Recently Added Files

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An Obsidian plugin that displays a real-time sidebar list of your most recently added or modified files — not just opened ones.

Useful when you import a batch of images, drop in reference PDFs, or create several notes at once and need to quickly locate and process them.

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Features

Feature	Description
Recently added / modified	Track files by creation date or last modification date
File type filter	Show only Markdown, PDF, images, videos, Canvas, or other files
Search	Live search box filters the list by filename as you type
Sort order	Newest first · Oldest first · A→Z · Z→A
Pin to top	Right-click any file to pin it — pinned files always stay at the top
Hash rename	Right-click → rename with a SHA-256 hash to resolve filename collisions
Hover preview	Hover over an image or PDF entry to see a floating preview
Exclude paths / tags	Regex patterns and frontmatter tags to keep the list clean
Show / hide extensions	Toggle file extensions in the list

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Usage

Sidebar view

Open the command palette and run "Recently Added Files: Open", or click the file icon in the left ribbon.
The view appears in the left sidebar and updates automatically as you add or modify files.

Pin files

Right-click any file item → Pin. Pinned files move to the top of the list and are shown in bold with a pin icon. Right-click again → Unpin to remove the pin.

Search

Type in the search box at the top of the view to filter entries by filename in real time.

File type filter

Enable File type filter in settings, then use the dropdown at the top of the view to switch between All, Markdown, PDF, Images, Videos, Canvas, and Other.

Hash rename

After importing images with duplicate names, right-click the file in the sidebar → Rename with hash. The file is renamed to a unique <sha256>_HASH.<ext> filename, resolving conflicts instantly.

Before:

After:

Hover preview

Hover over an image or PDF entry to see a floating thumbnail preview without opening the file.

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Settings

Setting	Default	Description
List tracking mode	Created files	Track newly created files or recently modified files
List length	100	Maximum number of entries to keep
Show file extensions	Off	Show or hide file extensions in the list
Enable file type filter	Off	Show the type filter dropdown in the sidebar
Default file type filter	All files	Which type is selected when the view opens
Sort order	Newest first	How entries are ordered
Omitted pathname patterns	—	Regex patterns (one per line) — matching files are excluded
Omitted frontmatter tags	—	Frontmatter tags (one per line) — matching files are excluded

Module toggles

The settings page lets you enable or disable individual feature modules:

• Recent files core — file tracking, sidebar list, commands
• Filter and sort — type filter, sort modes, file-type icons
• Hover preview — floating image / PDF preview on hover
• Rename action — right-click hash rename

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Commands

Command	Description
Open recently added files	Open / reveal the sidebar view
Clear recently added files list	Empty the list
Prune missing entries	Remove entries whose files no longer exist in the vault
Open top 5 recently added files	Open the five most recent entries in new tabs

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🙏 Acknowledgements

The original idea and core architecture draw heavily from recent-files-obsidian by tgrosinger. Many thanks for the excellent foundation.

This plugin was built to fill a specific gap: while recent-files-obsidian tracks recently opened or edited files, this plugin focuses on recently added files — the ones you just imported, downloaded, or created from another tool — making it much easier to find and process them right after they land in your vault.