Terminal Buttons — Obsidian plugin

An embedded terminal in Obsidian with configurable macro buttons. The panel runs a persistent shell (PowerShell by default) you can type into like any terminal, plus a toolbar of buttons you define. Each button plays a macro — a keystroke sequence — into the running shell. A button can run git status<enter>; another can launch a long-running command, wait, and send a follow-up keystroke.

Desktop only. Windows-focused (uses winpty); the build is generic.

Concepts

Persistent shell

On open the plugin spawns the configured shell (default pwsh) in an xterm.js terminal (WebGL renderer). Configure command / args / cwd / env in settings.

Macro buttons

Each button has a label and a macro. Macro syntax:

Token	Effect
literal text	typed as-is
<enter> / <cr>	Enter
<wait:300> (<wait 300>, <wait+300>)	pause N ms
<tab> <esc> <space> <bs>	those keys
<up> <down> <left> <right>	arrows
<ctrl-c> (<ctrl-X>)	control char
<<	literal <
{file} {path} {selection} {vaultPath}	active-note vars

Example: npm run dev<enter><wait:1500><ctrl-c> — start a dev server, wait for it to boot, then send Ctrl-C. Or git status<enter> for a one-shot command.

Toolbar

[Clear] [Restart] [Kill] + one button per configured shortcut. Clear wipes the buffer, Restart relaunches the shell, Kill stops the process.

Build

npm install
npm run build   # tsc typecheck + esbuild -> main.js, styles.css

Native terminal (node-pty)

The terminal needs a node-pty binary matching Obsidian's Electron ABI (find it via Ctrl+Shift+I → process.versions.modules). Prebuilt binaries lag new Electron, so compile:

Prereqs: Node, VS with Desktop development with C++ (MSVC + Windows SDK), Python 3, and npm i -D node-gyp@latest (≥ 12.1 for VS 2026 / toolset v145).

pwsh -File scripts/rebuild-pty.ps1 -ElectronVersion 39.8.3

It compiles @homebridge/node-pty-prebuilt-multiarch against the Electron headers and works around winpty's commit-hash bats and the SpectreMitigation flag. It also overlays patches/windowsConoutConnection.js, which drops node-pty's worker_threads.Worker (the Electron renderer cannot create Workers) and connects the conout pipe directly (safe under winpty, which this plugin forces via useConpty:false).

Deploy

pwsh -File scripts/deploy.ps1 -VaultPlugins "C:\path\to\vault\.obsidian\plugins"
# or set $env:OBSIDIAN_PLUGINS_DIR once and run: pwsh -File scripts/deploy.ps1

Copies main.js, manifest.json, styles.css and the node-pty payload into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/terminal-buttons/. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin.

Notes

• Buttons type into the running shell (no per-button process spawn), so a macro like git status<enter> relies on the shell (pwsh) resolving git from PATH.
• Security: macros and the shell run with your environment. Only configure commands you'd run in a terminal yourself.