# The Must-Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026
In this article, I'll list my favorite plugins for [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/). Most of those are part of my Obsidian Starter Kit:
LINK: [Obsidian Starter Kit](https://www.store.dsebastien.net/product/obsidian-starter-kit)
## Introduction
[[Obsidian]] has a really large community and a huge library of [[Obsidian Community Plugins|community plugins]] (2700+ at the time I'm updating this).
Those plugins really add a lot of value to Obsidian and make for a much better user experience. Exploring those [can be daunting](https://obsidian-plugin-stats.vercel.app/plugins). Let me spare you some time and introduce you to the very best plugins out there!
A word of warning though: **you don't need plugins to get started**. Those improve and empower existing workflows, but **none are actually mandatory**. If you're just getting started, things simple. You can add some plugins over time, but don't waste your time in the beginning, and instead focus on what matters: taking and making notes!
And when you get started, do focus on [[Obsidian Core Plugins]]
LINKS:
- https://www.dsebastien.net/ten-personal-knowledge-management-practices-to-explore-and-master/
- [[2023-05-19-ten-personal-knowledge-management-practices-to-explore-and-master]]
- https://www.store.dsebastien.net/product/knowledge-management-for-beginners//
## Explore Obsidian
Before you even think about plugins, do make sure you first learn about the core features of Obsidian.
Here's a free workshop I've recorded:
## How to find Obsidian plugins
First of all, keep in mind that this list is opinionated. There are many many more plugins out there. So let me first tell you where you can find additional ones.
There are various ways to discover valuable Obsidian plugins. First of all, you can use the official community plugins list:
LINK: https://community.obsidian.md/
Second, you can use the Obsidian Plugin Stats website to explore popular plugins, search by tags, etc:
LINK: https://obsidian-plugin-stats.ganesshkumar.com
If you're a geek like me, you can keep an eye on the official plugins list, which is defined in this JSON file:
LINK: https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/blob/master/community-plugins.json
And if you're a nerd like me, you can also ask AI to list all the recent plugins by simply pointing it to the link above.
You can even have more fun and analyze the raw plugin stats to discover popular/trending plugins:
LINK: https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases/blob/master/community-plugin-stats.json
## TL;DR
Here are my 15 favorite plugins:
<!-- QueryToSerialize: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND best = true AND type != "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
<!-- SerializedQuery: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND best = true AND type != "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
| Name | Description | Details |
| ------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Auto note mover | Automatically move notes to folders based on rules | [[Auto note mover plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Book Exporter | Export books written in Obsidian (one manifest note + linked chapter notes) to EPUB and PDF via Pandoc | [[Book Exporter plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Dataview | Query, filter, and display vault data with a query language | [[Dataview plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Dataview Serializer | Serialize Dataview queries to actual Markdown | [[Dataview Serializer plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Excalidraw | Full-featured drawing and diagramming tool | [[Excalidraw plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Ghost Publish | Publish vault notes to a Ghost blog with configurable presets for tags, newsletters, and frontmatter conventions | [[Ghost Publish plugin for Obsidian]] |
| internetVin Terminal | Embedded pseudo-terminal for Obsidian with full zsh shell, multiple tabs, session persistence, and vault-aware features like wikilink autocomplete. macOS only. | [[internetVin Terminal plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Journal Bases | Journal tracking with database views | [[Journal Bases plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Kanban | Create Kanban boards in Obsidian | [[Kanban plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Life Tracker | Track life metrics and habits | [[Life Tracker plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Local backup | Create automatic local backups of vault | [[Local backup plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Notebook Navigator | Navigate between notes like a notebook | [[Notebook Navigator plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Omnisearch | Full-text search across entire vault | [[Omnisearch plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Periodic notes | Create and manage periodic notes | [[Periodic notes plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Quick Switcher plus plus | Enhanced quick switcher with more features | [[Quick Switcher plus plus plugin for Obsidian]] |
| QuickAdd | Quickly add content to vault with macros | [[QuickAdd plugin for Obsidian]] |
| TaskNotes | Link tasks to dedicated notes | [[TaskNotes plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Templater | Powerful templating engine for Obsidian | [[Templater plugin for Obsidian]] |
<!-- SerializedQuery END -->
And here are the best utility plugins I recommend:
<!-- QueryToSerialize: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND best_utils = true AND type != "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
<!-- SerializedQuery: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND best_utils = true AND type != "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
| Name | Description | Details |
| ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Doubleshift | Quick file switcher with double shift press | [[Doubleshift plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Folder note | Create and manage folder notes | [[Folder note plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Image Context Menus | Context menu actions for images | [[Image Context Menus plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Linter | Lint and format Markdown files | [[Linter plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Metadata Menu | Manage note metadata with custom menus | [[Metadata Menu plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Obsidian Starter Kit | The core Obsidian Starter Kit plugin — strong typing, automation, and AI-friendly metadata for your notes | [[Obsidian Starter Kit plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Paste image renamer | Auto-rename pasted images | [[Paste image renamer plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Remarkable Synchronizer | Sync reMarkable notebook pages as images into Obsidian | [[reMarkable Sync plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Reveal Active File Button | Button to reveal active file in explorer | [[Reveal Active File Button plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Simple embeds | Clean embeds for external content | [[Simple embeds plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Time Machine | Browse and restore previous versions of notes | [[Time Machine plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Transcriber | Transcribe images to Markdown using local Ollama vision models | [[Transcriber plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Various complements | Auto-complete suggestions from vault content | [[Various complements plugin for Obsidian]] |
<!-- SerializedQuery END -->
And here's the full list of plugins covered in this article:
<!-- QueryToSerialize: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND recommended = true AND type != "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
<!-- SerializedQuery: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND recommended = true AND type != "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
| Name | Description | Details |
| ------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| AdvancedURI | Allows controlling Obsidian via custom URI schemes | [[AdvancedURI plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Auto note mover | Automatically move notes to folders based on rules | [[Auto note mover plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Banners | Add banner images to notes | [[Banners plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Book Exporter | Export books written in Obsidian (one manifest note + linked chapter notes) to EPUB and PDF via Pandoc | [[Book Exporter plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Book search | Search and add book metadata to notes | [[Book search plugin for Obsidian]] |
| BRAT | Beta Reviewers Auto-update Tester for plugins | [[BRAT plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Broken Links | Find and fix broken links in your vault | [[Broken Links plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Clear unused images | Find and remove unused images from vault | [[Clear unused images plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Datacore | Next-generation data engine for Obsidian | [[Datacore plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Dataview | Query, filter, and display vault data with a query language | [[Dataview plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Dataview Serializer | Serialize Dataview queries to actual Markdown | [[Dataview Serializer plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Dictionary | Look up words and definitions inline | [[Dictionary plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Doubleshift | Quick file switcher with double shift press | [[Doubleshift plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Editing Toolbar | Toolbar to edit more easily | [[Editing toolbar plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Excalidraw | Full-featured drawing and diagramming tool | [[Excalidraw plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Expander | Expand search queries inline in notes | [[Expander plugin for Obsidian]] |
