Floating Notes

Floating Notes

A lightweight Obsidian plugin that opens a floating popout window for instant note capture — inspired by Raycast Notes.

Why

Raycast Notes lets you jot down ideas instantly with a global hotkey and a clean, floating editor. macOS makes truly global hotkeys hard to wire up to a single Obsidian command, so this plugin combines:

• An in-app command (Toggle floating notes) you can bind in Obsidian's hotkey settings
• An obsidian://floating-notes URI handler you can trigger from Raycast / Shortcuts / Alfred for a system-wide hotkey
• A loopback HTTP endpoint (http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle) for shell scripts and other tools

The result: press one hotkey from anywhere, get a distraction-free Obsidian editor floating above your work, press again to hide it.

Features

• Toggle popout — show / hide a native Obsidian editor window without losing state
• Always on top — popout floats above other apps (optional)
• Three capture modes
  • Current active note — opens whatever note you're viewing
  • Fixed note — always opens a specific note (e.g. Inbox.md)
  • New note every time — creates a fresh timestamped note in a folder
• Multiple triggers — Obsidian command, obsidian://floating-notes URI, or local HTTP endpoint

Installation

Manual

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release
2. Create a folder <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/floating-notes/
3. Copy the files into that folder
4. Enable Floating Notes in Settings → Community plugins

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/haotiencheng/obsidian-floating-notes.git
cd obsidian-floating-notes
npm install
npm run build

Then copy main.js and manifest.json into your vault's plugin folder.

Usage

In Obsidian (local hotkey)

Settings → Hotkeys → search Toggle floating notes → bind a key. No default hotkey is set.

This hotkey only fires when Obsidian is the active app. For a truly global hotkey, see below.

Global hotkey (system-wide)

Obsidian plugins can't register OS-level hotkeys directly (the only API that allows it, electron.remote.globalShortcut, is deprecated and forbidden by the community plugin guidelines). The standard workaround — used by QuickAdd and others — is to delegate to a system-wide launcher that triggers the plugin externally.

Floating Notes exposes two external triggers:

Pair one of those triggers with the system-wide launcher of your choice.

Prerequisites

1. Floating Notes is installed and enabled in Obsidian
2. A system-wide launcher installed (Raycast, macOS Shortcuts, Alfred, Hammerspoon, Karabiner-Elements — pick one)

Recipes

Raycast (macOS — recommended)

1. Create a file named floating-notes.sh anywhere you like (e.g. ~/raycast-scripts/) with this content:

   #!/bin/bash
   
   # @raycast.schemaVersion 1
   # @raycast.title Toggle Floating Notes
   # @raycast.mode silent
   # @raycast.icon 📝
   # @raycast.packageName Obsidian
   # @raycast.description Toggle the Obsidian Floating Notes popout window.
   
   curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null
   

2. Make it executable: chmod +x ~/raycast-scripts/floating-notes.sh
3. Raycast → Preferences → Extensions → Script Commands → Add Directory → pick the folder containing the script
4. Open Raycast → search Toggle Floating Notes → click the gear (⌘ ⇧ ,) → Record Hotkey → press your combo

If you cloned this repo, skip steps 1–2 and point Raycast at the cloned folder — floating-notes.sh is already there.

macOS Shortcuts (built-in, no extras)

1. Shortcuts app → + new shortcut, name it Floating Notes
2. Add action Run Shell Script → paste:

   curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null
   

3. Shortcut Details (sidebar) → Add Keyboard Shortcut → press key combo

Alfred (Powerpack required)

1. Workflows → + → Blank Workflow
2. Right-click canvas → Triggers → Hotkey → set key
3. Connect to Actions → Run Script (/bin/bash) → paste:

   curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null
   

Hammerspoon (free, scriptable)

Add to ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua:

hs.hotkey.bind({"alt"}, "N", function()
  hs.execute("/usr/bin/curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle")
end)

Reload config from the Hammerspoon menu bar icon.

Karabiner-Elements (free, low-level)

Complex modification JSON — import into your config:

{
  "from": { "key_code": "n", "modifiers": { "mandatory": ["right_option"] } },
  "to": [{ "shell_command": "/usr/bin/curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle" }],
  "type": "basic"
}

Raycast (Windows)

1. Create a file named floating-notes.bat (e.g. in %USERPROFILE%\raycast-scripts\) with this content:

   @echo off >nul 2>&1
   chcp 65001 >nul 2>&1
   setlocal
   
   REM @raycast.schemaVersion 1
   REM @raycast.title Toggle Floating Notes
   REM @raycast.mode silent
   REM @raycast.icon 📝
   REM @raycast.packageName Obsidian
   REM @raycast.description Toggle the Obsidian Floating Notes popout window.
   
   curl.exe -s -m 2 -o nul "http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle" >nul 2>&1
   
   exit /b 0
   

2. Raycast → Preferences → Extensions → Script Commands → Add Directory → pick the folder containing the script
3. Open Raycast → search Toggle Floating Notes → assign a hotkey

Windows (AutoHotkey v2 — alternative to Raycast)

!n::RunWait("curl.exe -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle", , "Hide")

Linux (e.g. sxhkd)

Add to ~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc:

alt + n
    curl -s http://127.0.0.1:51234/toggle > /dev/null

Settings

Notes

• Desktop only. The plugin uses Electron and Node http APIs that aren't available on Obsidian Mobile.
• The local HTTP server only accepts connections from 127.0.0.1.

Inspiration

Raycast Notes — a beautiful, instant note-taking experience via a global hotkey. Floating Notes brings that frictionless capture workflow into Obsidian.

License

MIT