Parent Property

Automatically sets the parent frontmatter property on new notes based on the source note where a wikilink was clicked.

[!WARNING] This plugin is provided as-is for personal use. The repository is public for anyone who wants to fork and adapt it. Please do not open issues for support or feature requests.

Features

🔗 Automatic parent linking — New notes created via wikilink get parent: [[SourceNote]]

🚫 Exclude by parent value — Skip parent assignment when source note's parent matches exclusion list

📁 Exclude child folders — Prevent parent property on notes in specific folders (e.g., templates, attachments)

🏷️ Always adds property — Ensures parent and tags frontmatter exist even when empty

How It Works

flowchart TD
    A[Click wikilink in Note A] --> B{Note exists?}
    B -->|No| C[Create new note]
    C --> D{New note in excluded folder?}
    D -->|Yes| E[Skip entirely]
    D -->|No| F{Note A's parent in exclusion list?}
    F -->|Yes| G[Add empty parent property]
    F -->|No| H[Set parent: Note A]

Usage

The plugin works automatically when you click on a wikilink to a non-existent note:

1. If clicking from [[Project A]] to create [[Task 1]]
2. Task 1.md gets parent: [[Project A]]

Configuration

Setting	Description
Excluded parent values	Source notes with matching parent values won't become parents themselves
Excluded child folders	New notes in these folders won't receive a parent property

Example: If you set reflections as an excluded parent value, clicking a wikilink from any note that has parent: [[reflections]] will create a new note with an empty parent property instead.

Installation

Manual

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the Releases page
2. Create .obsidian/plugins/parent-property/ in your vault
3. Place the files in that folder
4. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

BRAT

1. Install Obsidian42 - BRAT
2. Run BRAT: Add a beta plugin for testing
3. Enter this repository URL

License

MIT