Grid Tab Switcher

Hold a modifier key + Tab to pop up a 3×3 grid of files (images, base files alongside md files) — your most recent tabs OR your bookmarks — and jump straight to one by number (or by tap on mobile). Recent tabs grid shows your recent files even after you have closed them. This also means your recent tabs on one device are shown on the other device as well. So you can start on laptop and take the recent tabs on the phone with you.

Why this plugin? Core plugin quick switcher and similar switchers from the community help you switch to any file in your vault, but not between the ones you are currently working on. Stock hotkeys of Cmd + 1 to 8 is okay if you are someone who uses a large and wide screen and are used to this feature on browsers where you can mentally map which tab is 4 or 7, for example. In my 6 years of using obsidian, this never worked for me because on my laptop because neither the stock horizontal tabs nor community plugins that give you vertical tabs make it any easy for me to have any working memory on which tab is at which position. I also open dozens of tabs and switch very fast between them making it necessary to switch focus to something in the side bar to select a tab I need. Honestly, I tried so many plugins and sometimes it feels easier to reopen the tab by opening stock quick switcher and type the name of the file you were just working on. Its a gap I feel nobody has addressed. There is a plugin called tab switcher that does let you switch between recent tabs (instead of the stock behaviour of switching based on their location in the tab order). It is good but I cant see the names of the files before switching. I work on newly created files, screenshots with gibberish filenames, literature references and similarly named files. So often I cant recall the exact name. It helps if I can just pull recent files in one screen and pick the one I want to do something about.

Why a grid? We are used to seeing 1 to 9 on 3*3 screens of feature phone keypads, ATMs etc., and we know when a note is placed at 5 in this grid layout. Why not 2x2 grid? It just gives me 4 files and its not sufficient for the amount of notes I switch. Why not 4x4 grid? It gives 16 and thats a lot of tabs and can overwhelm the screen and take time to visually scope the files. I have kept the font size big so it is easy to pick one. If you are someone who would need to see your 10th to 18th recent files, you can add another Recent files grid, accessible by a swipe on mobile and tab on laptop. I have added the 0 key to jump to your favorite quick switcher from where you can open any vault file as you probably are used to. I have also added a bookmark grid for those who might have a need to often switch to the same set of files. (I don't use the bookmarks plugin but this was easy to implement).

Usage

Keyboard based interface

*this is suitable for laptops or other devices connected to a physical keyboard

Keys	Action
Modifier + Tab	Open the switcher, showing your first configured grid
1 – 9 (while the grid is open)	Open the file corresponding to that cell
Tab (again, while open)	Move to the next configured grid
Shift + Tab	Move to the previous grid
Modifier + 0	Close the grid and run your configured search action
Esc / click outside	Close without picking anything

The modifier defaults to Alt/Option and is changeable in settings (Control, Shift, or Cmd/Win are also available). Note that pressing a number doesn't strictly require the modifier to still be held — once the grid is open, 1–9 always works.

Other ways to launch the grid:

Touch interface

*this is suitable for mobile devices with touch screen and no physical keyboard

Ways to launch the modal:

• use the ribbon icon
• Command pallette --> "Open grid switcher"
• Mobile toolbar button
• Use the swipe down from top option as you can do for other favourite commands

Once in the modal you can just tap the note name and you are in. To get to the next or previous grids, swipe horizontally. Cant find your file in the grid? Swipe up and your configured quick switcher opens.

Configuring grids

Add as many grids as you like in the plugin's settings tab. Each one is either:

• Recent tabs — pulled from Obsidian's own "last opened files" list. Give a second "recent" grid an offset (e.g. 9) if you want it to show the next 9 most-recent files rather than repeating the first grid.
• Bookmarks — pulled from the core Bookmarks plugin. Leave the group field blank to use all top-level file bookmarks, or name a specific bookmark group to give that group its own grid (handy if you keep separate bookmark groups for different projects).

Grids are shown in the order listed; reorder or delete them with the arrows/trash icons.

Configuring the search action (Modifier + 0)

Pick one in settings:

• Core Quick Switcher (default)
• Omnisearch (requires the Omnisearch community plugin)
• Custom command — any command from your full command list, so this also covers other switcher plugins not listed by name here.

Roadmap

• Swipe up on the modal on a mobile screen to open the quick switcher (equivalent of Control + 0 on desktop)
• Swipe down on the modal on mobile screen (equivalent shortcut 'W' on keyboard) to let the user purge recent tab history with option to purge only attachment files
• Optional Icons for the files show in the modal (like they do in plugins like Notebook navigator, fileclass and Operon).
• Other kind of grids: showing 9 recent files that have a certain tag or those that have a configurable frontmatter property value.

*These are realistic ideas but since I am not a developer I don't know if they can be implemented with the limited AI tokens I have.

Known limitations

• Alt+Tab on Windows/Linux: the OS window switcher can intercept Alt+Tab before Obsidian's own window ever receives the keystroke, depending on your window manager. If the grid doesn't open, switch the modifier to Control in settings (note this overlaps Obsidian's built-in "next tab" shortcut — rebind that under Settings → Hotkeys if it matters to you), or just use the ribbon icon / command palette instead.
• Windows Alt-numpad text entry: if you use Alt + numpad codes to type special characters, Modifier + 0 (and 1–9, while the grid is open) will be intercepted by this plugin instead.
• The Bookmarks core plugin and the internal command-execution API don't have official public APIs; this plugin uses long-standing internal Obsidian interfaces for both, which could change in a future Obsidian release.
• "Already open" detection (so selecting a note focuses its existing tab instead of opening a duplicate) relies on the view exposing a file in its state, which covers markdown and most file-backed views but may miss some custom view types — worst case, it just opens a new tab instead.