The Files view
The Files tab in the left dock is the vault's folder tree. It is the tab Scoria opens on,
and file-explorer:open returns to it.
What you see
- Folders before files, each group sorted by name, compared case-insensitively. This is Obsidian's order, and it does not depend on your locale.
- Notes without their extension.
Ideas.mdshows as Ideas, because the.mdon every note is noise. - Attachments with theirs.
diagram.pngshows as diagram.png. - Empty folders. They exist in the vault, so they are in the tree.
Click a folder to collapse or expand it; the collapse state is kept while the window is open. Click a file to open it.
What is hidden
| Hidden | Why |
|---|---|
Dot-folders (.obsidian, .git, .trash) | Configuration and machinery, as in Obsidian |
| Unknown file kinds | Unless showUnsupportedFiles is on in app.json |
A "known kind" is a note, an image, an audio file, a video, a PDF, a Canvas or a Base. A
.zip or a .xlsx in your vault is an unknown kind: with showUnsupportedFiles off it is
not listed, with it on it is listed but clicking it does nothing — Scoria has no handler to
open it with.
Reveal the open note
file-explorer:reveal-active-file expands the tree down to the note you are reading and
highlights it. The tree also reveals automatically when you open a note from somewhere else
— a link, the switcher, the graph — so the left dock always shows where you are.
The right-click menu
Right-click a file or a folder for:
| On a file | On a folder |
|---|---|
| New note | New note (in that folder) |
| New folder | New folder |
| Rename… | Rename… |
| Make a copy | — |
| Delete | Delete |
Moving is not in this menu: run file-explorer:move-file, which opens a fuzzy folder
picker. Each of the others is a command too, so it can have a key of its own —
file-explorer:new-file, file-explorer:new-folder, workspace:edit-file-title (F2),
file-explorer:duplicate-file, app:delete-file.
Renaming and moving rewrite the links in the rest of the vault. What exactly that means — which links change, which are left byte for byte, what happens to aliases — is the subject of managing notes, and worth reading once before you rename anything in a vault you care about.
Files that change on disk
The tree follows the folder. A file added, removed, renamed or moved by anything else — git, a sync client, Obsidian in another window — appears or disappears here within a moment, without a refresh. A folder moved into the vault is walked and added whole; a folder removed takes everything under it out of the index.
Not yet
- Drag and drop. Run
file-explorer:move-fileinstead, which offers a fuzzy folder picker. - Inline title editing. Rename through the menu or
F2. - Pasting or dropping attachments into the vault. Put the file in the folder yourself; the tree will notice.
- Sorting options. Folders-then-name, case-insensitive, is the only order.
- File starring or bookmarks.
Next
- Managing notes — what renaming does to your links.
- Reading view