Plugin Profiles

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Snapshot-based plugin enable-state profiles for Obsidian. Save the set of plugins you have enabled right now as Profile A or Profile B, then switch between them with one click — handy for keeping a heavy daily setup and a light focus setup side by side.

What it does

• Switch between Profile A and Profile B. Restores the enable/disable state recorded in that profile.
• Only the enabled state is stored. The plugin calls app.plugins.enablePlugin / disablePlugin — the same thing as flipping the toggle yourself in Settings → Community plugins. No plugin's data.json is ever read or written, so plugin settings, data and CSS snippets stay untouched.
• Plugins installed later are left alone. A profile records the set of installed plugins at the moment it was saved. Anything installed afterwards falls outside that scope and is never modified when switching.
• Pinned list for plugins that must never be switched off (e.g. remotely-save, obsidian-git). Plugin Profiles itself is always kept enabled.
• Preview before you act (N on / N off / N untouched / N pinned on each card) and a one-click undo.

Install

Option 1 — script (recommended)

git clone git@github.com:Jeff-clouds/obsidian-plugin-profiles.git
cd obsidian-plugin-profiles
./install.sh /path/to/your-vault      # the folder that contains .obsidian

Then in Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins, click the refresh button in the top-right corner (or restart), and enable Plugin Profiles.

Option 2 — manual

Copy manifest.json, main.js and styles.css into <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/plugin-profiles/, restart Obsidian, then enable the plugin.

Option 3 — BRAT

Add this repository with BRAT to track updates automatically.

Usage

Panel

Click the layers icon in the left ribbon (or the status-bar item). You get two cards:

• Switch to A — restore the state recorded in A
• Save as A — overwrite A with the current state

The N on / N off / N untouched / N pinned line on each card is an exact preview of what the click will do. An Undo last switch button sits at the bottom.

Commands and hotkeys

Bind hotkeys in Settings → Hotkeys for real one-key switching:

Command	Description
Plugin Profiles: Switch to profile A / B	Apply a snapshot
Plugin Profiles: Save current state as profile A / B	Overwrite a profile with the current state
Plugin Profiles: Show diff for profile A / B	List exactly what will be turned on, off, or left alone
Plugin Profiles: Undo last switch	Revert the previous switch
Plugin Profiles: Open panel	Same as clicking the ribbon icon

Suggested first run

1. Get to the plugin mix you use day to day, then Save as A.
2. Turn off a batch of plugins, leaving only your core set, then Save as B.
3. In Settings → Plugin Profiles → Pinned plugins, tick remotely-save, obsidian-git and anything else you never want switched off.
4. Bind hotkeys — done.

Later, when you install a plugin you want to keep enabled long-term: enable it and Save as A again. Profile B is unaffected.

Where your data lives

Item	Path
Profiles / pinned list / last switch	<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/plugin-profiles/data.json
The plugin itself	<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/plugin-profiles/

Re-running ./install.sh updates the code and never touches data.json.

Development

Plain JavaScript — no build step. main.js is the source; Obsidian loads it directly. No npm, no esbuild, no TypeScript.

manifest.json     Obsidian plugin manifest
main.js           all of the logic (single file)
styles.css        styles (Obsidian theme variables, light/dark aware)
versions.json     version → minimum Obsidian version
install.sh        install into a vault
test/             regression suite (stubbed Obsidian runtime)

Regression tests

Run after editing main.js — 10 cases against a stubbed Obsidian runtime:

./test/run.sh

Covers: saving A/B, an A→B→A round trip, plugins installed later are never modified, the pinned list, undo, self-protection, refusing to switch to an empty profile, plus a static check that the source contains no call that writes to the vault or to any plugin config.

Known limitations

• Desktop only (isDesktopOnly: true).
• Uses the unofficial app.plugins.enablePlugin / disablePlugin / enabledPlugins API. This is standard practice among community plugins, but a major Obsidian upgrade could break it.
• If a plugin fails to load (e.g. a missing dependency), the failure is caught and reported without aborting the whole switch.
• Do not manage the same set of plugins with another plugin that also takes over enable/disable — the two would overwrite each other.

License

MIT