| External Links | Manage external links in your vault | [[External Links plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Extract URL | Extract and format URLs from text | [[Extract URL plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Find unlinked files | Find orphaned and unlinked files in vault | [[Find unlinked files plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Focus Mode | Distraction-free writing mode | [[Focus Mode plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Fold Properties By Default | Automatically fold properties in notes | [[Fold Properties By Default plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Folder note | Create and manage folder notes | [[Folder note plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Ghost Publish | Publish vault notes to a Ghost blog with configurable presets for tags, newsletters, and frontmatter conventions | [[Ghost Publish plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Git | Backup and version control vault with Git | [[Git plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Graph banner | Display graph view as a note banner | [[Graph banner plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Graph Explorer Base View | Interactive force-directed graph view for Obsidian Bases with exploration tracking | [[Graph Explorer Base View plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Heatmap calendar | Visualize activity with a heatmap calendar | [[Heatmap calendar plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Hidden Folders Access | Expose hidden dot-folders (.claude, .github, ...) to Obsidian without renaming them on disk | [[Hidden Folders Access plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Hider | Hide UI elements for a cleaner interface | [[Hider plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Homepage | Open a specific note or view on startup | [[Homepage plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Iconize | Add icons to files and folders | [[Iconize plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Image Context Menus | Context menu actions for images | [[Image Context Menus plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Image in editor | Enhanced image display in editor mode | [[Image in editor plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Insta Toc | Instant table of contents for notes | [[Insta Toc plugin for Obsidian]] |
| internetVin Terminal | Embedded pseudo-terminal for Obsidian with full zsh shell, multiple tabs, session persistence, and vault-aware features like wikilink autocomplete. macOS only. | [[internetVin Terminal plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Journal Bases | Journal tracking with database views | [[Journal Bases plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Kanban | Create Kanban boards in Obsidian | [[Kanban plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Life Tracker | Track life metrics and habits | [[Life Tracker plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Linter | Lint and format Markdown files | [[Linter plugin for Obsidian]] |
| List Modified | Track recently modified files in a list | [[List Modified plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Local backup | Create automatic local backups of vault | [[Local backup plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Maps | Display interactive maps in notes | [[Maps plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Metadata Menu | Manage note metadata with custom menus | [[Metadata Menu plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Mindmap | Create mind maps from Markdown lists | [[Mindmap plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Multi Tag | Add multiple tags to notes at once | [[Multi Tag plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Natural language dates | Parse and insert dates using natural language | [[Natural language dates plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Notebook Navigator | Navigate between notes like a notebook | [[Notebook Navigator plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Notes refactor | Split, merge, and refactor notes | [[Notes refactor plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Obsidian CLI REST MCP | Obsidian plugin exposing CLI commands via REST API and MCP server | [[Obsidian CLI REST MCP plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Obsidian Plugin Template (Bun) | AI-ready GitHub template to scaffold Obsidian community plugins with Bun, TypeScript, Tailwind v4, and automated releases | [[Obsidian Plugin Template (Bun)]] |
| Obsidian Starter Kit | The core Obsidian Starter Kit plugin — strong typing, automation, and AI-friendly metadata for your notes | [[Obsidian Starter Kit plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Omnisearch | Full-text search across entire vault | [[Omnisearch plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Outliner | Enhanced outlining and list manipulation | [[Outliner plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Pandoc | Export notes using Pandoc converters | [[Pandoc plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Pane relief | Enhanced pane navigation and management | [[Pane relief plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Paste image renamer | Auto-rename pasted images | [[Paste image renamer plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Paste URL into selection | Paste URLs directly onto selected text | [[Paste URL into selection plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Periodic notes | Create and manage periodic notes | [[Periodic notes plugin for Obsidian]] |
| ProgressBar | Add progress bars to notes | [[ProgressBar plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Quick Switcher plus plus | Enhanced quick switcher with more features | [[Quick Switcher plus plus plugin for Obsidian]] |
| QuickAdd | Quickly add content to vault with macros | [[QuickAdd plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Quiet Outline | Clean and quiet outline sidebar | [[Quiet Outline plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Recent files | Quick access to recently opened files | [[Recent files plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Remarkable Synchronizer | Sync reMarkable notebook pages as images into Obsidian | [[reMarkable Sync plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Remember Cursor Position | Remember and restore cursor position | [[Remember Cursor Position plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Reveal Active File Button | Button to reveal active file in explorer | [[Reveal Active File Button plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Review | Schedule notes for periodic review | [[Review plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Rollover daily todos | Carry over incomplete daily todos | [[Rollover daily todos plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Search in canvas | Search within canvas files | [[Search in canvas plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Sentinel | Monitor vault changes and notifications | [[Sentinel plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Settings search | Search through Obsidian settings | [[Settings search plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Simple embeds | Clean embeds for external content | [[Simple embeds plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Smart random note | Open random notes with smart filtering | [[Smart random note plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Smart Typography | Replace common character patterns with typographically correct equivalents | [[Smart Typography plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Table Editor | Editor for Markdown tables | [[Table Editor plugin for Obsidian]] |
| TaskNotes | Link tasks to dedicated notes | [[TaskNotes plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Tasks | Advanced task management across the vault | [[Tasks plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Templater | Powerful templating engine for Obsidian | [[Templater plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Terminal | Terminal emulator inside Obsidian | [[Terminal plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Text extractor | Extract text from images and PDFs | [[Text extractor plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Text Snippets | Insert reusable text snippets | [[Text Snippets plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Text transporter | Move and copy text blocks between notes | [[Text transporter plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Time Machine | Browse and restore previous versions of notes | [[Time Machine plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Timeline for Bases | Gantt-style timeline view for Obsidian Bases | [[Timeline for Bases plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Tomorrow's daily note | Create and navigate to tomorrow's daily note | [[Tomorrow's daily note plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Transcriber | Transcribe images to Markdown using local Ollama vision models | [[Transcriber plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Update time | Automatically update modification timestamps | [[Update time plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Various complements | Auto-complete suggestions from vault content | [[Various complements plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Zoom | Zoom into headings and list items | [[Zoom plugin for Obsidian]] |
<!-- SerializedQuery END -->
## Built-in Obsidian plugins
Obsidian comes out of the box with a set of "core" plugins that are disabled by default. You can enable/disable those through the options, under "Core plugins". Many of those are **super useful**.
