Smart Explorer

A smarter side-pane explorer for browsing, filtering, previewing, and manually sorting your Obsidian files.

Built for vaults with hundreds or thousands of notes where the default file tree falls short, especially project folders that need a human priority order instead of only alphabetical sorting.

Features

Category	Options
Sort	Name (A-Z / Z-A), modified date, created date, extension, file size, manual (drag-and-drop)
Group	Folder, extension, modified month, top-level folder
Filter	Search by name/path, markdown-only, attachments-only, date range (1d / 7d / 30d)
Preview	Headings & tags for markdown, thumbnails for images, metadata for other files
Settings	Default sort/group mode, preview panel toggle, hidden extensions, reset manual order

Manual Drag-and-Drop Sorting

Switch to Manual sort mode, then drag files to reorder them exactly how you want. The custom order is saved per vault and persists across sessions. Works on both desktop and mobile (long-press to drag).

Installation

Community Plugins (recommended)

1. Open Settings → Community Plugins → Browse
2. Search for Smart Explorer
3. Click Install, then Enable

Manual

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create .obsidian/plugins/smart-explorer/ in your vault
3. Copy the three files into that folder
4. Enable in Settings → Community Plugins

Usage

1. Open via ribbon icon or Command Palette → Smart Explorer: Open
2. Toolbar controls sorting, grouping, and filtering
3. Click a file to open; preview panel shows context alongside the file list
4. Defaults persist in Settings → Community Plugins → Smart Explorer

Compatibility

• Obsidian ≥ 1.7.2
• Desktop and mobile

Privacy

No network requests. All data stays local in your vault.

Development

npm install       # install dependencies
npm run dev       # watch mode
npm run build     # type-check + production build
npm test          # unit tests

License

MIT