Disclaimer
Is this plugin open source? Yes
Is this plugin completely free? Yes
Is this plugin vibe-coded beyond the author’s ability to comprehend how it works? No
Community Directory: Focus Explorer - Obsidian Plugin
A while ago I posted Focusing on a Subfolder in an Obsidian Vault, where I hacked together a symlink-based workaround to make the Files pane show only one subfolder. It worked, but it always felt like a detour — so I turned the idea into a proper plugin.
The underlying need isn’t new: “Focus / Hoist a folder in the vault” has been open since 2020 and keeps getting +1s to this day. Focus Explorer is my take on that feature request.
Three ways to enter focus mode:
- Quick search at the top — the focus bar sits above the tree; click it and start typing to fuzzy-search every folder in the vault, then Enter to focus.
- Context menu — right-click any folder → Focus.
- Recent focus list — a history of recently focused folders for one-tap switching back, great for jumping between projects.
Everything stays inside the same vault — no config copies, no symlinks, no second window. Works on both desktop and mobile.
Repository: GitHub - WantenMN/focus-explorer: An Obsidian file explorer with folder focus. · GitHub
All future updates of the plugin will be posted in this thread.