Here are the core plugins I strongly recommend using:
<!-- QueryToSerialize: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND recommended = true AND type = "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
<!-- SerializedQuery: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND recommended = true AND type = "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
| Name | Description | Details |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Backlinks | Show links from other notes to the current one | [[Backlinks core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Bases | Create database-like views of your notes with filters and formulas | [[Bases core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Bookmarks | Save and organize links to files, headings, searches, and blocks | [[Bookmarks core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Canvas | Create visual boards with cards, notes, and connections | [[Canvas core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Command palette | Search and execute any Obsidian command quickly | [[Command palette core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| File explorer | See the files and folders in the vault | [[File explorer core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| File recovery | Recover previous versions of notes from local snapshots | [[File recovery core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Format converter | Convert Markdown from other applications to Obsidian format | [[Format converter core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Graph view | View a graph that displays links between notes | [[Graph view core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Importer | Import notes from other apps like Evernote, Notion, and more | [[Importer core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Map view | Display notes with location data on an interactive map | [[Map view core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Note composer | Manipulate notes by merging, splitting, and refactoring | [[Note composer core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Outgoing links | Show links from the current note to other ones | [[Outgoing links core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Outline | Display the outline of the current note | [[Outline core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Page preview | Preview the content of links by pressing Ctrl/Cmd while hovering | [[Page preview core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Properties view | Browse and manage all properties used across the vault | [[Properties view core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Quick switcher | Quickly open any file in the vault by name | [[Quick switcher core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Random note | Open a random note from the vault | [[Random note core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Search | Full-text search across all notes in the vault | [[Search core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Slash commands | Trigger commands by typing a slash in the editor | [[Slash commands core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Tags view | Browse all tags used in the vault in a tree view | [[Tags view core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Web viewer | Open external links within Obsidian | [[Web viewer core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Workspaces | Save and restore workspace layouts | [[Workspaces core plugin for Obsidian]] |
<!-- SerializedQuery END -->
Full list:
<!-- QueryToSerialize: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND type = "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
<!-- SerializedQuery: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND type = "Built-in" SORT file.name ASC -->
| Name | Description | Details |
| ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Audio recorder | Easily record audio from Obsidian and add the recording as attachment | [[Audio recorder core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Backlinks | Show links from other notes to the current one | [[Backlinks core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Bases | Create database-like views of your notes with filters and formulas | [[Bases core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Bookmarks | Save and organize links to files, headings, searches, and blocks | [[Bookmarks core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Canvas | Create visual boards with cards, notes, and connections | [[Canvas core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Command palette | Search and execute any Obsidian command quickly | [[Command palette core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Daily notes | Create and open daily notes automatically | [[Daily notes core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| File explorer | See the files and folders in the vault | [[File explorer core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| File recovery | Recover previous versions of notes from local snapshots | [[File recovery core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Format converter | Convert Markdown from other applications to Obsidian format | [[Format converter core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Graph view | View a graph that displays links between notes | [[Graph view core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Importer | Import notes from other apps like Evernote, Notion, and more | [[Importer core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Map view | Display notes with location data on an interactive map | [[Map view core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Note composer | Manipulate notes by merging, splitting, and refactoring | [[Note composer core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Outgoing links | Show links from the current note to other ones | [[Outgoing links core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Outline | Display the outline of the current note | [[Outline core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Page preview | Preview the content of links by pressing Ctrl/Cmd while hovering | [[Page preview core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Properties view | Browse and manage all properties used across the vault | [[Properties view core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Publish | Publish notes through Obsidian Publish | [[Publish core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Quick switcher | Quickly open any file in the vault by name | [[Quick switcher core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Random note | Open a random note from the vault | [[Random note core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Search | Full-text search across all notes in the vault | [[Search core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Slash commands | Trigger commands by typing a slash in the editor | [[Slash commands core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Slides | Create presentation slides from Markdown notes | [[Slides core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Sync | Synchronize files across devices using Obsidian Sync | [[Sync core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Tags view | Browse all tags used in the vault in a tree view | [[Tags view core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Templates | Insert pre-defined templates into notes | [[Templates core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Unique note creator | Create notes with unique timestamp-based names | [[Unique note creator core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Web viewer | Open external links within Obsidian | [[Web viewer core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Word count | Display the word and character count | [[Word count core plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Workspaces | Save and restore workspace layouts | [[Workspaces core plugin for Obsidian]] |
<!-- SerializedQuery END -->
As I said, there are MANY more, and new ones pop up regularly. Feel free to explore: https://obsidian-plugin-stats.ganesshkumar.com/tags/ai
## Journaling & Life Tracking
### Periodic notes
Using the periodic notes plugin, you can easily create periodic notes (i.e., daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly notes).
You can associate a specific template with each periodicity (e.g. a template for daily notes, another for weekly notes, etc). This plugin is also well integrated with the calendar plugin above. When you click on a date in the calendar, it creates the corresponding daily note.
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - periodic notes.png|Daily note header with wikilinks to previous day, current week, and current month]]
With this plugin, [journaling](https://www.dsebastien.net/tag/journaling/) is much easier to do on a regular basis, and so are weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly [periodic reviews](https://www.dsebastien.net/blog//2022-05-16-periodic-reviews)
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - periodic notes config.png|Daily Notes settings: date format, template path, and folder location for new notes]]
Details: [[Periodic notes plugin for Obsidian]]
### Journal Bases
This is a plugin I've created to help navigate and manage your journal and periodic reviews with purpose-built [[Obsidian Bases|Obsidian Base]] views.
This plugin adds two custom view types for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly notes.
Periodic notes view:
![[Journal Bases plugin for Obsidian - periodic notes view.png|Kanban board of periodic notes filtered by daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly]]
Periodic Review view:
![[Journal Bases plugin for Obsidian - periodic review view.png|Periodic notes view showing daily, weekly, and monthly achievements side by side]]
Overview:
Details: [[Journal Bases plugin for Obsidian]]
### Life Tracker
Capture and visualize the data that matters in your life. This Obsidian plugin adds a "Life Tracker" [[Obsidian Bases|Obsidian Base]] type that transforms your tracked data into beautiful visualizations.
![[Life Tracker plugin for Obsidian - visualizations.png|Life Tracker dashboard: stress, energy, evening energy, and abs metrics over time]]
- **12 visualization types**: Heatmap, Line, Bar, Area, Pie, Doughnut, Radar, Polar Area, Scatter, Bubble, Tag Cloud, Timeline
- **GitHub-style heatmaps** with 5 color schemes (green, blue, purple, orange, red)
- **Animated charts** with configurable duration and play/pause controls
- **Interactive elements**: click chart elements to open source notes, hover for detailed tooltips
It also includes support for efficient data capture:
![[Life Tracker plugin for Obsidian - specific note modal.png|Life Tracker habit slider: rating today's sleep quality on a 1 to 13 scale]]
![[Life Tracker plugin for Obsidian - life tracking grid.png|Life Tracker log: daily sleep, stress, coffee, energy, focus, and mood entries]]
Overview:
Details: [[Life Tracker plugin for Obsidian]]
### Rollover daily todos
If your list of tasks for the day is part of your daily notes (which I highly recommend for clarity & focus), then this plugin is a must-have. It will automatically copy the incomplete tasks to the list of the next day. This makes it a breeze to continue where you left things off.
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - rollover daily todos.png|Rollover Daily Todos settings showing target heading and rollover behavior toggles]]
Details: [[Rollover daily todos plugin for Obsidian]]
### Heatmap Calendar
Generate GitHub like heatmaps based on [[Dataview plugin for Obsidian|Dataview]] queries.
Using this plugin, you can generate heatmaps just like the activity one on GitHub user profiles. This works by using a Dataview query to select pages to include, and constructing an array containing the data to render.
This is great to track your progress in various domains (e.g., exercise, meditation, eliminating bad habits, etc).
Details: [[Heatmap calendar plugin for Obsidian]]
### Tomorrow's daily note
Easily open tomorrow's daily note.
Also less useful if you're using the [[Notebook Navigator plugin for Obsidian]] since it enables doing the same through its built-in calendar view.
Details: [[Tomorrow's daily note plugin for Obsidian]]
## Task Management
### TaskNotes
Task and note management plugin built on the principle of "one note per task". It stores task information in note properties (i.e., YAML frontmatter), enabling compatibility with other plugins and external tools while maintaining full portability.
With this plugin, any task can be converted to a dedicated note, which can store details about the why, the what, the timing, the priority, etc.
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - tasknotes - kanban.png|TaskNotes Kanban board in Obsidian showing tasks grouped by timeframe columns]]
Caption: TaskNotes Kanban board
TaskNotes includes the following capabilities:
- **Task Properties**: Each task can include a title, status, priority, due date, scheduled date, contexts, tags, time estimate, and recurrence pattern. You can also add custom fields.
- **Time Tracking**: A time tracking feature allows you to record the amount of time that you spend on tasks. This data is stored in the task's frontmatter as time entries with start and stop times.
- **View Types**: Eight different views are provided: Task List, Notes, Agenda, Kanban, Mini Calendar, Advanced Calendar, Pomodoro, and Pomodoro Stats.
- **Editor Integration**: Inline task widgets display task information within your notes. An instant conversion feature transforms checkbox tasks into TaskNotes. A natural language parser can interpret phrases to create structured tasks.
- **Calendar Integration**: The plugin can subscribe to external ICS calendars from Google Calendar, Outlook, and other calendar systems. Time-blocking features are also included.
- **External Tool Compatibility**: The YAML frontmatter format is compatible with other Obsidian plugins and can be processed by external tools.
In my approach, everything is a note, including goals, plans, projects, and thanks to this plugins, tasks as well!
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - tasknotes - task.png|Obsidian note title bar showing task status circles for Configure Omarchy on Laptop]]
Caption: Task display with control button
![[2026-02-12 - tasknotes task details.png|TaskNotes edit panel with title, contexts, time estimate, and action details fields]]
Caption: Task details
Details: [[TaskNotes plugin for Obsidian]]
### Kanban
This plugin enables creating and managing tasks using markdown-backed [[Kanban Boards]].
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - kanban plugin board.png|Obsidian Kanban Board plugin view with backlog, bugs, short plays, in progress and done columns]]
While the [[TaskNotes plugin for Obsidian]] also provides a Kanban view, I still like the simplicity that this plugin provides (just a list of Markdown cards). Actually, this simple Kanban Board may include links to TaskNote tasks, closing the gap between more advanced tasks with details/background and simple TODOs.
Details: [[Kanban plugin for Obsidian]]
### Tasks
The Obsidian Tasks plugin helps you track tasks across your Obsidian vault. It supports due dates, recurring tasks, querying, filtering, etc. This plugin, combined with the [[Kanban plugin for Obsidian]] and the [[TaskNotes plugin for Obsidian]] is a killer combo.
Details: [[Tasks plugin for Obsidian]]
## Querying & Data
### Dataview
Dataview is one of the most powerful Obsidian plugins out there. Using it, you can add queries to your notes to fetch information from anywhere in your knowledge base based on location, tags, property values, etc.
To give you an idea of how powerful it is, take a look at these examples, taken directly from the [Obsidian Starter Kit](https://www.store.dsebastien.net/product/obsidian-starter-kit).
Find quotes corresponding to a specific author:
`LIST FROM #quotes and [[2020-04-20-2020-04-20-quickly-amend-a-git-commit]] SORT file.name ASC`
Find recently modified notes:
```
$=dv.list(dv.pages('').sort(f=>f.file.mtime.ts,"desc").limit(5).file.link)
```
Find orphan notes:
```
TABLE file.ctime AS "updated"
FROM ""
WHERE length(file.inlinks) = 0 AND length(file.outlinks) = 0 AND length(file.tags) = 0 AND file.name != "Orphans"
SORT file.mtime desc
```
Find duplicate notes:
```
function listFileNameIssues(dv) {
let pages = dv.pages();
let groups = pages.groupBy(p => p.file.name.toLowerCase());
for (let group of groups) {
let count = 0
for (let page of group.rows.sort(p => p.file.path, 'asc')) {
count += 1;
}
if (count === 1 ) {
continue;
}
for (let page of group.rows.sort(p => p.file.path, 'asc')) {
dv.paragraph(page.file.link + ': ' + page.file.path);
}
}
}
listFileNameIssues(dv);
```
Pick random notes:
```
const limit = 10;
const notes = dv.pages().sort(() => Math.random()).slice (0, limit).map(note => note.file.link);
dv.list(notes);
```
Count the number of notes:
```
$=dv.pages().length()
```
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The coolest part is that Dataview automatically shows you the up-to-date query results.
Details: [[Dataview plugin for Obsidian]]
### Dataview Serializer
This is a plugin that I've created and that adds a major feature currently not supported by the Dataview plugin. It requires the Dataview plugin to function.
The feature added by this plugin is the capability of automatically *serializing* dataview queries to Markdown.
When you write a normal Dataview query, "all you get" is a live view showing the results of the query. The output is never saved, it's just refreshed every time you look at the note containing the query. If you open that note with another editor, all you can see if the query, not the results.
With this plugin, you not only see the query, but also the output. This is powerful because it means that the data IS there. If you publish the note (e.g., using [[Obsidian Publish]], Quartz or [[GitHub Pages]]), then the data will also be there. As an added benefit, the data may also appear on your knowledge graph, which is mighty powerful.
If you like Dataview, then I highly recommend using this plugin. Not only because it will keep your data safe and usable from other tools, but also because it makes the query results available for AI to use!
Here's what queries look like when using this plugin:
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - dataview serializer table query example.png|Dataview query in Obsidian listing plugin notes by type with descriptions table]]
Most Dataview queries are supported, including lists, tables, inline queries, and even DataviewJS!
```
<!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #type/quote WHERE public_note = false SORT file.name ASC -->
<!-- SerializedQuery: LIST FROM #type/quote WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC -->
- [[‘Classic’ – a book which people praise and don’t read]]
- [[20 years from now, the only people who will remember that you worked late are your kids]]
- ...
```
The first part with "QueryToSerialize" contains the query that needs to be executed. The second part, with "SerializedQuery", is added automatically by this plugin, and corresponds to the Markdown version of the query results.
Every time a note containing a serialized query is opened, the queries are evaluated again, and the serialized output gets updated. It's also possible to refresh the output of all Dataview Serializer queries.
I use this plugin extensively in the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]], for instance for Maps of Content, Dashboard queries, and more!
Details: [[Dataview Serializer plugin for Obsidian]]
### OmniSearch
The [[Omnisearch plugin for Obsidian]] adds a powerful way to search and explore the notes in your vault. The authors describe it as "a search that just works".
Details: [[Omnisearch plugin for Obsidian]]
### Datacore
The Datacore plugin for Obsidian is the so-called successor of [[Dataview plugin for Obsidian|Dataview]]. It is being developed by the same maker ([[Michael Brenan]]).
Fundamentally, the goal is the same: index your notes, and create live-updating views. But Datacore focuses on creating a much better user experience and user interface.
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - datacore.png|Datacore table showing video games ranked with time played, length, tags and ratings]]
Although this plugin is really powerful, I'm not convinced yet. I have enough "power" at my disposal with the Dataview plugin combined with Dataview Serializer. And as far as I know, this plugin suffers from the same issue as Dataview: live results, but nothing in the actual markdown files, meaning you can't leverage the data with AI.
Details: [[Datacore plugin for Obsidian]]
### Sentinel
Sentinel is a plugin that enables users to automatically update note properties or execute commands based on document visibility changes within Obsidian.
Details: [[Sentinel plugin for Obsidian]]
## Templating & Automation
### Templater
The [[Templater plugin for Obsidian]] is a powerful templating engine. It provides many functions to help you create really cool templates.
The benefit is that you can design clearly defined note types, then templates for each of those making it it much easier to be systematic in the way you take notes.
Here's an example taken from the [Obsidian Starter Kit](https://www.store.dsebastien.net/product/obsidian-starter-kit) which uses the Templater plugin extensively:
```
---
tags:
- weekly_notes
---
# Meeting
## Participants
...
## Agenda
...
## Minutes
...
## Actions
...
```
Once you have created a template, you can easily add it to any note using the `ALT/Cmd + E` shortcut.
Details: [[Templater plugin for Obsidian]]
### QuickAdd
This plugin makes it a breeze to quickly add new notes to your [[Obsidian]] vault.
In includes:
- Templates: ways to create new notes (composes well with templating plugins such as [[Templater plugin for Obsidian]])
- Capture: quickly add content to predefined files (e.g., add a link to the current note under a specific section of your daily note)
- Macros: compound templates and captures together into chained workflows (e.g., quickly creating a new note, applying a template to it, adding it to your daily note)
- Multi-choices: organizational (folders of other choices)
- ...
