Plugin: Vertical Tabs for Obsidian

Vertical Tabs v0.17.0-Beta: Maybe you don’t need “vertical” tabs.

When you open too many tabs in Obsidian, the built-in horizontal tabs become hard to manage—that’s why I created Vertical Tabs.

But screen space is precious. With files, bookmarks and backlinks already competing for sidebar real estate, adding vertical tabs sometimes creates more friction than it solves. There’s also the learning curve. Not everyone is comfortable with vertical tabs. Deep down, I knew this wasn’t the perfect solution. It was time to rethink how we interact with tabs.

Introducing Scrollable Tabs and Mission Control View—an intuitive new way to navigate your workspace.

:play_button: Scrollable Tabs make the default horizontal tabs more usable without changing your habits.

:play_button: Mission Control View has been redesigned with tons of new features. You can now move, close, pin, and unpin tabs directly in Mission Control View. Deep integration with Enhanced Keyboard Tab Switcher makes it even more powerful and intuitive for keyboard users.

For Vertical Tabs enthusiasts, this release adds multi-selection, workspace splitting on mobile, auto-hide horizontal tabs, and more.

:heart: About the Beta Program: These features are currently available to Beta Program subscribers and will be free for everyone in the future. Vertical Tabs will remain free and open source. Subscribers get early access and help me continue improving the plugin. To subscribe, click here. Remember to check out the FAQ and How-to Guide. Questions? Feel free to comment or DM me.

Subscription ($1.99/m) is only required to download beta versions. Once installed, you may use it as long as you want.

:heart: Existing sponsors: If you’ve already supported me on Ko-fi, you’ll receive a free one-year Beta Program subscription as a thank you. Contact me on Ko-fi to redeem. Thank you for your support! :heart:

demo

2 Likes

Vertical Tabs v0.16.5

:tada: What’s New:

  • Scrollable Tabs and Mission Control Toggle are now available for everyone. Get early access to the fully-fledged Mission Control View by subscribing to the Beta Program.

The subscription ($1.99/month) is only required for downloading beta builds. Once installed, you can use the features indefinitely—no ongoing subscription needed. The enhanced Mission Control View, mobile split view, and other features from v0.17.0-beta will be released publicly in July 2026.

  • Device-specific disable option: Added a new setting that allows you to disable Vertical Tabs on specific devices (#177).
  • New option: auto-hide horizontal tabs when the sidebar is open.

:white_check_mark: Improvements:

  • Added an option to disable automatic update checks in settings (#184).
  • Support tab deduplication for Bases.
  • Improved compatibility with community themes.

:bug: Bug Fixes:

  • Enhanced mobile compatibility with improved touch interactions and responsiveness.
  • Cleaned up mobile interface by hiding unavailable debugging tools.

This is such a good plugin. I love my tabs list in the sidebar! Where can we vote to make it a part of Core?

1 Like

Vertical Tabs v0.16.6 and v0.18.0-beta

:tada: What’s New:

  • Tab and group customization: Personalize your workspace by configuring tabs and groups with custom titles, icons, and colors. (Beta only)

Get early access to the fully customizable workspace by subscribing to the Beta Program.

The subscription ($1.99/month) is only required for downloading beta builds. Once installed, you can use them indefinitely—no ongoing subscription needed. Features from v0.18.0-beta will be released publicly in September 2026.

  • New commands to bookmark the current tab group (#190).
  • New option to display the new tab button at the bottom of each group (#179).

:white_check_mark: Improvements:

  • Refactored and improved cache stores for better performance and maintainability. (Beta only)
  • Added support for Obsidian v1.11.0+ design updates.
  • Automatic sidebar collapse: The sidebar now automatically collapses on mobile devices and respects the collapsed state on tablet/desktop (#186 #193 #177).
  • Visual feedback: Hidden groups now display with reduced opacity for clearer visual distinction (#183).
  • Improved compatibility with Hover Editor and Excalidraw plugins (#187).

:bug: Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed block embed jumping failure when “Deduplicate tabs” or “Always open in new tab” is enabled (#188). (Beta only)
  • Resolved issue where accessing parentSplit would fail when activeLeaf.parent is detached.
  • Fixed tabs remaining incorrectly stacked when switching group view modes.
  • Corrected “Scrollable Tabs” styling inconsistencies (#189, #192).
  • Fixed installation ID redaction.

That would be a feature request. If there’s an existing one you can heart and add a comment, and if there isn’t you can add one.

this is so good! Thanks for the plugin.

having Zen Browser for so long making me feels the need to move the tabs to the side.

1 Like

Vertical Tabs v0.19.0-beta

Merry Christmas! :christmas_tree:

Vertical Tabs v0.19.0 is now available for Beta Program subscribers! This release brings highly requested features to Background Mode, along with extensive refactoring that delivers a 4x performance boost and significantly improved stability throughout the plugin.

This holiday season, if you haven’t joined the Beta Program yet, secure your 50% lifetime discount now! $1.99/mo → $0.99/mo. ONLY LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE! Subscribe on Ko-fi

What’s New:

  • Background Mode support: Mission Control View and Tab Sorting now fully support Background Mode.
  • Tab sorting commands: Sort tabs by title (A-Z/Z-A), pinned status, recency, or creation date. For example, you can place pinned tabs at the leftmost position.

Improvements:

  • Vertical Tabs now respects your previous session state—the sidebar no longer automatically opens or focuses when Obsidian starts (#186, #193, #197, #177).
  • Enhanced performance and stability across the plugin.
  • Improved settings validation and normalization.