Floating Notes

A lightweight Obsidian plugin that opens a floating popout window for instant note capture — inspired by Raycast Notes.

Why

Raycast Notes lets you jot down ideas instantly with a global hotkey and a clean, floating editor. macOS makes truly global hotkeys hard to wire up to a single Obsidian command, so this plugin combines:

• An in-app command (Toggle floating notes) you can bind in Obsidian's hotkey settings
• An obsidian://floating-notes URI handler you can trigger from Raycast / Shortcuts / Alfred for a system-wide hotkey
• A loopback HTTP endpoint (http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle) for shell scripts and other tools

The result: press one hotkey from anywhere, get a distraction-free Obsidian editor floating above your work, press again to hide it.

Features

• Toggle popout — show / hide a native Obsidian editor window without losing state
• Always on top — popout floats above other apps (optional)
• Three capture modes
  • Current active note — opens whatever note you're viewing
  • Fixed note — always opens a specific note (e.g. Inbox.md)
  • New note every time — creates a fresh timestamped note in a folder
• Multiple triggers — Obsidian command, obsidian://floating-notes URI, or local HTTP endpoint

Installation

Manual

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release
2. Create a folder <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/floating-notes/
3. Copy the files into that folder
4. Enable Floating Notes in Settings → Community plugins

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/haotiencheng/obsidian-floating-notes.git
cd obsidian-floating-notes
npm install
npm run build

Then copy main.js and manifest.json into your vault's plugin folder.

Usage

In Obsidian (local hotkey)

Settings → Hotkeys → search Toggle floating notes → bind a key. No default hotkey is set.

This hotkey only fires when Obsidian is the active app. For a truly global hotkey, see below.

Global hotkey (system-wide)

Obsidian plugins can't register OS-level hotkeys directly (the only API that allows it, electron.remote.globalShortcut, is deprecated and forbidden by the community plugin guidelines). The standard workaround — used by QuickAdd and others — is to delegate to a system-wide launcher that triggers the plugin externally.

Floating Notes exposes two external triggers:

Trigger	Effect
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null	Recommended. Toggles the popout without activating the Obsidian app or raising the main window.
open "obsidian://floating-notes"	Also toggles the popout, but opening an obsidian:// URI activates the Obsidian app on macOS, which briefly raises the main window.

Pair one of those triggers with the system-wide launcher of your choice.

Prerequisites

1. Floating Notes is installed and enabled in Obsidian
2. A system-wide launcher installed (Raycast, macOS Shortcuts, Alfred, Hammerspoon, Karabiner-Elements — pick one)

Recipes

Raycast (macOS — recommended)

1. Create a file named floating-notes.sh anywhere you like (e.g. ~/raycast-scripts/) with this content:

   #!/bin/bash
   
   # @raycast.schemaVersion 1
   # @raycast.title Toggle Floating Notes
   # @raycast.mode silent
   # @raycast.icon 📝
   # @raycast.packageName Obsidian
   # @raycast.description Toggle the Obsidian Floating Notes popout window.
   
   curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null
   

2. Make it executable: chmod +x ~/raycast-scripts/floating-notes.sh
3. Raycast → Preferences → Extensions → Script Commands → Add Directory → pick the folder containing the script
4. Open Raycast → search Toggle Floating Notes → click the gear (⌘ ⇧ ,) → Record Hotkey → press your combo

If you cloned this repo, skip steps 1–2 and point Raycast at the cloned folder — floating-notes.sh is already there.

macOS Shortcuts (built-in, no extras)

1. Shortcuts app → + new shortcut, name it Floating Notes
2. Add action Run Shell Script → paste:

   curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null
   

3. Shortcut Details (sidebar) → Add Keyboard Shortcut → press key combo

Alfred (Powerpack required)

1. Workflows → + → Blank Workflow
2. Right-click canvas → Triggers → Hotkey → set key
3. Connect to Actions → Run Script (/bin/bash) → paste:

   curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null
   

Hammerspoon (free, scriptable)

Add to ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua:

hs.hotkey.bind({"alt"}, "N", function()
  hs.execute("/usr/bin/curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle")
end)

Reload config from the Hammerspoon menu bar icon.

Karabiner-Elements (free, low-level)

Complex modification JSON — import into your config:

{
  "from": { "key_code": "n", "modifiers": { "mandatory": ["right_option"] } },
  "to": [{ "shell_command": "/usr/bin/curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle" }],
  "type": "basic"
}

Raycast (Windows)

1. Create a file named floating-notes.bat (e.g. in %USERPROFILE%\raycast-scripts\) with this content:

   @echo off >nul 2>&1
   chcp 65001 >nul 2>&1
   setlocal
   
   REM @raycast.schemaVersion 1
   REM @raycast.title Toggle Floating Notes
   REM @raycast.mode silent
   REM @raycast.icon 📝
   REM @raycast.packageName Obsidian
   REM @raycast.description Toggle the Obsidian Floating Notes popout window.
   
   curl.exe -s -m 2 -o nul "http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle" >nul 2>&1
   
   exit /b 0
   

2. Raycast → Preferences → Extensions → Script Commands → Add Directory → pick the folder containing the script
3. Open Raycast → search Toggle Floating Notes → assign a hotkey

Windows (AutoHotkey v2 — alternative to Raycast)

!n::RunWait("curl.exe -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle", , "Hide")

Linux (e.g. sxhkd)

Add to ~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc:

alt + n
    curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null

Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Capture mode	What to show in the popout window	Current active note
Fixed note path	Path to the note (when mode is "Fixed note")	Inbox.md
New note folder	Folder for new notes (when mode is "New note every time")	Inbox
Always on top	Float popout above other windows	On
Server port	Local HTTP port for external triggers	51234

Notes

• Desktop only. The plugin uses Electron and Node http APIs that aren't available on Obsidian Mobile.
• The local HTTP server only accepts connections from 127.0.0.1.

Inspiration

Raycast Notes — a beautiful, instant note-taking experience via a global hotkey. Floating Notes brings that frictionless capture workflow into Obsidian.

License

MIT