![[QuickAdd plugin for Obsidian - capture a journal entry.png|QuickAdd capture modal configuring where and how new journal entries get appended to a daily note]]
Details: [[QuickAdd plugin for Obsidian]]
### Auto Note Mover
The Auto Note Mover is a simple but powerful plugin. It provides a way to automatically move notes around within your knowledge base. This is great as it **removes the need to manually file notes**.
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - auto note mover.png|Auto Note Mover rule editor mapping tags like contacts and people to destination folders]]
TIP: It's also possible to automatically file notes using the [[Templater plugin for Obsidian]] using `await tp.file.move(...)`.
Details: [[Auto Note Mover plugin for Obsidian]]
### Expander
This is a plugin I've built to replace variables across your Obsidian vault using HTML comment markers.
You simply configure key-value pairs in settings, and this plugin will automatically substitute them throughout your notes, and keep those updated too.
Details: [[Expander plugin for Obsidian]]
## Navigation & Productivity
### Notebook Navigator
A modern file explorer plugin for [[Obsidian]] that is a great alternative to the default [[File explorer core plugin for Obsidian]].
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - notebook navigator - main view.png|Notebook Navigator sidebar showing a tree of vault folders with a mini calendar beneath]]
It provides a powerful dual-pane interface, and enables advanced navigation through folders, tags, pinned notes, search, a calendar view, and a ton more. All with extensive customization and performance optimization.
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - notebook navigator.png|Quick Switcher++ listing recent notes with previews and metadata for fast jumping]]
Details: [[Notebook Navigator plugin for Obsidian]]
### Quick Switcher Plus Plus
This plugin extends the built-in Quick file switcher (CTRL/CMD + O) and lets you:
- Find files by headings instead of file names
- Navigate to symbols (headings, hashtags, links, etc)
- Navigate between open editors and side panels
- Switch between workspaces
- Search bookmarks
- Run commands
- …
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - quick switcher.png|Quick Switcher++ searching for Obsidian notes by headings with symbol shortcut bar at bottom]]
Details: [[Quick Switcher plus plus plugin for Obsidian]]
### Doubleshift
Obsidian Plugin to open the command palette by pressing shift twice. Software developers will love this one!
![[Doubleshift plugin for Obsidian - gif.gif]]
Details: [[Doubleshift plugin for Obsidian]]
### Reveal Active File
A simple plugin that adds a button to the file navigator that can be used to quickly locate the currently active file in the folder hierarchy.
Less useful since Obsidian 1.8.2 was released, because it includes an "Auto-reveal current file" setting. That setting is a toggle. Once enabled, it always reveals the active file. If you prefer to manually reveal the active file by clicking a button, it's not solving that. But since that version, it's also possible to invoke the "Files: Reveal current file in navigation" command to do the same.
Details: [[Reveal Active File Button plugin for Obsidian]]
### Homepage
The homepage plugin does exactly what it says: it lets you create a homepage for your knowledge base.
The homepage is just a note like any other, meaning that you can add whatever you want to it: text, titles, images, tasks, Dataview queries, etc.
Details: [[Homepage plugin for Obsidian]]
### Focus Mode
Adds a Ribbon icon and commands to toggle a focus mode that removes visual “noise”, helping you focus on writing.
Details: [[Focus Mode plugin for Obsidian]]
### Recent files
Display a list of most recently opened files.
Details: [[Recent files plugin for Obsidian]]
### Pane Relief
This plugin helps managing panes and tabs in Obsidian (especially using the keyboard).
It adds a persistent per-tab navigation history, new commands, and more.
Details: [[Pane relief plugin for Obsidian]]
### Smart random note
This plugin adds a way to open a random note based on the list of search results. This is a great addition to explore your knowledge base randomly (always useful to re-discover old/forgotten notes)
Details: [[Smart random note plugin for Obsidian]]
### Review
Helps to review notes over time.
Details: [[Review plugin for Obsidian]]
## Visualization
### Excalidraw
This plugin integrates [[Excalidraw]] into Obsidian. It's a powerful alternative to the built-in Canvas feature of Obsidian. It saves sketches/visualiations in a text-based, open file format, supported by various tools.
![[Excalidraw plugin for Obsidian - screenshot.png|Excalidraw sketch inside Obsidian showing a pencil mascot and hand-drawn Obsidian and Excalidraw labels]]
Caption: Excalidraw plugin for Obsidian
Details: [[Excalidraw plugin for Obsidian]]
### MindMap
An Obsidian plugin for displaying markdown notes as mind maps using [[Markmap]].
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - mind map plugin.png|Obsidian note displayed alongside its auto-generated mind map view of headings and links]]
Details: [[Mindmap plugin for Obsidian]]
### Maps
Map is a type of [view](https://obsidian.md/help/bases/views) you can use in [[Obsidian Bases]]. This plugin was created by the Obsidian team and is available as an official community plugin.
![[Maps plugin for Obsidian overview.png|Obsidian Bases map view pinning 360 places across Paris with an Eiffel Tower popup card]]
Here's an example of what I did with this one: [[How to capture GPS coordinates, import and display those in Obsidian]]
Details: [[Maps plugin for Obsidian]]
### Search in Canvas
Enables searching within the Canvas view.
![[search-in-canvas-osk-example.webp|Obsidian Canvas populated with sketched cards and website mockup screenshots linked by arrows]]
Details: [[Search in canvas plugin for Obsidian]]
## Text Editing & Writing
### Various complements
This plugin boosts productivity by automatically completing what you type, proposing to add links when some text matches the title of a note, etc.
Details: [[Various complements plugin for Obsidian]]
### Outliner
Allows you to work with your lists exactly like in Workflowy, RoamResearch, LogSeq, ...
![[Outliner plugin for Obsidian - screenshot.png|Obsidian note with nested bullet list demonstrating outliner-style indented items and sub-items]]
Details: [[Outliner plugin for Obsidian]]
### Zoom
This plugin lets you "zoom" into headings and lists. This makes it much easier to focus on specific parts of long notes.
![[2022-10-12-obsidian-plugin-zoom.gif|Zoom plugin narrowing a note down to a single heading so only its children remain visible]]
Caption: Zoom plugin for Obsidian
Details: [[Zoom plugin for Obsidian]]
### Text Transporter
The Text Transporter plugin is a Swiss Army Knife of text manipulation for Obsidian. Clearly a must-have to apply transformations to your notes.
Details: [[Text transporter plugin for Obsidian]]
### Notes refactor
This plugin lets you copy/extract text selections from a note into other ones. It adds to the features offered by the text transporter plugin.
Details: [[Notes refactor plugin for Obsidian]]
### Text Snippets
This plugins allows defining text templates and replacing those automatically in your notes for faster typing. Create your own snippets almost like in many text editors and IDEs.
Note that I personally prefer using external [[Text expanders|text expanders]] such as [[Espanso]], since those work in all programs; not only Obsidian.
Details: [[Text Snippets plugin for Obsidian]]
### Natural language dates
This plugin allows you to use natural language dates more easily.
Details: [[Natural language dates plugin for Obsidian]]
### Multi Tag
Tag all notes in a folder (and sub-folders) at once.
Details: [[Multi Tag plugin for Obsidian]]
### Paste URL into Selection
This plugin makes it a breeze to add a link to text.
Without this plugin, to do that, you have to:
- Select the text
- Hit CTRL/CMD + K
- Paste the link
With this plugin, you just have to select the text and paste the link.
