Vault Commander

A blue, dual-panel orthodox file manager for Obsidian — inspired by the classic DOS file commanders of the late 80s/90s. Two panels side by side, full keyboard control, and the iconic blue screen with double-line borders.

Vault Commander gives you a fast, keyboard-driven way to browse, copy, move, rename and preview the notes and attachments inside your vault — all through Obsidian's own vault API.

Scope: Vault Commander works entirely within your vault. It uses only Obsidian's vault API — it does not touch files outside the vault, run shell commands, or use Node filesystem access. Runs on desktop and mobile.

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Features

• Two panels, active panel highlighted, Tab to switch.
• Panel views — each panel can be set (via the Left / Right pull-down menu) to Brief (the file list), Info (file/folder counts and an optional dirinfo file for the other panel), Tree (a folder tree that drives the other panel) or Quick view (a live text/image preview of the file under the other panel's cursor).
• Sorting — per panel, by Name / Extension / Time / Size / Unsorted (Ctrl+F3…Ctrl+F7 or the Left / Right menu); the active column is marked with ▾ in the header.
• Panel layouts — Full (Name / Size / Date) or Wide (names only, in multiple columns; ←→ move between columns), per panel.
• Quick filter — just start typing to jump to the matching entry; the same letter again jumps to the next match; Esc clears it.
• Bookmarks (Ctrl+D) — bookmark a folder and jump back any time (Enter = go, Ins = bookmark, Del = remove).
• Two themes — Commander Blue and Navigator Gray, switchable in the Options menu (or in the plugin settings).
• Overwrite prompts — copying / moving onto an existing file asks Overwrite / Overwrite all / Skip / Skip all / Rename / Cancel instead of silently overwriting; folders merge, prompting per conflicting file inside.
• Full keyboard control — arrows / PgUp / PgDn / Home / End, Enter to open, Backspace for parent.
• Function keys F3–F8 for View / Edit / Copy / Move-Rename / Mkdir / Delete (with confirmations).
• F2 user menu and F9 pull-down menu (Borland-style). Turn off Options → Hide menu to keep the menu bar permanently docked above the panels.
• Built-in viewer (F3) for text, images (png/jpg/gif/webp/…) and rendered Markdown preview. Hovering over an image shows an eyedropper with the pixel colour as a hex value (e.g. #3a421d).
• Markdown / canvas open directly in Obsidian (Enter = new tab, F4 = new tab).
• Folder sizes — mark a folder with Space to compute and show its total content size.
• Fullscreen — a configurable hotkey (default Cmd/Ctrl+F12) opens the Commander fullscreen, brings it to front if already open; F10 closes it.

Keyboard

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / PgUp PgDn / Home End	Move cursor
Enter	Enter folder / open file (.md → Obsidian tab)
Backspace	Parent folder (..)
Tab	Switch active panel
Space / Insert	Tag file/folder (folders get their size computed)
F2	User menu · F9 Pull-down menu, opens on the active panel's side (Tab/Esc to close)
F3 / F4	View / Edit
F5 / F6	Copy / Move·Rename to the other panel
F7 / F8	Make directory / Delete (confirmed)
Ctrl+F3…Ctrl+F7	Sort active panel: Name / Extension / Time / Size / Unsorted
F10	Close the Commander
Fullscreen hotkey	Open/bring-to-front fullscreen (default Cmd/Ctrl+F12, configurable)

macOS note: function keys may be claimed by the system. The on-screen function-key bar at the bottom is always clickable.

Settings

• Show hidden (dot) files
• Confirm deletions / confirm copies
• Theme (Commander Blue / Navigator Gray)
• Fullscreen hotkey (record your own combo)

Installation

Community plugins — (once approved) search for “Vault Commander” in Settings → Community plugins → Browse.

Via BRAT — add this repo as a beta plugin.

Manually

1. Download manifest.json, main.js and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Put them in <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/vault-commander/.
3. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin under Settings → Community plugins.

Credits

Inspired by the orthodox file managers of the DOS era. “Norton Commander” is a trademark of its respective owners; this project is an independent, original implementation and is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

License

MIT © Andre Hessler