Folder Graph Organizer

An Obsidian plugin that automatically creates folder index notes and links every note, canvas, and subfolder back to them — turning Obsidian's Graph View into a clean, hub-and-spoke map of your entire vault.

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What it does

For every folder in your vault, the plugin:

1. Creates an index note named after the folder (e.g. Projects/Projects.md)
2. Links every note in that folder back to the index with an up:: property
3. Links every canvas in that folder into the index note
4. Chains subfolders — each subfolder's index gets an up:: link to the parent index, building a full hierarchy
5. Assigns a unique color tag (folder-color-1 through folder-color-8) to each index note so you can give every folder cluster its own color in Graph View

The result in Graph View is a cluster of connected nodes for every folder, with the index note as the large central hub.

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Recommended companion plugin

🗂️ Install Folder Notes by LostPaul for the best experience.

Because index notes are named after their folder and placed inside it, the Folder Notes plugin recognises them automatically — no extra configuration needed. Once installed:

• Clicking a folder in the file explorer opens its index note directly
• The folder acts like a page, just like Notion or Craft
• Your vault feels fully navigable without ever touching Graph View

The two plugins were designed to work together out of the box.

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Features

Feature	Details
📄 Folder-named indexes	Each index is named after its folder, not a generic _Index
🔗 Auto-linking	Notes get up:: [[FolderName]] prepended on creation
🗺️ Canvas support	.canvas files are listed in the folder index
🌲 Subfolder chaining	Subfolder indexes link up to their parent
🎨 Per-folder colors	8 color tags assigned by folder name for Graph View groups
⚡ Auto-link on create	New notes and canvases are linked instantly
📊 Dashboard	Visual overview of all folders, their note counts, and index status

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Installation

Via BRAT (recommended for now)

1. Install BRAT from Community Plugins
2. Open BRAT settings → Add Beta Plugin
3. Paste: https://github.com/jacobbarcys-dot/folder-graph-organizer
4. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community Plugins

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a folder: <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/folder-graph-organizer/
3. Copy the three files into that folder
4. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin

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Usage

First-time setup

1. Open the Folder Graph Organizer dashboard (ribbon icon or command palette)
2. Click "Create All Index Notes" to create an index in every folder
3. Click "Scan & Link Everything" to link all existing notes and canvases
4. Open Graph View — your vault is now organised into folder clusters

Ongoing use

With Auto-link on create enabled (default), any new note or canvas you create is automatically linked to its folder index. You don't need to run any commands manually.

Commands

Command	What it does
Create index note for current folder	Creates an index for the folder of the active note
Create index notes for all folders	Creates indexes for every folder that doesn't have one
Scan vault and link all notes	Links all existing notes and canvases to their folder indexes
Open Folder Graph dashboard	Opens the visual overview panel

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Graph View — color setup

Each index note is tagged with folder-color-1 through folder-color-8 based on the folder name. To make each folder cluster a different colour:

1. Open Graph View → click the sliders icon → Groups
2. Add a group, set the query to tag:folder-color-1, pick a colour
3. Repeat for folder-color-2 through folder-color-8
4. Add one more group: tag:folder-index with a large node size to make hubs stand out

The colour assigned to each folder is stable — it won't change unless you rename the folder.

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Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Backlink property	up	The inline property added to notes linking back to their index
Index note tag	folder-index	Tag applied to all index notes
Link subfolders to parent	On	Chains subfolder indexes to the parent index
Link canvas files	On	Adds canvas files to the folder index
Auto-link new files	On	Automatically links new notes and canvases on creation

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How it works

When you run Scan & Link Everything, the plugin:

1. Walks every folder in your vault (deepest first)
2. Creates an index note named FolderName.md inside the folder if one doesn't exist
3. Prepends up:: [[FolderName]] to every note in the folder
4. Adds [[CanvasName.canvas]] entries under ## Canvases in the index
5. Adds [[SubfolderName]] entries under ## Subfolders in the index
6. Links the subfolder's own index up to the parent with up:: [[ParentFolderName]]

All index notes include tags: [folder-index, folder-color-N] in their frontmatter so they can be targeted in Graph View groups.

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Building from source

git clone https://github.com/jacobbarcys-dot/folder-graph-organizer.git
cd folder-graph-organizer
npm install
node esbuild.config.mjs production

The compiled output is main.js. Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to your vault's plugin folder.

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License

MIT