Details: [[Paste URL into selection plugin for Obsidian]]
### ProgressBar
This plugin makes it easy to add progress bars to your notes. I have added examples in daily, monthly, quarterly, and home notes.
Here’s how it looks:
![[Obsidian Starter Kit - Included plugins - progress bar.png|Two horizontal progress bars showing month 5 of 31 and year at 51 percent complete]]
Details: [[ProgressBar plugin for Obsidian]]
### Table editor
An editor for Markdown tables. It can open CSV data and data from Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers and LibreOffice Calc as Markdown tables from Obsidian Markdown editor.
Details: [[Table Editor plugin for Obsidian]]
### Editing Toolbar
This plugin adds a visual toolbar you can use to modify text styles in your notes. If you're not used to Markdown yet, then this can prove very useful.
Demo: [https://github.com/PKM-er/obsidian-editing-toolbar/raw/master/editing-toolbar-demo.gif](https://github.com/PKM-er/obsidian-editing-toolbar/raw/master/editing-toolbar-demo.gif)
Details: [[Editing toolbar plugin for Obsidian]]
### Dictionary
A dictionary within Obsidian. Useful to quickly find word definitions.
Details: [[Dictionary plugin for Obsidian]]
## Content Capture & Media
### Paste image renamer
The Paste image renamer plugin makes it a breeze to rename images and attachments when you add those to your Obsidian vault. This is a must-have.
![[Must Have Obsidian Plugins for 2026 (Article) - paste image renamer.png|Paste Image Renamer dialog prompting for a new filename when inserting an image into Obsidian]]
Details: [[Paste image renamer plugin for Obsidian]]
### Image Context Menus
Add useful context menus for images, URLs and PDFs.
This plugins add context menu entries to images:
- Copy
- Open in default app
- Show in system explorer
- Reveal in navigation
- ...
Details: [[Image Context Menus plugin for Obsidian]]
### Simple Embeds
This plugin automatically turns links into embeds within Obsidian.
Makes it a breeze to embed YouTube videos and Tweets in your notes.
Details: [[Simple embeds plugin for Obsidian]]
### Extract URL
This plugin makes it really easy to capture external content into Obsidian. It extracts Markdown compatible with Obsidian out of URLs. Thanks to this plugin, you can paste the URL of a Website in an Obsidian note, invoke a command and have the URL be replaced by the content converted into Markdown.
Details: [[Extract URL plugin for Obsidian]]
### Image in editor
Enables you to view Images, [[Transclusion|Transclusions]], iFrames and PDF Files within the Editor without a necessity to switch to the Preview mode.
Details: [[Image in editor plugin for Obsidian]]
### Text Extractor
This plugin is useful to quickly extract text from images (e.g., png, jpg) and PDF documents.
Note that it doesn't work on mobile...
Details: [[Text extractor plugin for Obsidian]]
### Book Search
This plugin makes it a breeze to download book metadata from the Web. It generates notes for books you import, using a pre-configured template
This plugin uses the Google Books API to download book metadata and cover. Once fetched, it automatically creates a note for the book. This plugin is compatible with the [[Templater plugin for Obsidian]].
Details: [[Book search plugin for Obsidian]]
## Note Quality & Maintenance
### Linter
This Obsidian plugin formats and styles notes automatically, based on the rules you configure. This helps a lot to maintain a consistent knowledge base.
Details: [[Linter plugin for Obsidian]]
### Metadata Menu
The Metadata Menu plugin is a powerful metadata management tool designed for "data quality enthusiasts" who want structured, consistent property handling across their vault.
Details: [[Metadata Menu plugin for Obsidian]]
### Clear Unused Images
This plugin makes it easy to cleanup old and unused images from your vault. It's great for maintenance.
Using the Ribbon icon or associated commands, you can remove images that aren’t used in any of your notes.
Details: [[Clear unused images plugin for Obsidian]]
### Update Time
This plugin updates note properties to include creation and last update times.
It automatically modifies the update time when notes are modified. And it can be configured to ignore certain folders.
This plugin is useful to track creation and last update time on your notes. It automatically adds or updates the “created” and “updated” metadata properties on your notes.
I personally use it so that I can add those timestamps to my public notes.
Details: [[Update time plugin for Obsidian]]
### Broken Links
This plugin identifies internal links in your vault that don't connect to any existing files, including broken links to headings and blocks. It provides three view options: Folder View (organizes broken links by folder structure with counts), File View (lists files with broken links, sortable alphabetically or by quantity), and Link View (groups broken links by name showing which files contain them).
When you discover a broken link in the interface, clicking it opens the containing note so you can either edit the link or create the missing note using built-in Obsidian commands. This helps maintain vault hygiene by identifying orphaned references and making it easy to fix them. The plugin is useful for large vaults where broken links can accumulate over time as notes are renamed, moved, or deleted.
Details: [[Broken Links plugin for Obsidian]]
### Find unlinked files
This plugin enables you to quickly identify orphaned notes (i.e., notes with no backlinks) and notes with broken links.
Details: [[Find unlinked files plugin for Obsidian]]
### List Modified
Automatically add a list of all modified notes within your daily notes. Makes it a breeze to find what you recently modified.
Note that I personally prefer using [[Dataview plugin for Obsidian]] and [[Dataview Serializer plugin for Obsidian]] for this purpose.
Details: [[List Modified plugin for Obsidian]]
### Remember Cursor Position
Automatically preserves your cursor location, scroll position, and text selection across all notes. When you navigate between notes or follow links, you return to exactly where you left off. The positions are stored in a file (with a configurable path), so everything is restored even after closing and reopening Obsidian.
Details: [[Remember Cursor Position plugin for Obsidian]]
## User Interface & Customization
### Folder Note
This plugin enables creating “Folder notes”. To do so, right click on a folder, and select “Folder Note Commands > Create markdown folder note”. Once done, a new note will be created in the folder, with the same name as the folder. From now on, whenever you click on that folder in the File Explorer, you will see that note.
I personally use this with my public notes, in order to describe the folders.
Details: [[Folder note plugin for Obsidian]]
### Hider
This plugin lets you hide different parts of the user interface of Obsidian.
You can hide the following elements using the settings of this plugin:
![[Hider plugin for Obsidian - hider settings.png|Hider plugin settings list of toggles to hide UI elements like tab bar, status bar and tooltips]]
Details: [[Hider plugin for Obsidian]]
TIP: Did you know that Obsidian has a fullscreen mode?
### Fold Properties By Default
This plugin always folds note properties by default. This is useful when your notes include a lot of metadata and/or tags.
Details: [[Fold Properties By Default plugin for Obsidian]]
### Quiet Outline
This plugin adds a side panel which displays a full outline of the current note. The depth of the outline can be changed on the fly.
Details: [[Quiet Outline plugin for Obsidian]]
### Insta Toc
Generate, update, and maintain a table of contents for your notes while typing in real time.
Details: [[Insta Toc plugin for Obsidian]]
### Settings Search
This plugin adds a search box in the top-left corner of the Settings view. Using it, you can quickly find the settings you’re looking for:
![[Obsidian Starter Kit - Included plugins - settings search.png|Obsidian settings panel filtered by a search box showing hotkey results for focus]]
Details: [[Settings search plugin for Obsidian]]
### Banners
Displays image banners on your notes.
Details: [[Banners plugin for Obsidian]]
### Graph Banner
This plugin displays the local graph right on top of your notes (when in reading or editing mode).
Here's what it looks like:
![[Graph banner plugin for Obsidian - graph banner view example.png|Local graph banner rendered above an Obsidian note header showing connected related notes]]
Details: [[Graph banner plugin for Obsidian]]
### Iconize
Using this plugin, you can add icons to various elements in Obsidian: folders, tabs, files, titles, etc.
