Pin Board

Pin Board

A Pinterest-style board for Obsidian. Point it at a folder and it shows every image and short video inside it as a vertical, scrollable masonry feed — no spreading things out across a canvas. Optionally attach a note to any pin.

Install (manual, no build step needed)

Requires Obsidian 1.4.0 or newer.

1. In your vault, open the folder .obsidian/plugins/ (create plugins if it isn't there). On your computer this is inside your vault folder; the .obsidian folder is hidden, so enable "show hidden files".
2. Make a new folder there called pin-board.
3. Copy these three files into it:
   • main.js
   • manifest.json
   • styles.css
4. In Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → turn on Pin Board. (You may need to toggle "Restricted mode" off first.)

First time? Start here

1. Open the board: click the grid icon in the left ribbon (or run the Open Pin Board command).
2. Pin the tab so it can't get replaced: right-click the Pin Board tab at the top → Pin.
3. Point it at your pictures: pick a folder from the dropdown at the top-left, or just drag some images straight onto the board.

That's it — your masonry board is live. Everything below is extra detail.

Use

• Keep the board's tab pinned so the whole board stays visible: right-click the Pin Board tab at the top → Pin. If it isn't pinned, clicking a picture replaces the board with that single image — pinning prevents that.
• Click the grid icon in the left ribbon, or run the command Open Pin Board.
• Switch which folder you're viewing with the dropdown at the top.
• Or just click a folder in the file explorer (or Notebook Navigator) and the open board switches to it automatically. Turn this off with "Follow folder clicks" in settings if you'd rather only use the dropdown.
• Click All pins in the board header (or pick "Entire vault" in the dropdown) to see every pin from every folder together in one masonry view.
• Drag image or video files from outside Obsidian (Windows Explorer, a browser) straight onto the board to add them to the folder you're viewing.
• Or right-click any folder in the file explorer → Open as Pin Board.
• Paste an image from your clipboard (Ctrl+V) with a board open to drop it straight into the folder you're viewing.
• