Hotkeys Cheatsheet

Hotkeys Cheatsheet

A live, searchable reference card for all your Obsidian keyboard shortcuts — opened instantly from the ribbon or command palette.

What it does

Obsidian's built-in hotkey settings show a flat alphabetical list of 250+ commands. This plugin gives you a visual overview instead: a newspaper-style multi-column layout with every shortcut you have assigned, complete with Cmd, Shift, Option, Ctrl key badges rendered for your OS.

Features

• Live data — reads your actual keymap at runtime (default hotkeys + your custom overrides), so it always reflects what's really assigned
• Newspaper-style columns — content flows top-to-bottom within each column then spills right; scroll horizontally to see more columns, or vertically on narrow viewports
• Categorised sections — core commands grouped by workflow (Editing, Navigation, Search, Files & Vault, Workspace); community plugin commands grouped by plugin name
• Collapsible sections — click any category heading to collapse or expand it; collapse/expand all with the icon button in the toolbar
• Real-time search — filter by command name or key character (type b to find all Cmd B, Cmd Shift B, etc.); collapsed sections auto-expand while searching and restore when cleared
• Search clear button — × button inside the search field clears the query instantly
• Modifier filter — dropdown to show only hotkeys that include specific modifiers (AND logic: select Cmd + Shift to find all Cmd Shift combos)
• OS-aware badges — Cmd/Option on macOS, Ctrl/Alt/Win on Windows/Linux
• Special key icons — arrow keys show ↑↓←→, Enter shows ↵, Backspace shows ⌫, Tab shows ⇥, etc.
• Theme-compatible — uses Obsidian CSS variables, works with any light or dark theme
• Ribbon toggle — hide or show the ribbon icon from Settings; the command palette entry always remains available

How to open it

• Click the keyboard icon in the ribbon (left sidebar)
• Or run Open Hotkeys Cheatsheet from the command palette (Cmd P)

Keyboard behaviour

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Settings

Open Settings → Hotkeys Cheatsheet to configure:

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Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 18
• An Obsidian vault for testing

Setup

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Copy .env.example and set your vault plugin path
cp .env.example .env

Scripts

# Production build → dist/main.js
npm run build

# Development build (sourcemaps, watch mode)
npm run dev

# Copy dist/ to your local vault plugin directory
npm run deploy

# Build + deploy in one step
npm run dev:deploy

# Remove dist/
npm run clean

Project structure

src/
├── ts/
│   ├── main.ts              Plugin entry point — ribbon icon, command, ribbon visibility setting
│   ├── settingsTab.ts       Settings tab — ribbon toggle and about blurb
│   ├── cheatsheetModal.ts   Modal UI — columns, search, collapse, modifier filter, kbd badges
│   ├── hotkeyCollector.ts   Data layer — merges defaultKeys + customKeys, categorises, sorts
│   ├── categories.ts        Curated prefix → category map and display order
│   ├── i18n.ts              Locale detection and t() helper
│   └── i18n/
│       ├── en.json          English strings
│       ├── fr.json          French strings
│       └── es.json          Spanish strings
└── css/
    └── styles.css           All plugin styles (Obsidian CSS vars, no hardcoded colours)

How hotkey data is collected

Obsidian exposes two internal maps on app.hotkeyManager:

app.hotkeyManager.defaultKeys  // Record<commandId, Hotkey[]> — Obsidian built-in defaults
app.hotkeyManager.customKeys   // Record<commandId, Hotkey[]> — user overrides

These are undocumented internal properties. A runtime guard checks for their existence and emits a console warning if they're missing (future-proofing against API changes).

Merge rule: if a command ID exists in customKeys, use those hotkeys (even [] — meaning the user cleared the default); otherwise fall back to defaultKeys.

Why not getHotkeys(id)? It returns only user overrides, missing all built-in defaults (~41 hotkeys in a standard vault).

Categorisation

Commands are categorised using a hybrid strategy:

1. If the command ID prefix (before the first :) matches a curated map → use the mapped workflow category
2. If the prefix is unknown → title-case it as a plugin group name
3. If there is no : in the ID → parse the display name for a "PluginName: …" pattern; fall back to "Other"

Core category order: Editing → Navigation → Search → Files & Vault → Workspace → (plugin groups, alphabetical)

Localisation

The plugin UI is available in English (default), French, and Spanish. Language is detected automatically from Obsidian's locale setting.

To add a new language:

1. Copy src/ts/i18n/en.json to src/ts/i18n/<code>.json (e.g. de.json)
2. Translate all values — keys must stay identical to en.json
3. Import and register it in src/ts/i18n.ts:

   import de from "./i18n/de.json";
   const locales = { en, fr, es, de };
   

4. Rebuild: npm run build

Releases

1. Bump the version — choose patch, minor, or major:

   npm run release:prepare patch
   

   Updates package.json and manifest.json, then commits both as "chore: bump version to X.Y.Z".

2. Make your code changes and commit them:

   git add -A && git commit -m "feat: ..."
   

3. Publish — pushes the branch, creates a bare version tag (e.g. 1.1.6), and pushes the tag:

   npm run release
   

   The tag push triggers the GitHub Actions workflow, which builds and publishes the release.