Show Hidden Files — Obsidian Plugin

Reveals hidden dotfiles (.claude, .gitignore, .env, .github/, etc.) and all file types directly in the Obsidian file explorer.

Features

• Show all file types — Exposes files with unsupported extensions (.json, .yml, .toml, etc.) in the file explorer. Synced with Obsidian's native "Detect all file extensions" setting.
• Show hidden files — Shows files and folders whose names start with a dot, which Obsidian hides by default.

Both settings are enabled by default when the plugin is activated and fully reverted when the plugin is disabled.

Note: Enabling this plugin exposes sensitive dotfiles (.env, .git-credentials, etc.) in the Obsidian file explorer, making them viewable, editable, and deletable. Make sure you understand what these files are before modifying them.

Installation

From Community Plugins (recommended)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins → Browse
2. Search for Show Hidden Files
3. Click Install, then Enable

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css (if present) from the latest release.
2. Create the folder .obsidian/plugins/show-hidden-files/ inside your vault.
3. Copy the downloaded files into that folder.
4. Open Settings → Community plugins, refresh the list, and enable Show Hidden Files.

BRAT

Install via BRAT with the repo URL:

witi42/obsidian-show-hidden-files

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Show all file types	On	Toggle unsupported file extensions in the explorer. Mirrors Obsidian's native "Detect all file extensions" option.
Show hidden files	On	Toggle dotfiles and dotfolders in the explorer. .obsidian and .trash are always excluded.

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/witi42/obsidian-show-hidden-files.git
cd obsidian-show-hidden-files
npm install
npm run build

This produces main.js in the project root. Copy it along with manifest.json into your vault's plugin folder to test.

For development with hot-reload:

npm run dev

How it works

• Show all file types uses Obsidian's internal vault.setConfig('showUnsupportedFiles', …) API to toggle the native setting programmatically.
• Show hidden files intercepts the vault adapter's reconcileDeletion method — when Obsidian tries to hide a dotfile, the plugin re-registers it instead. A full vault rescan via listRecursive triggers discovery of all dotfiles on startup.
• On disable, both settings are restored to their previous values and all revealed dotfiles are hidden again.

Compatibility

• Desktop only — relies on Node.js filesystem APIs for dotfile discovery.
• Requires Obsidian v0.15.0+.

License

MIT