Community Install Manager

Community Install Manager

Install, enable, and configure Obsidian community plugins from simple JSON files. Useful for syncing vault setups across devices or sharing a predefined configuration.

Overview

Community Install Manager reads plugin IDs and optional settings from JSON files in your vault's .obsidian folder, then installs missing community plugins, enables them, and applies configuration.

Typical uses:

• Sync plugin setups across multiple devices
• Share vault configurations with a team
• Bootstrap a new vault with a known set of plugins

Network use

This plugin makes network requests when installing plugins:

No telemetry is sent. Installs happen only for plugin IDs you put in community-plugins-list.json (and only when auto-install or the install command runs).

Security warning

Important: this plugin can download and install other community plugins into your vault.

• Only use it in vaults where you trust the source of community-plugins-list.json
• Review that file before enabling auto-install
• Installed plugins may access your vault data and, on desktop, the file system
• The latest release of each listed plugin is installed, which may include breaking changes
• Use at your own risk; the author is not responsible for plugins installed on your behalf

Features

• Install missing plugins from the Obsidian Community Plugins registry
• Optionally enable plugins after installation
• Apply settings from a JSON file after install and/or on startup
• Refresh the Obsidian UI after install/enable
• Manual install command from the Command Palette

Installation

Manual installation

1. Download the latest release from the GitHub repository
2. Extract the archive to your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ folder
3. Rename the extracted folder to automatic-installation-of-plugins
4. Open Obsidian Settings → Community plugins
5. Turn Safe mode off
6. Enable Community Install Manager

Configuration files

Place these files in your vault's .obsidian folder:

.vault/
├── .obsidian/
│   ├── plugins/
│   ├── community-plugins-list.json
│   └── community-plugins-settings.json

community-plugins-list.json

Array of plugin IDs to install and enable:

[
  "advanced-tables",
  "templater-obsidian",
  "obsidian-linter",
  "obsidian-git"
]

community-plugins-settings.json

Object mapping plugin IDs to settings written into each plugin's data.json:

{
  "templater-obsidian": {
    "templates_folder": "Templates",
    "trigger_on_file_open": true,
    "command_timeout": 5
  },
  "obsidian-linter": {
    "auto_format_on_save": true,
    "lint_on_load": false
  },
  "obsidian-git": {
    "pullInterval": 60,
    "autoPullInterval": 0
  }
}

Example workflow

1. Create community-plugins-list.json with the plugin IDs you want.
2. Optionally create community-plugins-settings.json with per-plugin settings.
3. Enable Community Install Manager (and the auto-install / auto-enable options you want).
4. Restart Obsidian, or run Install plugins from list from the Command Palette.

Settings

How it works

1. On startup (if enabled), the plugin reads community-plugins-list.json from .obsidian.
2. Missing plugins are resolved via the community registry, then downloaded from their GitHub releases.
3. If auto-enable is on, installed plugins are enabled and the UI is refreshed.
4. If settings sync is on, values from community-plugins-settings.json are written to each plugin's data.json.

Finding plugin IDs

1. Open the Obsidian Community Plugins site
2. Open the plugin page; the ID is usually in the URL or the plugin's manifest.json

Examples: obsidian-git, templater-obsidian, obsidian-linter, calendar, dataview

Troubleshooting

Plugins not installing

• Confirm community-plugins-list.json exists and contains valid IDs
• IDs are case-sensitive
• Check the developer console (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+I) for errors
• Confirm you have network access to GitHub

Plugins not enabling

• Confirm Auto-enable plugins after installation is on
• Check the console during enable
• Try Reload under Settings → Community plugins

Settings not applying

• Confirm community-plugins-settings.json is valid JSON
• IDs in that file must match installed plugin IDs
• Confirm Apply settings on installation or Sync settings on every startup is on

Desktop only

This plugin uses Node.js APIs (fs, path, https) and is desktop-only (isDesktopOnly: true).

Links

• Author: Konstantin Volobuev
• Repository: obsidian-automatic-installation-of-plugins
• Issues: GitHub Issues

License

MIT. See LICENSE.