See Also Sidebar

Display related notes from frontmatter in a dedicated sidebar view.

Field	Value
Author	David Breece
Version	1.3.8
Minimum Obsidian version	1.8.0

Table of contents

• Overview
• Features
• Installation
• Usage
• Configuration
• Privacy & Data Access
• Development
• License

Overview

See Also Sidebar reads a see-also property from the active note frontmatter and renders related notes in a sidebar panel.

📋 Data Access Notice: This plugin includes an optional "Automatic suggestions" feature that, when enabled, reads the list of all markdown files in your vault to find notes with shared tags. This feature is disabled by default and all processing is local—no data leaves your device. See Privacy & Data Access for details.

Features

• Sidebar view for related notes
• Safe click behavior: resolves to existing files before opening, never creates notes from sidebar clicks
• Support for multiple see-also formats
• Ribbon icon to open the sidebar
• Optional default behavior to open related notes in a new tab
• Optional automatic suggestions based on shared tags
• Optional grouped mode for automatic suggestions
• Configurable sidebar heading text
• Editable custom group label (validated on save, not while typing)

Installation

This plugin is now in the Obsidian Community Plugins directory!

Manual installation

1. Build or obtain plugin release files: main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css.
2. Create this folder in your vault:

<YourVault>/.obsidian/plugins/see-also-sidebar/

1. Copy files into that folder.
2. In Obsidian, go to Settings -> Community plugins.
3. Enable See Also Sidebar.

Usage

Add a see-also property to a note frontmatter block.

YAML list format (recommended)

---
see-also:
  - Note A
  - Note B
  - Concepts/Note C
---

Inline array format

---
see-also: [Note A, Note B, Concepts/Note C]
---

Single string

---
see-also: Note A
---

With wikilinks, aliases, and headings

---
see-also:
  - "[[Note A]]"
  - "[[Long Technical Note|Quick summary]]"
  - "Architecture#API Layer"
---

Automatic suggestions

When Automatic suggestions is enabled, notes that share tags with the active note are suggested in addition to explicit see-also entries.

Behavior details:

• Explicit see-also entries are always included (unless hidden via Custom links position setting).
• With grouping disabled, automatic suggestions are merged into one flat list.
• With grouping enabled, explicit entries are rendered under the configured Custom group label, and automatic entries are rendered directly under tag headers.
• When grouping is enabled, the Custom links position setting controls where explicit entries appear: above automatic suggestions (default), below automatic suggestions, or hidden.
• In grouped mode, there is no intermediate Suggestions heading.
• The active note is never included in automatic suggestions.
• Duplicate notes are shown only once.

Configuration

Settings location:

• Settings -> Community plugins -> See Also Sidebar

Settings reference

Setting	Type	Default	What it does
Sidebar heading text	String	See also	Text used as the sidebar heading. Empty or whitespace values fall back to See also.
Open links in new tab	Boolean	false	When enabled, related-note clicks open in a new tab by default. Ctrl/Cmd-click and middle-click still open in a new tab.
Automatic suggestions	Boolean	false	When enabled, the sidebar also includes notes that share tags with the active note.
Group automatic suggestions by tag	Boolean	true	When enabled (and automatic suggestions is on), grouped mode shows the configured Custom group label followed by tag-based sections.
Custom group label	String	Custom	Label used for explicit see-also entries in grouped mode. Non-alphanumeric characters are removed; empty values fall back to Custom. The field validates when you leave it, so you can freely clear and retype the label without interruption.
Custom links position	Dropdown	Above	Controls where explicit see-also entries appear relative to automatic suggestions. Options: Above (before tag groups), Below (after tag groups), or Hidden (only show automatic suggestions). Only visible when both automatic suggestions and grouping are enabled.

Privacy & Data Access

This plugin operates locally within your vault and does not send data to external services.

Vault file enumeration

When automatic suggestions are enabled, the plugin accesses the list of all markdown files in your vault using vault.getMarkdownFiles(). This is necessary to:

• Find notes that share tags with the active note
• Build automatic suggestions based on tag relationships

This enumeration:

• Only occurs when Automatic suggestions is enabled in settings (disabled by default)
• Reads file paths and metadata, not file contents
• Processes data locally; no information leaves your device
• Makes no external network requests and does not transmit vault paths/content
• Can be completely avoided by keeping automatic suggestions disabled

When automatic suggestions are disabled, the plugin only accesses:

• The active note's frontmatter
• Files explicitly listed in the see-also property

Development

Build from source:

npm install
npm run lint
npm run build

For watch mode:

npm run dev

License

This project includes a LICENSE file at the repository root.