Details: [[Iconize plugin for Obsidian]]
Related plugins:
- [[Emoji toolbar plugin for Obsidian]]
- [[Emotion picker plugin for Obsidian]]
- [[Icon shortcodes plugin for Obsidian]]
## Backup & Versioning
### Local Backup
The Local backup plugin for Obsidian enables automating the creation of local backups of your Obsidian vaults.
Details: [[Local Backup plugin for Obsidian]]
### Obsidian Git
Backup your Obsidian.md vault with git. A bit technical but really valuable!
Really wonderful when combined with the [[Local backup plugin for Obsidian]], the [[File recovery core plugin for Obsidian]] and the [[Time Machine plugin for Obsidian]].
Details: [[Git plugin for Obsidian]]
### Time Machine
A plugin that makes it a breeze to see (and revert) the changes made between the current version of a note and past versions saved either by the [[Obsidian File Recovery]] system or by [[Git]] (if your vault is also a Git repository).
It provides a dedicated "Time Machine" view where you can navigate between snapshots of the currently active note, see the differences with the current version, restore previous versions, and also restore specific parts of previous versions.
![[Time Machine plugin for Obsidian - example.png|Version History Diff plugin showing a snapshot diff with added and removed frontmatter lines]]
Details: [[Time Machine plugin for Obsidian]]
## Integration & Development
### Pandoc
The Pandoc plugin for Obsidian integrates [[Pandoc]] with Obsidian. It makes it a breeze to export notes to different markup and file formats.
Details: [[Pandoc plugin for Obsidian]]
### External Links
This plugin helps users track and manage external links (URLs) within their notes. It displays all external links found on a given note in an organized view, making it easy to see what web resources are referenced. The plugin also provides backlink tracking, showing what other notes link to a given external URL.
Details: [[External Links plugin for Obsidian]]
### Terminal
This plugin integrates shells, consoles, and terminal emulators directly within [[Obsidian]], enabling users to run command-line interfaces without leaving their note-taking application. It supports both external terminal windows and embedded terminals inside Obsidian, with a built-in developer console accessible across all platforms. The plugin works with popular shells like [[Bash]], PowerShell, and [[Zsh (Z Shell)]], as well as terminal emulators including Windows Terminal, iTerm2, and GNOME Terminal.
Details: [[Terminal plugin for Obsidian]]
### AdvancedURI
The AdvancedURI plugin for Obsidian exposes many features of Obsidian through URIs available locally. This enables interacting with Obsidian from other applications (e.g., scripts) to create notes, move them, invoke commands, apply templates, etc.
Most of what this plugin enables is also supported out of the box by the [[Obsidian CLI]] (and then some!).
Details: [[AdvancedURI plugin for Obsidian]]
### BRAT
The Beta Reviewers Auto-update Tester (BRAT) plugin for Obsidian is used by plugin developers who need beta testers for their plugins. It's a great way to test and explore upcoming plugins.
Be careful though. Beta plugins are not perfect. They get updated regularly, and break quite often.
Details: [[BRAT plugin for Obsidian]]
## And more... There is an Obsdian plugin for each use case
There are many other really interesting plugins for Obsidian. Here are some you might want to check out as well:
<!-- QueryToSerialize: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, type as Type, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND recommended = false AND type != "Built-in" AND type != "AI" SORT file.name ASC -->
<!-- SerializedQuery: TABLE WITHOUT ID name as Name, type as Type, description as Description, file.link as "Details" FROM #obsidian/plugins WHERE public_note = true AND recommended = false AND type != "Built-in" AND type != "AI" SORT file.name ASC -->
| Name | Type | Description | Details |
| ------------------------ | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Admonition | User Experience | Adds admonition block-styled content to Obsidian | [[Admonition plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Advanced Slides | Visualization | Create reveal.js presentations from Markdown in Obsidian | [[Advanced Slides plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Agentfiles | Plugin | Centralized management of AI skills, commands, and agents across coding platforms | [[Agentfiles plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Better word count | User Experience | Enhanced word and character counting | [[Better word count plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Bookshelf Base | Content capture | Manage and track your reading library | [[Bookshelf plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Calendar | Productivity | Calendar view for daily notes navigation | [[Calendar plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Colorful Note Background | User Experience | Add colorful backgrounds to notes | [[Colorful Note Background plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Cursor Bridge | Integration | Bridge between Obsidian and Cursor editor | [[Cursor Bridge plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Day planner | Productivity | Plan your day with a timeline view | [[Day planner plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Dialogue | Text edition | Create dialogues and conversations in notes | [[Dialogue plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Emoji toolbar | Text edition | Insert emojis with a searchable toolbar | [[Emoji toolbar plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Emotion picker | Text edition | Pick and insert emotion tags into notes | [[Emotion picker plugin for Obsidian]] |
| File Explorer note count | User Experience | Show note counts in the file explorer | [[File Explorer note count plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Headings in explorer | User Experience | Show heading hierarchy in file explorer | [[Headings in explorer plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Icon shortcodes | User Experience | Insert icons using shortcodes | [[Icon shortcodes plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Journals | Journaling | Create, organize, and navigate structured journal entries across multiple timeframes | [[Journals plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Kindle | Content capture | Import Kindle highlights into Obsidian | [[Kindle plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Local REST API | Integration | REST API for local Obsidian vault access | [[Local REST API plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Loom | Text edition | Branching narrative editor for Obsidian | [[Loom plugin for Obsidian]] |
| MetaEdit | Development | Edit metadata and frontmatter properties | [[MetaEdit plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Note Village | Publishing | Community note sharing platform | [[Note Village plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Obsidian graph banner | User Experience | Display graph view as a note banner | [[Obsidian graph banner plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Page count | User Experience | Count pages in notes and vault | [[Page count plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Pinned notes | Productivity | Pin frequently used notes for quick access | [[Pinned notes plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Post Webhook | Publishing | Send note content to webhooks | [[Post Webhook plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Projects | Productivity | Project management and tracking | [[Projects plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Raindrop Highlights | Content capture | Import Raindrop.io highlights | [[Raindrop Highlights plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Reading time | User Experience | Estimate reading time for notes | [[Reading time plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Readwise official | Content capture | Alternative content curation solution | [[Readwise official plugin for Obsidian]] |
| RSS Dashboard | Content capture | RSS feed reader dashboard | [[RSS Dashboard plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Share as zip | Publishing | Export and share notes as zip files | [[Share as zip plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Sidenotes | User Experience | Tufte-style sidenotes and margin notes in the note margin | [[Sidenotes plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Status Bar Organizer | User Experience | Organize and customize the status bar | [[Status Bar Organizer plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Syntax highlight | Text edition | Syntax highlighting for code blocks | [[Syntax highlight plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Tab Switcher | Productivity | Quick tab switching with keyboard shortcuts | [[Tab Switcher plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Tag wrangler | Maintenance | Rename, merge, and manage tags | [[Tag wrangler plugin for Obsidian]] |
| TagFolder | Maintenance | Browse notes organized by tag hierarchy | [[TagFolder plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Typefully | Publishing | Publish notes to Typefully for social media | [[Typefully plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Vault Explorer | Maintenance | Explore vault with advanced filtering | [[Vault Explorer plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Vault statistics | Maintenance | Display vault-wide statistics | [[Vault statistics plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Voicenotes sync | Content capture | Sync Voicenotes.com recordings to Obsidian | [[Voicenotes sync plugin for Obsidian]] |
| Webhooks | Publishing | Trigger webhooks from Obsidian events | [[Webhooks plugin for Obsidian]] |
<!-- SerializedQuery END -->
## Bonuses
### The Obsidian Web Clipper
A last "plugin" I want to mention is the official [[Obsidian Web Clipper]]. This one is actually a browser extension, but you don't want to miss it. It makes it a breeze to curate/capture content from anywhere on the Web and to send it all to your Obsidian vault.
