Note Purge

approvedunreviewed

by Joel Reymont

Delete every note in the current search results at once, for example all notes with a given tag.

Updated todayMIT
Install in ObsidianView on GitHub

Note Purge

Delete every note in the current search results at once, for example all notes with a given tag.

Usage

  1. Search for the notes to delete, for example tag:#archive, or click a tag in the Tags view.

  2. Click the result count (5 results) at the top of the search pane, then choose Delete 5 results….

    The search results menu with a red Delete 5 results item below Copy search results and Bookmark

  3. Check the files listed in the dialog, then select Delete 5 files. A notice confirms how many files were deleted.

    The Delete 5 files dialog listing the five matching notes, with Cancel and Delete 5 files buttons

On a phone, the menu opens as a sheet at the bottom of the screen:

Phone layout: the menu sheet with the Delete item, and the same confirmation dialog

Behavior

  • Exactly the files listed in the dialog are deleted. A tag search also matches nested tags: tag:#archive includes notes tagged #archive/ideas.
  • Files are deleted according to Settings → Files and links → Deleted files: moved to the system trash, moved to the vault's .trash folder, or deleted permanently. The dialog says which, in red when it's permanent.
  • Attachments linked from the deleted notes are kept.
  • The menu item is disabled while a search is still running, or when there are no results.
  • Works on desktop and mobile, with Obsidian 1.6.6 or later.

Obsidian has no public API for the search results menu, so Note Purge uses the internal search:results-menu event, the same one the core Bookmarks plugin uses to add Bookmark.... If a future Obsidian version changes that event, the Delete item stops appearing and nothing is deleted.

Installation

In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Note Purge, then select Install and Enable.

To install from GitHub instead, add joelreymont/obsidian-note-purge in BRAT, or copy main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/note-purge/. Release files are attested by GitHub; check a download with gh attestation verify main.js -R joelreymont/obsidian-note-purge.

Development

npm install
npm run build   # type-check, then bundle src/main.ts into main.js

To release, bump version in manifest.json, package.json and versions.json, push to main, and run the Release workflow from the Actions tab (or push a tag with the same version).

License

MIT

For plugin developers

Search results and similarity scores are powered by semantic analysis of your plugin's README. If your plugin isn't appearing for searches you'd expect, try updating your README to clearly describe your plugin's purpose, features, and use cases.