Focused Explorer Accordion

unlisted

by Tushar Sharma

Keep one folder expanded at a chosen depth in each native File Explorer pane.

Updated 14d agoMIT
View on GitHub

Focused Explorer Accordion

Keep one folder open at your chosen depth while preserving the rest of your Obsidian File Explorer layout.

Why

Large vaults often leave many unrelated folders expanded. Focused Explorer Accordion applies an exclusive accordion policy at one folder depth without replacing Obsidian's native File Explorer or forcing every level into a single active branch.

Focus depth: H2

H1 Projects               stays as it was
├─ H2 Active project      expanded
│  ├─ H3 Notes            independent
│  └─ H3 Resources        independent
└─ H2 Other project       collapsed

H1 Archive                stays as it was
└─ H2 Previous project    collapsed

Features

  • Root, section, deep, and custom focus depths.
  • One active focus-level folder per File Explorer pane.
  • Independent behaviour across multiple explorer panes.
  • Optional preservation or reset of nested expansion state.
  • Exact folder exclusions that cover the selected subtree.
  • Mouse, keyboard, auto-reveal, workspace restoration, and plugin-driven expansion detection.
  • Commands to suspend automatic behaviour or enforce it immediately.
  • No changes to notes, folders, sorting, icons, colours, or other vault content.

Settings

Focus depth

  • Root focus controls root-level folders (H1).
  • Section focus controls second-level folders (H2).
  • Deep focus controls third-level folders (H3).
  • Custom depth accepts any positive folder depth.

Only the configured depth is exclusive. Shallower levels retain their current state, and deeper levels inside the active folder remain independently usable.

Nested folder state

  • Remember collapses only the competing focus-level folder. Its nested layout returns when reopened.
  • Reset collapses expanded descendants before closing the competing folder.

Excluded folders

An excluded folder and its descendants are ignored by automatic accordion behaviour. An excluded folder neither triggers nor receives an automatic collapse.

Commands

  • Focused Explorer Accordion: Toggle automatic accordion suspends or resumes automation for the current Obsidian session.
  • Focused Explorer Accordion: Enforce accordion now focuses the active note branch, falling back to the most recently expanded eligible folder.

No command has a default hotkey.

Installation

Once accepted into the Community directory, install the plugin from Settings → Community plugins → Browse.

For local testing, copy main.js and manifest.json into:

<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/explorer-accordion/

Development

Focused Explorer Accordion is implemented in modern JavaScript with JSDoc static checking.

npm install
npm run check
npm run build

Use a dedicated development vault. The ignored .test-vault/ directory can be used for local testing.

Compatibility and maintenance

Obsidian does not currently expose a public API for native File Explorer expansion state. The plugin therefore isolates its minimal DOM integration behind one adapter. If an Obsidian update changes the explorer markup, the plugin fails closed for the affected pane instead of guessing or modifying vault content.

The first release supports desktop Obsidian. Mobile support requires separate validation and is not claimed.

Privacy

The plugin works locally. It has no telemetry, network requests, external service, or access to note contents.

License

MIT

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