Minimalism UI — Obsidian Plugin

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Transform Obsidian into a minimal, Typora-style writing environment. All options are in Settings → Community Plugins → Minimalism UI.

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Read This Before You Start

[!warning] Make sure this minimalist philosophy suits you before installing

1. This plugin is all about subtraction, and its philosophy runs against mainstream usage: it keeps only the left sidebar (showing at most Outline, Properties, and Local Graph) and strips away many core features, including Folders.
2. Pick one note as your home page. Think of it as the trunk of a tree: keep creating notes from it through backlinks, letting your knowledge branch out until it grows into a towering tree.
3. Since folders are gone, almost every note lives in the vault root. Enable timestamp-prefixed filenames to give each note a unique identifier and avoid name clashes.

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Features

Minimal Sidebar

Applies a Typora-style frosted-glass look to the left sidebar (rounded corners, custom background). Also restructures the sidebar: the Outline panel and Properties metadata are merged into a single view — Outline on top, frontmatter properties below — so all note context is visible at a glance without switching panels.

Toggling this option off restores the original sidebar layout.

Simplified Panel

Hides panel action buttons (the icon row in Outline, Backlinks, etc.) and removes the search bar from those panels, reducing visual noise.

Note Style

Applies custom typography to the editor and reading view:

• JetBrains Mono NL for code blocks, inline code, and the editor font
• Forest-style blockquotes, tables, and code blocks
• Adjusted line height and smooth scroll in the reading view
• Heading flash animation when jumping from the Outline panel

Home Note

Designates a note that opens automatically on startup and whenever all tabs are closed. Set the path in the plugin settings (supports autocomplete).

Single-Page Mode

Hides the tab bar and keeps one note visible at a time. Additional navigation features:

• LRU tab cache — keeps the 10 most recently visited notes open in the background; the oldest is closed when the limit is reached
• Cross-tab back / forward — app:go-back / app:go-forward navigate across tabs, not just within a single tab's history
• Disables tab pinning

Page Load Animation (Beta)

Slide-in animation when navigating back or forward through note history.

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Settings

Option	Description
Minimal Sidebar	Finder-style sidebar + merged Outline + Properties layout
Simplified Panel	Hides panel buttons and search bars
Note Style	JetBrains Mono, Forest-style blocks, smooth scroll, heading flash
Home Note	Note path to open on startup and when all tabs are closed
Single-Page Mode	One-note-at-a-time with LRU cache and cross-tab history
Page Load Animation	Slide animation on back/forward navigation

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Installation

1. Download obsidian-minimalism-ui.zip from the Releases page
2. Unzip it directly into your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory
3. In Obsidian: Settings → Community Plugins → enable Minimalism UI

The zip extracts to an obsidian-minimalism-ui/ folder containing main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css. Theme styles and fonts are embedded into main.js at build time — no extra files or steps needed.

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Development

git clone https://github.com/tcyeee/obsidian-minimalism-ui.git
cd obsidian-minimalism-ui
pnpm install

pnpm build   # production build → main.js
pnpm dev     # watch mode — rebuilds on changes to main.ts / src/**

Both commands first run scripts/generate-theme-assets.mjs, which embeds the theme CSS and fonts under theme/ into the bundle. The watcher does not watch theme/ — re-run pnpm dev / pnpm build after editing theme files.

To test locally, symlink the project directory into your vault:

ln -s $(pwd) ~/your-vault/.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-minimalism-ui

After editing the source, run pnpm build and reload the plugin in Obsidian (Ctrl/Cmd+R in the community plugins list).

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Permissions

API	Where used	Why
vault.getMarkdownFiles()	Settings tab — file path input	Provides autocomplete suggestions when the user types a path for the Home Note setting. Called only on user keystroke; never runs on startup or in the background.

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License

MIT