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? Yes
Community Directory: [](<https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/outline-mindmap>)
This is the cleanest mind-mapping plugin available, keeping your note text completely free of clutter. Its navigation feature lets you use mind-map nodes as an outline or table of contents. It also supports bidirectional synchronized editing and sophisticated collapse animations for smoother presentations. Clean and simple, it is ideal for outline-based knowledge management.
Core Features
Strict Markdown syntax with zero note pollution:
Headings and lists are automatically converted into a mind map. The plugin writes no YAML, inserts no properties, and adds no hidden comments. All settings are stored in the plugin’s own data.json file. Your Markdown always remains pure Markdown—clean and usable wherever you take it.
Real-time bidirectional synchronization:
Edit the note, and the mind map updates with it. Drag nodes in the mind map, and the note is updated accordingly. When writing changes back, the plugin replaces only the affected line; everything outside that range remains byte-for-byte unchanged. Each operation corresponds to a single undo step, keeping both sides consistently synchronized.
Click to navigate:
Single-click a node to scroll the note to the corresponding line and highlight it. Double-click to edit its text. After creating, renaming, or dragging a node, the note remains positioned at the node you just modified, allowing seamless movement between the outline and the main text.
Drag-and-drop reordering:
Drop near the upper or lower edge of a node to insert before or after it. Drop in the center to make it a child node. Drop onto empty space to turn it into a new root node. When moving across the sixth-level boundary, headings and list items are converted automatically, while any body text beneath them moves together with the node.
Keyboard controls:
Press Enter to add a sibling, Tab to add a child, the arrow keys to navigate, and Delete to remove an entire subtree. Pressing Esc cancels the operation without writing anything to disk—so your hands never need to leave the keyboard.
Attractive, customizable styling:
Shapes, colors, font sizes, and spacing can all be adjusted easily. Connections can be displayed as straight, diagonal, or orthogonal lines. The layout can extend to the right, to the left, or be divided evenly across both sides. Settings are available at both global and individual-note levels. Drag a slider for a real-time preview; cancel to restore the previous appearance.
Elegant animations:
Node movement, layout switching, expansion, and collapsing can all transition smoothly. Animations are disabled by default, so you decide whether you want them. After collapsing a branch, the node you clicked always remains centered on the screen.
Installation
- Search for Outline Mindmap in Obsidian’s official Community Plugins marketplace.
- GitHub repository: <
https://github.com/cimuyang/outline-mindmap>
Bilingual (Chinese & English): The interface automatically follows Obsidian’s language, no extra setup needed.
Colorful nodes: Supports coloring by hierarchy, making levels easy to spot, works with both light and dark themes.
Flexible list display: Turn it on to make lists nodes in the mindmap; turn it off to just see the outline titles while keeping the original content intact.
