Graph Explorer Base View

An Obsidian plugin that adds a custom Bases view which renders notes as an interactive force-directed graph — purpose-built for exploring, tracking and growing a knowledge base note by note.

Where Obsidian's built-in graph shows the whole vault, Graph Explorer works on top of a Base: you define the filter, the graph shows only the notes that match, and the view stays scoped to that slice.

What makes it different

• Driven by a Base — the set of notes displayed is whatever your Base query returns. Works naturally with Bases filters, tags, folders and properties.
• Explored / unexplored tracking — every note has an "explored" flag stored in its frontmatter. The graph makes it visually obvious what you've already processed and what is still new territory.
• Maturity tracking — track the evolution of each note through maturity levels, with a "graduated notes" concept for notes that have matured into dedicated standalone notes.
• Rich visual language — node shape encodes the note's role (article, index, log, source summary); borders, rings and a small indicator dot encode explored state, maturity, confidence and whether the note has graduated children.
• Per-view configuration — every Base using this view has its own independent settings: explored property name, color mode, size mode, filters, external/frontier toggles, preset.
• What's new after updates. After a plugin update, a one-time dialog shows the release notes you just received (including skipped versions) with ways to support development. Never shown on fresh installs or regular restarts.

Main features

Interactive graph canvas

• Force-directed layout via force-graph on a 2D canvas.
• Color nodes by: explored status, confidence, wiki role, maturity, creation date, tags or any frontmatter property.
• Size nodes by connection count or uniform.
• Drag a node to pin it; Shift+drag moves the node together with its direct neighbors as a cluster.
• Node positions are persisted per view.
• Smooth fade transitions on hover and selection — unconnected nodes dim to keep focus on what matters.
• Keyboard navigation: Tab, arrow keys, Enter, Escape.

Side panel

• Click any node to open its rendered content in a resizable right-side panel.
• Header badges surface key metadata (external, frontier, wiki role, confidence, graduated count, tags).
• Toggle explored, change maturity level and copy the note as markdown directly from the panel.
• Internal links navigate in-panel when the target is in the graph, or open in a new tab otherwise.

Controls overlay

• Debounced search with live filtering.
• Stats: total nodes, links, explored count, frontier count, coverage %.
• Confidence and maturity distribution indicators.
• Spacing (saved per view), node size and text size sliders.
• Filter by explored / unexplored / all.
• Batch actions: select multiple nodes and toggle explored or set maturity in one go.

Minimap, zoom & legend

• Bird's-eye minimap with viewport rectangle; click or drag to pan the main graph.
• Zoom controls: in, out, fit, reset.
• Toggleable legend that adapts to the current color mode.

Context menu

• Right-click a node for quick actions: open in new tab, toggle explored, set maturity, copy wikilink, add/remove from batch selection.

How it works

1. Create a Base that filters the notes you want to explore.
2. Add a view and pick Graph Explorer as the view type.
3. Configure the view's options (explored property, color mode, filters, …).
4. Explore: click nodes to read them, toggle explored as you process them, drag to arrange, set maturity as notes evolve.

Explored and maturity state live in the note's frontmatter, so the data is portable and plays nicely with the rest of your workflow.

Requirements

• Obsidian 1.10.0 or later (Bases API).
• Desktop and mobile compatible.

Installation

Community plugins (recommended)

1. In Obsidian, go to Settings → Community plugins.
2. Disable Restricted mode if it's enabled.
3. Select Browse, search for Graph Explorer Base View, install it, then enable it.

You can also browse the catalog on the Obsidian Community website.

Manual installation

If the plugin isn't listed in the community catalog yet (or you want a specific version):

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Copy them into <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/graph-explorer-base-view/.
3. Reload Obsidian and enable Graph Explorer Base View in Settings → Community plugins.

BRAT (bleeding edge)

BRAT (Beta Reviewers Auto-update Tool) installs plugins straight from a GitHub repo and keeps them updated automatically. Use this if you want the latest commits — things might break.

1. Install Obsidian42 - BRAT from Settings → Community plugins → Browse and enable it.
2. Run BRAT: Add a beta plugin for testing from the command palette.
3. Paste https://github.com/dsebastien/obsidian-graph-explorer-base-view.
4. Select the latest version and confirm.
5. Enable Graph Explorer Base View in Settings → Community plugins.

Development

See DEVELOPMENT.md and CONTRIBUTING.md.

Common commands:

Command	Description
bun install	Install dependencies
bun run dev	Development build with watch mode
bun run build	Production build
bun run tsc:watch	Type check in watch mode
bun run lint	Run ESLint
bun run format	Format with Prettier
bun test	Run tests

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

My other Obsidian plugins

Plugin	What it does
Agentic Resource Discovery Server	Local-first Agentic Resource Discovery publisher and registry that serves your AI skills and tools to agents over a local HTTP and MCP server
Book Exporter	Export books (one manifest note + linked chapter notes) to EPUB and PDF via Pandoc
Bookshelf Base	Display your notes as a visual bookshelf via a custom Bases view
Dataview Serializer	Serialize Dataview queries to Markdown, and keep the Markdown representation up to date
Expander	Replace variables across your vault using HTML comment markers. Supports static values and dynamic functions
Ghost Publish	Publish your vault notes to a Ghost blog with configurable presets for tags, newsletters, and frontmatter conventions
Hidden Folders Access	Index hidden root-level folders (e.g. .claude) so they appear in the file tree, metadata cache, and Bases
Journal Bases	Custom Base views for journaling and periodic reviews
Kanban Action Planner	Render your notes as configurable Kanban boards and calendars inside Bases, with statuses, ordering, relationships, and scheduling
Life Tracker	Capture and visualize the data that matters in your life
Note Village	A 2D pixel art village where your notes become villagers you can explore and chat with using AI
Obsidian Starter Kit	Adds strong typing support and powerful automation support for notes
Remarkable Synchronizer	Connect to the reMarkable cloud, list, download, and sync notebook pages as images
Replicate	Use AI models with ease via the Replicate.com integration
REST and MCP server	Exposes CLI commands as RESTful API endpoints and an MCP server for AI tool integration
Time Machine	Browse, compare, and restore previous versions of your notes using built-in file-recovery snapshots
Transcriber	Transcribe images to markdown using Ollama vision models
Typefully	Publish social media posts with ease using the Typefully integration
Update Time	Automatically update front matter to include creation and last update times

Everything I build is documented in my newsletter and on my YouTube channel.

News & support

To stay up to date about this plugin, Obsidian in general, Personal Knowledge Management and note-taking:

• Subscribe to my newsletter
• Subscribe to my YouTube channel
• Join the Knowii community and learn to organize your notes and put your knowledge to work, together with fellow knowledge workers

If this plugin is useful to you, here are the best ways to support my work ❤️:

• Join the Knowii community
• Become a GitHub Sponsor
• Buy me a coffee
• Subscribe to my YouTube channel
• Check out my products

Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue.