyer runs locally. It makes no network requests, includes no analytics, and does not send your notes or preferences anywhere.

Settings and a small, local last-opened history (up to 200 entries) are saved in .obsidian/plugins/foyer/data.json inside your vault. Images you import stay in your vault as well.

Development and contributions

Foyer is intentionally lightweight: plain JavaScript and CSS, with no build step or runtime dependencies beyond Obsidian.

# From your test vault
git clone https://github.com/ToniLopezPhoto/foyer.git .obsidian/plugins/foyer

# Check JavaScript syntax
node --check .obsidian/plugins/foyer/main.js

After changing the plugin, reload it in Obsidian to test. Please keep contributions dependency-free and theme-native, using Obsidian's CSS variables for appearance.

Issues, bug reports, and pull requests are welcome via GitHub Issues.


Español

Foyer es una página de inicio minimalista para Obsidian. Sustituye las pestañas vacías por un espacio personal desde el que puedes buscar tus notas y retomar tu trabajo sin distracciones.

  • Búsqueda rápida: encuentra notas por nombre o ruta, navega con el teclado y crea notas nuevas cuando lo necesites.
  • Recientes de verdad: muestra las notas que has abierto, con tiempos relativos independientes de la última modificación del archivo.
  • Un inicio personal: saludo según la hora del día, nombre opcional e imagen de cabecera a tu elección.
  • Integración natural: hereda colores y tipografías del tema de Obsidian, funciona en escritorio y móvil, y no necesita conexión a Internet.

Instalación: Foyer ya tiene ficha pública en el directorio de Obsidian. La instalación directa estará disponible cuando supere la revisión automática. Mientras tanto, utiliza BRAT e introduce ToniLopezPhoto/foyer, o descarga main.js, manifest.json y styles.css de la última versión y colócalos en .obsidian/plugins/foyer/.

Los ajustes y el historial de apertura se almacenan únicamente en tu vault. Foyer no recopila telemetría ni envía datos a servicios externos.

License

Foyer is released under the MIT License. Created by Toni López.

For plugin developers

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