Alfred workflow with dozens of features for controlling your Obsidian vault.
β Featured in the Alfred Gallery.
This workflow requires Alfred 5 with Powerpack.
.alfredworkflow
file to install it.osetup
. Obsidian then restarts.The Alfred-based Quick Switcher is basically an enhanced version of Obsidian's Quick Switcher Core Plugin.
<img alt="promo video" width=70% src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/73286100/139678407-9ac39baa-5f49-42a0-9622-0fbaf68540b2.gif">
All the search features listed here do not directly search your vault, but rather use the metadata created by the Metadata Extractor Plugin on a regular basis. By default, this happens every 30 minutes, meaning recently created notes, recently renamed notes, or recent tag changes are not picked up at once. You can change the metadata refresh rate via the Metadata Extractor Plugin's settings.
o
: Open files in your vault.
This keyword searches all your notes, aliases, folders, and headings combined.
This works similar to Obsidian's built-in Quick Switcher, but can be triggered
without Obsidian running (in which case it opens Obsidian with the selected
note). Press β
to open the selected file in Obsidian.
β + β
: Open the file in a new tab. (Can be configured in the workflow
settings to open in a new window or split instead.)β₯ + β
: Reveal the file in Finder.fn + β
: Append the content to the selected note.β + β
: Copy the Obsidian-URI to the selected file.β§ + β
: Browse a list of all links of the selected note (outgoing links,
backlinks, external links.) See at the section "Browse Links"
below for further information.β§
or β y
to preview the selected note via macOS' Quick Look feature.
Press β§
or β y
again to close the preview. This feature requires
QLMarkdown or Peek being installed.o
-search respects the Excluded Files
setting from Obsidian and
ignore files and folders added there. (Regex-Filters do not work properly
though.)[!TIP] There are various settings for appending and opening notes, which can be found in the workflow configuration.
filename
or title
to your search query, to display only files and no
aliases, folders, or headings. For example, o obsidian filename
displays
only notes that have the obsidian
in their filename.canvas
to your search to only display canvases (Obsidian 1.1).starred
or recent
to your query.#tag
to your search query to search only for files with a
specific tag, for example, o foobar #moc
only displays notes with the name
foobar
that are also tagged with #moc
.## Smart Queriesfilename
or title
to your search query, to display only files and no
aliases, folders, or headings. For example, o obsidian filename
displays
only notes that have the obsidian
in their filename.canvas
to your search to only display canvases (Obsidian 1.1).starred
or recent
to your query.#tag
to your search query to search only for files with a
specific tag, for example, o foobar #moc
only displays notes with the name
foobar
that are also tagged with #moc
.This command also looks for aliases, when they are defined in the YAML-Header.
alias
to your search query, to only display aliases, for example, o obsidian alias
only displays notes that have the alias obsidian
.# Search
for Aliases
This command also looks for aliases, when they are defined in the
YAML-Header.alias
to your search query, to only display aliases, for example, o obsidian alias
only displays notes that have the alias obsidian
.When selecting a folder, you "browse" the selected folderβthis means that you are now searching only for files and folders inside that folder.
template_note_path
.folder
to your search query, to only display folders, for example, o foobar folder
only displays folder that have foobar
in their name...
or the new
to
quickly access the item for going up to the parent folder or creating a new
note in that folder, respectively.# Search for Folders
When selecting a folder, you "browse" the selected folderβthis means
that you are now searching only for files and folders inside that folder.template_note_path
.folder
to your search query, to only display folders, for example, o foobar folder
only displays folder that have foobar
in their name...
or the new
to
quickly access the item for going up to the parent folder or creating a new
note in that folder, respectively.Displayed alongside the other search results are all headings in your vault.
Selecting a heading with β
opens the file at the respective heading.
β + β
: Copies either a Markdown link that uses the Obsidian
URI
or the wikilink to the selected file, depending on the setting. Also work with
headings.heading
to your search query, to only display headings, for example, o foobar heading
only displays headings that include foobar
.h1
, h2
, β¦ to your search query, to only display headings of a certain
level, for example, o obsidian h2
only displays level 2 headings that
include obsidian
.[!TIP] Add more heading levels to
h_lvl_ignore
if your search results become too crowded.## Search for Headings Displayed alongside the other search results are all headings in your vault. Selecting a heading withβ
opens the file at the respective heading.
β + β
: Copies either a Markdown link that uses the Obsidian URI or the wikilink to the selected file, depending on the setting. Also work with headings.- Add
heading
to your search query, to only display headings, for example,o foobar heading
only displays headings that includefoobar
.- Add
h1
,h2
, β¦ to your search query, to only display headings of a certain level, for example,o obsidian h2
only displays level 2 headings that includeobsidian
.- You can ignore certain (or all) heading levels with the respective workflow configuration.
[!TIP] Add more heading levels to
h_lvl_ignore
if your search results become too crowded.
Use β§ + β
on any search result of the main o
search to browse the links of
that note
β/β/β₯/fn/β§ + β
) apply the same way as with the main
o
search.β§ + β
to basically traverse
your graph via Alfred. πβ
opens the link in the default browser.β₯ + β
on an external link to copy the URL to the clipboard
instead.ot
: Search t
ags and subsequently files with that tag
β
to display & search all notes with that tag.β/β/β₯/fn/β§ + β
)
apply the same way as they do with the o
search.β + β
instead to open Obsidian's search pane and search for the
tag there.ob
: Search b
ookmarked Files and Searches
β/β/β₯/fn/β§ + β
) apply
the same way as with the main o
search.or
: Open r
ecent Files
β/β/β₯/fn/β§ + β
) apply the same way as with the main o
search.oa
: a
ttachments
β
opens
the selected files in your default app. (Obsidian itself is not opened.)β/β/β₯ + β
and the previewing (β§
or βy
) work the same way
as with the main o
search.β§ + β
, however, works differently: it opens the file in Obsidian, if
Obsidian is able to open
them. (If not,
the file simply is opened in your default app.)oe
: Search all e
xternal links in your entire vault
β
: Opens the link in the browser.cmd + β
: Reveal the link in Obsidian.alt + β
: Copies the URL to the clipboard.You can prepend or append icons to the results of any search based on the notes' tags, similar to the Supercharged Links Plugin.
Supercharged Icons
.,
. Use ,,
so that the emoji gets appended instead
of prepended.Example
coding,π»
person,π€
seedling,,π±
pkm,π§ ,π‘
β¦results in:
π» Filename1
π€ Filename2
Filename3 π±
π§ Filename4 π‘
When the "Privacy Mode" checkbox is enabled, all notes with the cssclass
private
are censored when performing a search. This setting is meant to be
enabled temporarily, for example during screen-sharing.
The main search (o
) can also be used as Fallback Search for
Alfred,
basically a search that shows up when any Alfred search has no result.
To avoid accidentally triggering the Quick Look feature, it is suggested you
turn off activating QuickLook via shift and use β + Y
instead. You can do so
with in the Alfred Settings under Features β Previews
:
QLmarkdown and
Peek both
enable previewing of Markdown documents. Peek works with a wide range of other
file types than Markdown, but costs around β¬5. QLMarkdown
is free, but only
works for Markdown and requires some minor setup.
on
: Create a n
ew note.
on
(for example, on foobar
) becomes the file name of the new note (for example, foobar.md
).
(Note that the Filename Heading Sync
Plugin may
interfere with this.)
cmd + β
, the new note is created in a new tab.{{title}}
is supported as placeholder and is replaced
with the file name. Be aware that the template might be overridden by Folder
Templates from the Templater
plugin.oo
or triggered via hotkey
: Append to your Scratchpad Note
fn + β
mode of the Alfred-based Quick
Switcher.)
oo foobar
, appends foobar
to the note.#foobar
(for example, Inbox/Scratchpad-Note#Thoughts
) to
path of the scratchpad file in the workflow configuration, the text is
appended to the section with the heading "foobar."[!TIP] There are various settings for the scratchpad in the workflow configuration. You can, for instance, use Alfred's Dynamic Placeholders to prefix the current date and time.
Triggered via Hotkey
: Take an OCR Screenshot.
β β§ + 4
, you are able to select part
of your screen for a screenshot. However, instead of saving a screenshot, a
new note is created which contains the OCR'ed content of the selection.eng+deu
for English and German. You can find out
the
code for your languages in this
list.Requirement
For the OCR-Screenshot Feature, you need to install
Tesseract. If you
use Homebrew, you can do so with the following command:
brew install tesseract tesseract-lang
[!TIP] The first time you use the OCR or image screenshot feature, you might need to give Alfred permission to record your screen. You can do so under the macOS system settings.
![]()
Triggered via Hotkey
: Take an image screenshot.
β β§ + 4
, you are able to select part
of your screen for a screenshot. The image is directly saved in your
vault with the file name Screenshot {date} {time}.png
and the image is
embedded (![[image_file_name.png]]
) in the note Images.md
in your vault
root.{vault-path}/screenshots/
by default. You can
use the workflow configuration to specify a folder in your vault where to save
the images instead.Images.md
already exists in your vault root, any subsequent
screenshots are instead appended to this note. This is intended for taking
screenshots in quick succession, for instance during a live lecture or
presentation.ow
: Switch to a different w
orkspace
<img alt="workspace" width=60% src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/73286100/133615940-a56731e5-6b60-4d28-b877-7ea48d10225e.gif">
ov
: Open V
aults in Obsidian, Finder, or the Terminal
β
to open it in Obsidian.β β
opens the root of the selected vault in your default Terminal. You can
change the default terminal in the Alfred
Settings.β₯ β
opens the root in Finder.β§ β
Control this vault with Alfred.[!NOTE] The
Metadata Extractor
and theAdvanced URI
plugin need to be installed in every vault you want to control, andosetup
needs to be run once.
obackup
: Create a backup
of your vault.
max_number_of_bkps
) to prevent taking up too much disk space.
