Drift

pending

by Ryan Brown

Detects external file changes and shows side-by-side diffs with per-chunk accept/reject.

★ 1 starsUpdated 7d ago0BSDDiscovered via Obsidian Unofficial Plugins
View on GitHub

Drift

An Obsidian plugin that detects when external tools modify your vault files and shows a side-by-side diff view so you can selectively accept or reject each change — without leaving Obsidian.

Features

  • Automatic detection — External file changes are detected instantly via CM6 transaction monitoring. No polling or debounce delays.
  • Side-by-side diff view — See exactly what changed with a CodeMirror MergeView, including syntax highlighting and fold controls for unchanged regions.
  • Per-chunk accept/reject — Accept or reject individual changes, not just the whole file. Revert buttons on each diff chunk let you cherry-pick.
  • Persistence — Pending diffs survive Obsidian restarts. Stale diffs (file deleted or reverted) are automatically discarded on reload.
  • Conflict detection — If a file changes after a diff was generated, the plugin warns you before overwriting.
  • Edit protection — Editing a file with pending diffs shows a warning modal, preventing accidental data loss.

Use cases

  • Review changes made by external scripts, CLI tools, or sync services
  • Inspect modifications from Obsidian Git or other plugins that write to files directly
  • Catch unexpected changes from cloud sync (Dropbox, iCloud, Syncthing, etc.)

Installation

This plugin is currently awaiting approval in the Obsidian community plugin store. In the meantime, you can install it using one of these methods:

Using BRAT (recommended)

  1. Install BRAT from the community plugin store
  2. Open command palette → BRAT: Add a beta plugin for testing
  3. Enter ryanbbrown/obsidian-drift

Manual

  1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
  2. Create a folder VaultFolder/.obsidian/plugins/drift/
  3. Copy the downloaded files into that folder
  4. Restart Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Usage

Once enabled, the plugin runs automatically. When an external tool modifies a markdown file in your vault:

  1. A Drift tab opens showing the side-by-side diff
  2. Use Accept All to keep the new content, or Reject All to revert to the original
  3. Use the revert button on individual chunks to selectively undo specific changes
  4. Use the Open diff viewer command to reopen the tab if you close it

Commands

CommandDescription
Open diff viewerOpen or focus the diff viewer tab
Toggle external change detectionEnable/disable external change detection

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.