The Obsidian Web Clipper not only captures and converts content to Markdown, but also extract useful metadata (e.g., page title, tags, og meta, and more!).
Details: [[Obsidian Web Clipper]]
### Obsidian CLI
While not technically a plugin, the [[Obsidian CLI]] is really worth mentioning. It was released in early 2026 for the insiders, with general availability coming a bit later.
The Obsidian CLI is interesting because it makes it a breeze to:
- Integrate Obsidian with AI
- Control Obsidian from the command-line
- Develop Obsidian plugins (especially when combined with AI)
- ...
## Conclusion
In this article, I've listed some of the best Obsidian plugins I know of, and then some. The Obsidian developer community is large and very productive.
The plugin ecosystem of Obsidian adds a ton of value and really deserves your time and attention.
Check those plugins out and tell me which ones you love most. I'm also curious about which plugins you think I should add to this list!
That's it for today! ✨
## Feel Overwhelmed?
Don't. As I said at the beginning, you don't actually need all of this. But if you see the value in at least some of those, then take a look at my Obsidian Starter Kit. It comes with batteries included. Carefully curated plugins that come pre-configured into a cohesive whole:
[https://www.store.dsebastien.net/product/obsidian-starter-kit](https://www.store.dsebastien.net/product/obsidian-starter-kit)
LINK:
- [[Why Obsidian is All You Need - From Simple Notes to Complete Productivity (Article)]]
- https://www.dsebastien.net/why-obsidian-is-all-you-need-from-simple-notes-to-complete-productivity//
LINK:
- [[The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Obsidian (Article)]]
- https://www.dsebastien.net/the-ultimate-beginners-guide-to-obsidian//
LINK:
- [[How to Structure Your Daily Notes in Obsidian (Article)]]
- https://www.dsebastien.net/my-daily-note-template-in-obsidian//
LINK:
- [[Never Lose a Note Again — Time Machine Plugin for Obsidian (Article)]]
- https://www.dsebastien.net/never-lose-a-note-again-time-machine-plugin-for-obsidian//
## Related
- [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]
- [[Obsidian]]
- [[Obsidian Community Plugins]]
- [[Obsidian Core Plugins]]
- [[Obsidian AI Plugins]]
## Cover image
Prompt:
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Caption:
## Meme
Prompt:
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## Podcast
## Promotion
### Tweet 1 - Hook (short)
I've been using Obsidian for years, and I've tested hundreds of plugins.
Here are the 75+ I actually use daily 👇
Read the full article here: https://www.dsebastien.net/the-must-have-obsidian-plugins-for-2026/
### Tweet 2 - Contrarian (short)
Most people install 5 Obsidian plugins and call it a day.
I use 75+. And no, it's NOT overkill.
Each one solves a real problem. Here's the full list: https://www.dsebastien.net/the-must-have-obsidian-plugins-for-2026/
### Tweet 3 - Value list (shortwithlist)
Stop wasting hours searching for Obsidian plugins.
Here are my top categories:
➤ Task management (TaskNotes, Tasks, Kanban)
➤ Data querying (Dataview, Dataview Serializer)
➤ Navigation (Notebook Navigator, Quick Switcher++)
➤ Visualization (Excalidraw, MindMap)
➤ Journaling (Periodic Notes, Journal Bases)
Full list with 75+ plugins: https://www.dsebastien.net/the-must-have-obsidian-plugins-for-2026/
### Thread 1 - Deep Dive (deepdive)
1/
Obsidian has 2700+ community plugins.
Most people have no idea where to start. I've spent years testing them so you don't have to.
Here are the ones that actually matter 🧵👇
---
2/
📓 Journaling & periodic notes
Periodic Notes + Journal Bases + Rollover Daily Todos
This combo makes daily journaling effortless. Incomplete tasks roll over automatically. And you get purpose-built views for all your periodic reviews.
---
3/
✅ Task management
TaskNotes + Tasks + Kanban
TaskNotes turns any task into a dedicated note with properties, time tracking, and 8 different views. Tasks adds recurring tasks and powerful queries. Kanban gives you simple drag-and-drop boards. Killer combo 🔥
---
4/
🔍 Data querying
Dataview + Dataview Serializer
Dataview lets you query your vault like a database. But its results aren't saved to your files.
Dataview Serializer fixes that. It serializes query results to actual Markdown. Your data stays portable, publishable, and AI-ready.
---
5/
🧭 Navigation & search
Notebook Navigator + Quick Switcher++ + Omnisearch
Notebook Navigator replaces the default file explorer with a powerful dual-pane interface. Quick Switcher++ lets you find files by headings, symbols, and workspaces. Omnisearch adds full-text search that just works.
---
6/
🎨 Visual thinking
Excalidraw + MindMap + Canvas Search
Excalidraw is a full drawing tool inside Obsidian. MindMap turns your markdown lists into visual mind maps. And Search in Canvas lets you find things inside your canvases.
---
7/
🔧 Maintenance & hygiene
Broken Links + Find Unlinked Files + Clear Unused Images + Linter
Keep your vault clean and healthy. Find orphan notes, fix broken links, remove unused images, and auto-format your Markdown. Your future self will thank you.
---
8/
And there's more... 75+ plugins in total covering templates, data engines, text manipulation, publishing, backups, and much more.
I use most of these in my Obsidian Starter Kit, pre-configured and ready to go ✨
Read the full article here: https://www.dsebastien.net/the-must-have-obsidian-plugins-for-2026/
---
9/
If setting up all these plugins sounds overwhelming, check out my Obsidian Starter Kit. Everything comes pre-configured into a cohesive system 🚀
https://www.store.dsebastien.net/product/obsidian-starter-kit
---
10/
I write about Knowledge Management, Obsidian, AI, and productivity every week.
Subscribe to my newsletter to stay in the loop: https://www.dsebastien.net/newsletter/
### Thread 2 - Plugins I created (story)
1/
I wasn't happy with the Obsidian plugin ecosystem. So I built my own plugins.
Here's what I created and why 🧵👇
---
2/
Dataview Serializer
Dataview is amazing but its results only exist in memory. They're not saved anywhere.
I built Dataview Serializer to fix that. It writes query results as actual Markdown. Now your data is portable, publishable, and available for AI to use 🧠
---
3/
Journal Bases
I needed better navigation for my journal and periodic reviews. The existing options weren't cutting it.
So I built Journal Bases. It adds purpose-built Obsidian Base views for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly notes.
---
4/
Life Tracker
I wanted to visualize the data I track in my daily notes. Heatmaps, charts, timelines...
Life Tracker adds 12 visualization types, GitHub-style heatmaps, animated charts, and interactive elements. Click any data point and it opens the source note 🔥
---
5/
Expander
Simple but powerful. Define key-value pairs, and this plugin automatically substitutes them across your entire vault. And keeps them updated too.
---
6/
All of these are part of my Obsidian Starter Kit, which comes pre-configured with 75+ plugins that work together as a cohesive system.
Check it out: https://www.store.dsebastien.net/product/obsidian-starter-kit
---
7/
Want more tips about Obsidian, Knowledge Management, and AI?
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.dsebastien.net/newsletter/