Note Types

Note Types — Obsidian Plugin

Define custom note types in your vault. Each type gets creation commands, filtered file pickers, hover previews, styled wikilinks, and a sidebar widget — all driven by frontmatter.

Features

Note types
Define named types (e.g. Project, Person, Book) with a template, a save folder, and custom frontmatter fields. Each type registers two commands in the palette:

• Create new <Type> — opens a modal pre-filled with the type's fields, creates the file from the template, and inserts a [[wikilink]] if triggered from the editor.
• Find <Type> — opens a fuzzy picker scoped to files that match the type's frontmatter filters.

Note from selection
Select text in the editor, right-click (or use the editor menu), and choose Note from selection to create a typed note whose title is pre-filled with the selection. The selection is replaced with the new [[wikilink]].

If the selection is a bare URL and the note type has a Field for highlighted URL set (in its Creation fields section), the URL is written into that frontmatter field instead of becoming the title. With the optional Fetch page title from URL setting enabled, the plugin then makes one network request to the linked page and pre-fills the title with its og:title / <title>. That setting is off by default; when it is off, this feature makes no network requests.

Inline trigger
Set a single trigger character (e.g. @) in settings. Typing it in the editor opens a quick picker for any note type that has Show in trigger menu enabled.

Styled wikilinks
Enable Style note links on a note type to apply a CSS class (ffc-note-link) to every [[wikilink]] pointing at a file of that type — in both the editor and reading view. The underline is dropped and a pill background is applied. Set an optional Link color to tint those links: the text takes the color and the pill background becomes a translucent wash of it. Leave the color unset to follow the theme's tag colors, or pair with a CSS snippet for finer control.

Hover preview card
Enable Preview fields on a type and hovering a styled wikilink shows a popup card with those frontmatter values (and an optional image).

Relations
Right-click a note that belongs to a note type and choose Mark as… → <relation> → <note type> to pick another note and link the two. The link is written into both notes' frontmatter — under the relation's key on the note you marked, and under its reverse key on the target. A generic Related to relation is built in (symmetric, key related_to); define your own (e.g. Blocks / Blocked by) under Settings → Note Types → Relations. Unmark… on the same menu lists a note's existing relations and removes one from both sides.

Canvas
Canvas features (note cards, relations on edges, key images, ink and layers) live in the separate Canvas Plus plugin, which reads your note types and relations from this one. The Canvas card fields and Image on canvas cards settings on each note type apply there.

API for other plugins
Other plugins can read note types and relations, and write relations, through app.plugins.getPlugin('filtered-file-commands').api. See src/api.ts for what it offers.

Filtered file commands
Create arbitrary command-palette commands that open a fuzzy picker showing only files whose frontmatter matches your filters (AND / OR, with equals, not_equals, contains, exists operators). Optionally restrict to specific file extensions (e.g. md, canvas).

Filtered Files Widget
A sidebar panel (left ribbon → Filtered files) with collapsible, drag-reorderable sections. Each section has its own filter rules, sort order, and optional result limit. Supports tag, frontmatter, path, and filename filters.

Installation

1. Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css (if present) into <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/filtered-file-commands/.
2. Reload Obsidian.
3. Enable Note Types under Settings → Community plugins.

Settings

Open Settings → Note Types to configure:

• Filtered File Commands — custom palette commands with frontmatter filters.
• Trigger key — single character for the inline note picker (@ recommended).
• Templates folder — path to your templates folder (leave blank to auto-detect from the core Templates plugin).
• Fetch page title from URL — off by default. When on, creating a note from a highlighted URL fetches the linked page (one network request, 8-second timeout) to pre-fill the title.
• Note Types — define, edit, and delete your note types.
• Relations — define relation types (name, frontmatter key, reverse label/key). The built-in Related to can be re-keyed but not deleted.
• Filtered Files Widget — open the widget, set a display-name frontmatter key, or reset all sections.

Network use

The plugin has no telemetry and collects no data. Its only request of its own is Fetch page title from URL (off by default, see Settings above): one request to the linked page when you create a note from a highlighted URL.

The plugin never downloads images. But if a note's image is a web address (the property named by Image frontmatter key, or the first image in the note), Obsidian loads it from that address whenever the plugin shows it, on a hover preview card. That is a request from your device to the image's host, the same as for any image embedded from the web.

Development

npm install
npm run dev      # watch mode
npm run build    # type-check + production bundle
npm run lint     # ESLint

Output artifacts (main.js) are written to the plugin root. See AGENTS.md for conventions.

License

MIT