I’m excited to announce the release of my new community plugin: Note Mover Shortcut!
As someone who relies on efficient note organization, I developed this plugin to help you manage your notes with unprecedented speed and flexibility. Note Mover Shortcut is designed to integrate seamlessly into your workflow, making note movement and organization a breeze.
What Does Note Mover Shortcut Offer?
This plugin provides a robust set of features to keep your Obsidian vault tidy:
Move Single Notes: Quickly relocate your active note to any specified folder.
Batch Move Notes: Efficiently process and move multiple notes from an “Inbox” folder to their designated locations based on tags.
Automated Moving: Set up periodic movements to automatically clear your inbox based on defined criteria.
Tag-Based Organization: Utilize powerful rules to move notes to specific folders based on their tags, giving you granular control over your vault’s structure.
History & Undo Functionality: Keep track of all note movements and easily revert any changes if needed, whether for individual notes or bulk operations.
Note Mover Shortcut is all about speed, simplicity, and powerful automation to help you maintain a clean and organized Obsidian workspace.
Get Started!
You can find Note Mover Shortcut in Obsidian’s Community Plugins section. Simply search for it there to install.
For detailed information on configuration, usage, and all available commands, please visit the GitHub repository:
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve just added a section to the README that highlights the key differences between this plugin and Auto Note Mover. Appreciate the feedback – it helps make the project more clear for others too! Let me know if you think anything else should be clarified.
But Auto Note Mover can be triggered manually instead of on save, so that’s not a difference.
Now that I look closer it seems to me the biggest differences are that yours can be scheduled and doesn’t have an option to trigger on save. If yours can trigger different movements separately, that’s a notable difference too (ANM can handle different movements but they’re all part of a single set of rules that use priority and matching to decide which to apply).
I think your plugin’s ability to “transfer all notes from a designated “Inbox” folder” might be something ANM can’t do, but I’m not totally sure.
You’re right. I’m not specifically familiar with the features of Auto-Note-Mover. After another look, it seems the history feature is the biggest difference for now as well as the transfer all notes from an inbox folder as you mentioned. I’ll adjust the README again accordingly.
I’m currently working on further features that will offer clearer distinctions. This includes a significantly more complex rule feature. The screenshot shows a design draft with an example of what that could look like in the future.
Hi,
I just gave it a try, and congrats, you did a really good job.
The plugin is very usefull, and the lastest release with metadata rule is exaclty what i needed.
I’m going to keep testing, and i will surely integrated it into all my vaults.
Now I have a question about ‘note folder’ setting. I don’t quite understand its role and purpose.
I’ll stay tuned for the next release.
Hi,
Thanks a lot for your kind words!
I’d really love to hear your feedback or feature requests if you have any suggestions for improvements.
Now, regarding your question: the Note Folder setting is intended to be the default location where notes are moved when no rule applies. Depending on your vault setup, this might not be strictly necessary, so I’ll briefly explain my setup and use case.
I use an Inbox folder for all my new notes, and a Notes folder for everything that doesn’t get sorted into a subfolder like Meetings, MOCs, etc. So, when I have a new note that gets moved out of the Inbox by the plugin, and no rule matches, it will automatically be placed in the Notes folder.
Hi, I love all the options for setting rules and then manually running the move process from time to time, but I can’t seem to find a way to apply just those rules and leave the rest of the notes where they are, haha.
While I use the Inbox for new, unprocessed notes, I don’t have a single folder to designate and rely on rules to tell it where and this part works fine, but it also wants to move all those not matching the rules to the root folder, since ‘note folder’ is unspecified. Is there a way to process only notes that have rules that apply and disregard others?
Hi @Naranya,
thanks for your question! In my own workflow, I usually solve this by adding an inbox tag and using a filter so that notes which aren’t ready to be moved stay in place.
That said, I want to keep the plugin as flexible as possible and support different workflows. I’ll therefore add an option to only move notes when a rule can be applied.
I implemented a toggle option for your workflow in version 0.3.4. Please update the Plugin.
If there are further issues please come back and report it or open an issue on GitHub
Awesome, thank you @bueckerlars. Tested it already, works like a charm.
This will be a time saver. Very slick and flexible solution.
Possible future feature: define folders to be completely ignored, mainly for templates in my case. I blakclisted it right now, but ignoring it altogether would not trigger calculating those and displaying as blacklisted and why.
Ahh, my bad. I didn’t realize that the trigger is manual not like Auto Note Mover. I send readme file to learn the trigger. I understand now how it works.
So I wanna share my comments which may be helpful:
First, I found the management page (in Obsidian’s plugin section) a bit confusing. Why you need my Inbox folder? Or whats the logic behind “Main note folder”? Yeah, I have an Inbox folder, but all other folders are possible as main folders. Not just one. Soo the ruling system is the way.
I find that two boxes unnecessary.
Filter Toggle is not clear. Which way is blacklist? Personally, I need only a few excluded folders.
Do we need whitelist? (May be user want automation from very limited area)
I like adding rule boxes. It’s showing all possible rules, paths, properties or tags.
