Smart Export

Smart Export follows links from a root note, builds a note tree, and exports it in formats that work well for both humans and LLMs.

1 Installation

1.1 BRAT (current installation method)

Use BRAT (Beta Reviewers Auto-update Tool):

1. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse and install BRAT.
2. Open BRAT settings and click Add a beta plugin.
3. Paste: https://github.com/LittleHaku/obsidian-smart-export
4. Select the latest release.

1.2 Community plugins (when available)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins.
2. Turn off Restricted mode.
3. Click Browse, search for Smart Export, then install and enable it.

2 Quick Start

1. Open command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+P) and run Smart Export: Open export (or click the ribbon icon).
2. Select a root note.
3. Set depth values (recommended start: content 2, title 4).
4. Choose output format.
5. Click Export to clipboard or Export to new note.

Export to new note prompts for a vault-relative folder and note name, then creates the Markdown note using your default folder/open preferences from settings.

3 Features

• Smart note discovery using breadth-first traversal.
• Link direction modes: outgoing, incoming, or both.
• Dual depth controls:
  • content depth (full content)
  • title depth (title-only context)
• Folder exclusion (Ignored folders) for traversal with comma-separated wildcard/path patterns.
• Tag/property exclusion rules for traversal (Hide notes with tags, Hide notes with property rules).
• Output formats: XML, Markdown templates, Print-friendly Markdown.
• Multiple Markdown templates (built-in + custom folder templates) with placeholder support.
• Export delivery options: copy to clipboard or create a new note in the vault after choosing folder and note name.
• Markdown-based exports rewrite links to exported notes into Obsidian heading links so they stay navigable inside the generated note.
• Token estimate display before export.

4 Settings

Settings location: Obsidian → Settings → Smart Export

4.1 Export defaults

• Default content depth: 1-20
• Default title depth: 1-20
• Default output: XML, print-friendly Markdown, LLM-ready, or your custom templates
• Default export target: clipboard or new note
• Default link direction
• Default export note folder: vault-relative folder for new export notes (leave empty to use the source note folder)

4.2 Traversal exclusions

• Ignored folders: comma-separated folders/patterns (for example templates, assets*, /archive) excluded from traversal/export. Leading / anchors to vault root.
• Hide notes with tags: comma-separated tag patterns (for example archive*, #draft, projects/*/old) excluded from traversal/export.
• Hide notes with property rules: comma-separated rules using key or key=value (for example status=done, published=true, archived) excluded from traversal/export.

4.3 Markdown templates

• Markdown template folder: vault-relative folder for custom Markdown templates, with folder autocomplete

4.4 Export modal behavior

• Auto-select current note
• Close modal after export
• Open created export note
• Show per-note token estimates

Exclusion details (folders/tags/properties): Exclusion rules

4.5 Markdown templates

For Markdown template exports, Smart Export can load a custom template from your vault:

1. Choose a template folder in Settings → Smart Export → Markdown template folder.
2. Create one or more .md notes in that folder.
3. Add placeholders from template docs to those notes.

Default folder: smart-templates (you can change it).

Template selection:

• In the export modal, use the Output dropdown.
• It includes XML, print-friendly Markdown, and Markdown template options.
• Markdown template options include built-in templates and templates found in your configured folder.
• Built-in templates are always available as fallback.

Default recommendation:

• In settings, the built-in option shown is LLM-ready.
• This template is the recommended baseline because it includes structured guidance text for prompt/context ingestion.
• Additional templates like compact are provided as examples for users who want starting points.

Resolution order (only when no explicit template is selected / templateId is omitted):

• <template-folder>/llm-markdown.md
• first .md file in <template-folder> (alphabetical path order)
• built-in default template if no custom template is found via the above rules

Placeholder reference: templates/README.md

{{metadata_yaml}} includes the full YAML block with --- delimiters and keys like export_timestamp, starting_note, total_notes_exported, and missing_notes_count.

5 Keyboard Shortcut

• Primary command: Smart Export: Open export
• Quick command: Smart Export: Quick export current note (uses default settings and follows your configured default export target)
• Assign your own shortcut in Settings → Hotkeys.

6 Documentation

• Documentation index
• API reference
• Exclusion rules
• Export architecture
• Startup process
• Versioning and releases
• Template placeholders
• Contributing guide
• Roadmap and feature backlog (GitHub Issues)

7 Example Output

7.1 XML (excerpt)

<obsidian_export>
  <metadata>
    <starting_note>Machine Learning</starting_note>
    <total_notes_exported>5</total_notes_exported>
  </metadata>
</obsidian_export>

7.2 LLM Markdown (excerpt)

# Smart Export Vault

- Starting Note: Machine Learning
- Total Notes: 5

8 Troubleshooting

8.1 Empty export or missing notes

• Ensure the root note exists.
• Ensure links resolve to real notes.
• Check that excluded folders are not filtering expected notes.

8.2 Export too large

• Use Export to new note to avoid clipboard limits for large exports.
• Set Default export target to New note if your quick-export hotkey should create files instead of using the clipboard.
• Lower content/title depth.
• Switch to Print-friendly Markdown.
• Start from a more specific root note.

9 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Quick setup:

git clone https://github.com/LittleHaku/obsidian-smart-export.git
cd obsidian-smart-export
pnpm install
pnpm run dev

Benchmark:

pnpm benchmark

10 Support

• Star the repo.
• Report bugs and request features in GitHub Issues.
• Support development: Buy me a coffee.

11 License

MIT License. See LICENSE.