When the number is reached, every new backup causes the oldest backup to be
deleted..obsidian
and .trash
are included in the backup, the
.git
folder is excluded.tell application id "com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred"
run trigger "backup-obsidian" in workflow
"de.chris-grieser.shimmering-obsidian"
end tell
# pass 'no sound' as argument to turn off backup confirmation sound
[!WARNING] Please be aware that this is a simplistic backup solution. While I did not have any problems with it, this workflow comes without any warranties, as stated in the license. If you want 100% safety, please use a professional backup solution.
ocss
: Access your css
files.
o.obsidian
: The hidden .obsidian
folder located in your vault root is
opened in Finder.o.trash
: Open the hidden .trash
folder located in
your vault root is opened in Finder. (Note that you have to select Move to Obsidian trash
in the Obsidian settings under the Files & Links
tab before
deleted files can be found here.)oapplicationsupport
: Open Obsidian's Application Support folder.oplugins
: The plugin folder in .obsidian
is opened in Finder.opthemes
: The theme folder in .obsidian
is opened in Finder.oupdate
: Update Plugins and Metadata used by this workflow
op
: combined Search of community p
lugins and community themes.
β
to open the plugin's GitHub repository.
β + β
to open .the plugin in Obsidian's Community Plugin Browser
instead.β₯ + β
to copy the plugin URI (obsidian://show-plugin?id=β¦
) to
your clipboard.ββ₯ + β
: Copy the plugin link together with a description.fn + β
: open the plugin's page at Obsidian
Stats.plugin
to the search query to only display plugin, for example, use op focus plugin
as search query to only display plugins with the term focus
.op
search also considers the name of the plugin's author, meaning the
query op JaneDoe
returns all plugins (and themes) authored by the user
JaneDoe
.op
: Combined Search of community p
lugins and community themes.
β
to open the theme's GitHub repository in the browser.
β + β
to open the theme browser instead. (There are no separate
theme pages in Obsidian Theme Browser that can be opened.)β₯ + β
to copy the theme URI (obsidian://show-theme?id=β¦
) to your
clipboard.ββ₯ + β
: Copy the plugin link together with a description.β§
or β + Y
to open a Quick Look Preview of the theme's promo
screenshot. Press β§
or β + Y
again to close the preview.fn + β
to open the theme's page at Obsidian
Stats.theme
to the search query to only display themes, for instance use op focus theme
as search query to only display themes with the term focus
.op
search also considers the name of the theme's author, meaning the
query op JaneDoe
returns all themes (and plugins) authored by the user
JaneDoe
.<img alt="plugin search" width=60% src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/73286100/131027623-5e8b3667-d00d-47dc-ba49-6938686e2aca.gif">
o,
: Search and directly open specific setting tabs.[^1]
β
to open the
respective setting directly.β₯ + β
opens the local plugin folder in .obsidian/plugins/
in Finder.β§ + β
enables/disables the plugin.β + β
opens the local plugin folder in your default Terminal.
(You can change the default terminal in the Alfred
Settings.)β + β
copies the plugin's ID. (Hold β
to see the plugin's id.)fn + β
runs git pull
in the plugin's directory.[!TIP]
o,
refers to theβ ,
shortcut used to open the settings.
**oh
: Search the official Obsidian help
(documentation)
β
to open in your default browser.β₯ + β
to copy the link to your clipboard.odv
: Search the
dataview documentation.
β
to open in your default browser.β₯ + β
to copy the link to your clipboard.odd
: o
bsidian d
eveloper d
ocumentation Search
Search the official Obsidian developer docs.
o
: All notesoe
: All external linksot
: Tagsob
: Bookmarked files/searchesor
: Recent filesoa
: Attachmentsoo
: Append/open to scratchpadon
: New noteow
: Workspace switcherov
: Vault switcheroh
: Documentation searchop
: Search plugins/themeso,:
Search settings and installed pluginsocss
: Open CSS snippetsIn my day job, I am a sociologist studying the social mechanisms underlying the digital economy. For my PhD project, I investigate the governance of the app economy and how software ecosystems manage the tension between innovation and compatibility. If you are interested in this subject, feel free to get in touch.
[!IMPORTANT] Note that for questions, bug reports, or feature requests for this workflow, please open a GitHub issue, since it is better suited for technical support.
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