Auto completion of the rule is very helpful. Step by step, it’s easy to create a rule. (like a specific property selection)
Rule hyerarchy is good and necessary. Up and down arrows are painful if you are a rule heavy user. Can you add a “Drag&Drop” feature for reordering rules like in QuickAdd or Iconic Rulebook? Thats a big plus.
I don’t understand why “Trigger” system is not automatic. Can you add an option for automatic trigger? That can be time savvy. With only that function, that plugin will be far better than Auto Note Mover for me. With manual trigger, I feel like I have to control the process.
Move Preview pane is informative. Great for who wants to see what is going to be moved. But not for me. If I set the rules, I know what is going to be moved. I won’t look back till History is needed.
I like the history of the moved notes and undo feature. Can you add a “Open Note” button in the history section beside the “Undo” button?
History window may be with tabs, like “All”, “Today”, “This Week”, etc. Btw I don’t know how deep the history is.
I have 40-50 rules in Auto Note Mover. It’s a fantastic pair with Quick Add plugin. Personally, I have a monthly Inbox cleaning routine. All other file movement is automated.
Auto Note Mover still working, but I prefer to use an actively developing plugin like that. I think your plugin is very promising.
Thank you so much for this incredibly detailed and thoughtful feedback! This is exactly the kind of input that helps make the plugin better. I really appreciate you taking the time to test it thoroughly and share such comprehensive observations.
I have to admit that I currently have less time available for development since I recently started a new job. However, I’m actively working on a major refactoring of the plugin and am in the process of creating a proper development roadmap that addresses many of the points you’ve raised.
Once I have a concrete plan and timeline worked out, I’ll post the roadmap here in the forum so everyone can see what’s coming and provide input on priorities.
Thanks again for the fantastic feedback and for seeing the potential in this plugin!
Please continue to develop the plugin, it’s great. You made the hard job. Few little touches would make it far better than Auto Note Mover. The process can be more fluid.
You welcome.
“Periodic note momement” feature is checking only Inbox folder? Asking because I have some notes in other folders with rules bot not being triggered.
Btw, in last update, I noticed that in History panel if the note moved and changed name, that new file name is not shown in the history. So you can not open the moved notes.
I’ve completed a major round of refactoring and started adding some of the great feature suggestions from @hasanyilmaz. Thanks again for the input!
Highlights
Inbox and Notes Folder removed → This functionality can now be replicated with rules and filters if needed.
Simplified settings → Since there’s no longer a default notes/inbox folder, I’ve removed the toggles for enabling/disabling filters and rules.
History improvements
Each entry now has a button to quickly open the note.
New retention policy settings: configure how long entries are stored and choose which timespan is shown in the history modal.
Import/Export options → You can now back up and share your settings more easily.
Questions & What’s Coming Next
I’d love to better understand how you’d like automatic triggers to work. Right now, there’s a periodic movement option. Would you also want triggers on edit, or on other specific events?
I’m working on drag-and-drop reordering for rules and filters.
A big overhaul of the rules engine is in the works. I’ll soon share my draft plan and would love to get your feedback.
Rule System V2
Hierarchical Rule Architecture Instead of just simple condition → destination rules, V2 introduces:
Simple Rules: Keep the current easy approach for basic needs
Advanced Rules: Single condition + multiple local filters
Rule Groups: Multiple conditions with AND/OR logic
Nested Groups: Up to 3 levels deep for complex scenarios
2. Local vs Global Filters
Global Filters: System-wide exclusions (certain folders, tags, properties)
Local Filters: Apply only to specific rules/conditions
3. Visual Logic Building Think of it like building a decision tree where you can visually see the logic flow and easily modify complex conditional statements.
Example Use Case
Rule Group: "Smart Project Organization"
├── Logic: OR
├── Condition 1: Tag = "#project"
│ ├── Filter: Created > 30 days ago
│ └── Filter: Property "status" ≠ "archived"
├── Condition 2: Property "type" = "project"
│ └── Filter: Content contains "deadline"
└── Subgroup: "Urgent Items" (AND logic)
├── Tag = "#urgent"
└── Property "priority" = "high"
→ Move to: "Active Projects" folder
Backward Compatibility
All existing rules will continue to work and can be gradually migrated to the new system if desired.
Questions for the Community
Complexity vs Simplicity: Does this strike the right balance? Too complex or not powerful enough?
UI Design: The visual rule builder needs to be intuitive. What’s your experience with similar interfaces in other tools?
Performance: With complex nested rules, how many total rules do you typically run? (helps me optimize)
Migration: Would you prefer automatic migration of existing rules or manual opt-in to new features?
Till the new update all bulk actions only looked at the inbox folder. This came from the history of the plugin development as when i started my only use case i wanted to automate was moving files from my inbox into the correct folders.
As the use cases are much more versatile and open i changed this in the latest update by removing the inbox folder and notes folder settings completely and now the plugin checks all folders for notes to move.
Thats right i did not thought about the problem with renaming the file. I will implement a fix in the next update