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Open to Side

by Josh Sterckx
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Score: 50/100
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Description

Obsidian plugin: Cmd+Alt+click opens links in the existing tab group to the right instead of always creating a new split.

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stars
38
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8
days
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Latest Version

1.1.2
9 days ago

Changelog

Housekeeping release for the community plugin review. No behaviour changes.

Now requires Obsidian 1.7.2 or later. The plugin calls revealLeaf to bring the side group's tab to the front, and that returns a promise only from 1.7.2 onwards — the manifest had been claiming 1.4.0, which the review flagged. Dropping the call instead would have left notes opening into a hidden background tab, so the declared minimum moves up to match what the code actually needs.

Everything else is internal: the build no longer depends on builtin-modules, some unnecessary type assertions and an alias of this are gone, and the repo now runs the same lint rules the plugin directory's review bot does.

See all version on GitHub

README file from

Github

Open to Side

An Obsidian plugin that makes Cmd+Alt+click (Ctrl+Alt+click on Windows/Linux) open a link in the existing tab group to the right, instead of creating a brand-new split every time.

Obsidian's native behaviour stacks up a new column on each click, so previewing a handful of linked notes quickly shreds your layout. This keeps one side column and reuses it — closer to Notion's side preview panel.

A new split is only created when there isn't a group to the right already.

Install

Not yet in the community plugin directory. Until then:

  • BRAT — install the BRAT plugin, then Add beta plugin with joshsterckx/obsidian-open-to-side.
  • Manually — download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/open-to-side/, then enable it under Settings → Community plugins.

Behaviour

  • Only the trigger click is overridden. The "Split right" command and other plugins' split-opens keep Obsidian's native behaviour.
  • Works for links in Live Preview and Reading mode, and for the file explorer, search results and backlinks.
  • Clicking from inside the side column opens there rather than chaining a third column.
  • Pinned tabs are never replaced.

Settings

Setting Default Effect
Trigger Cmd+Alt+click Which click opens a note in the side group. Also available: Cmd+click, Cmd+Shift+click, Alt+click, Alt+Shift+click, Shift+click.
Keep focus in the current note On Leaves the cursor where it was, so you can keep reading and previewing. Turn off to jump into the side pane.
Reuse the side tab On Replaces the side group's current tab, keeping it to a single preview. Turn off to open a new tab each time.

Combos are matched exactly, so choosing Alt+click won't also fire on Cmd+Alt+click. Picking a non-default trigger takes over whatever that combo normally does in Obsidian, and hands Cmd+Alt+click back to its default of always opening a new split.

Development

npm install
npm run dev          # watch build
npm run build        # typecheck + production build
npm run install-local  # copy main.js + manifest.json into the vault

install-local defaults to ~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~md~obsidian/Documents/Vault. Point it elsewhere with VAULT=/path/to/vault npm run install-local.

How it works

Every split-open funnels through workspace.getLeaf("split"), so the plugin patches that single method rather than trying to intercept link clicks in the DOM — which would need separate handling for Live Preview, Reading mode, the file explorer, search and backlinks.

To keep the override narrow, a capture-phase listener records whether a trigger click just happened (it does not intercept), and the patch only redirects when that flag is fresh.

A custom trigger needs one more piece. Obsidian only produces getLeaf("split") for its own Cmd+Alt+click, so a combo like plain Alt+click would never reach that patch. Obsidian asks the public Keymap.isModEvent what a click means at each link-click site, so the plugin wraps it to report "split" for the chosen combo — which means custom triggers go through Obsidian's own link handling and keep working everywhere, with no DOM link parsing.

Live Preview needs one exception. Inside the editor, Alt and Shift already mean "rectangular selection" and "extend selection", so Obsidian bails out of link handling for a plain Alt- or Shift-click before it consults isModEvent — its gate is Keymap.isModifier(evt, "Mod"). The plugin wraps that too, reporting Mod for the chosen combo, but only for clicks inside an editor, since that is the only place the gate exists.

Resolving the target group uses some workspace internals that aren't in the public typings (children, parentSplit, leaf.parent). Every read of them is guarded, so if a future Obsidian release changes them the plugin falls back to native split behaviour instead of breaking link opening.

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