obsidian-visualizer

Providing core obsidian features in VSCode: graphs, backlinks,...

VSCode marketplace: Obsidian Visualizer

Usage

Install the extension, it will read workspace on startup. After intial read, you can view global graph, local graph

If graphs doesn't rendered as intended: Command Pallete > Force workspace parse

Features

• Local graph: open a markdown file, Command Pallete > Show Local Graph
• Global graph: Command Pallette > Show Global graph
• Force reparse: Command Pallette > Force workspace parse
• Link resolve given a filename or a path
• Autocomplete: Type [[ or ](https://github.com/khuongduy354/obsidian-visualizer-vscode/blob/HEAD/ to get file suggestions
• Ctrl+Click: Navigate to linked files by Ctrl/Cmd+Click on [[link]] or [](link)
• GUI
  • double click on node to open file
  • smart hover: highlights connected nodes and edges when hovering
  • toggle forward links, backlinks
  • directional arrows: green (forward), red (backward), purple (bidirectional)
  • showing non-exist files (as blurred)
  • auto-refresh when files or settings change
  • smooth interactions: drag nodes, zoom/pan, optimized for large vaults
• Search (global graph only)
  • filename: (starts search with filename:)
  • path: (starts search with path:)

Note: it will included all markdown files recursively starting from the root directory of current workspace, multiple workspace not supported

Configuration

Graph Visualization

The graph view includes interactive controls in the UI panel to adjust:

Visual Settings:

• Node Size (2-50): Base node radius. Nodes scale with connection count
• Font Size (6-30): Base label text size. Labels show/hide based on zoom level

Force Simulation:

• Repulsion (100-5000): How much nodes push apart
• Link Distance (30-800): Ideal distance between connected nodes
• Link Strength (0.001-0.1): How strongly links pull nodes together
• Center Force (0-0.1): Gravity toward center
• Collision Radius (10-100): Prevents node overlap
• Damping (0.1-0.9): Friction/settling speed

Tip for large vaults: Increase Repulsion and Link Distance to reduce clutter. Adjust settings live while viewing the graph!

You can also set default values in VSCode settings (obsidianVisualizer.graph.*).

File Filtering

• include: Glob patterns for files to include (empty = all files)
• exclude: Glob patterns to exclude (default: node_modules, hidden folders)
• linkPattern: Parse obsidian [[...]], markdown [](https://github.com/khuongduy354/obsidian-visualizer-vscode/blob/HEAD/...), or both

Run from source

Web

npm run watch-web  
npm run run-in-browser //another terminal 

VSCode Desktop (run from VSCode)

Press F5 or Command Pallete >Debug: Start Debugging

Release Notes

1.1.5

• Obsidian-like clean visual style (muted links, soft nodes)
• Zoom-based label visibility (less clutter)
• Connection-based node scaling (more links = bigger node)
• More generous default spacing for dense vaults

1.1.4

Major UI Overhaul:

• Custom D3 graph renderer (replaced neo4jd3) for better performance
• Directional arrows on links showing link direction
• Smart hover highlighting: connected nodes and edges light up
• Ctrl+Click navigation: Navigate to files by clicking links in markdown
• Optimized force simulation: no more bouncing nodes in large vaults
• Smooth animations and interactions (drag, zoom, pan)

Performance:

• Better handling of large vaults (100+ files)
• Stable graph layout with auto-stabilization
• Reduced memory usage

1.1.3

New Features:

• Link autocomplete: Type [[ or ](https://github.com/khuongduy354/obsidian-visualizer-vscode/blob/HEAD/ to get file suggestions
• Colored links: forward (green), backward (red), bidirectional (purple)
• Auto-refresh: Graph updates automatically when files or exclude/include settings change

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed resource leaks in file watchers and event listeners
• Fixed link color rendering in global graph
• Fixed backlinks data corruption on file updates
• Performance improvements (eliminated duplicate graph parsing)

1.1.2

• Add more notifications

• Fix bugs:

• Searching filter out nodes in relationship with result nodes, that is not part of the results.
• Empty files (which was skipped in previous versions) is now tracked.
• Virtual nodes now has a undefined (null-ish) uri instead of a placeholder like before

1.1.1

• Remove relative links
• Fix text display in virtual file
• Fix graph reparse on events bug

1.1.0

• Desktop supports

1.0.0

• Initial release of obsidian visualizer
• Local & Global graph rendering.
• Decent GUI: toggle links, highlightings nodes
• Search with filename and path
• Only for web version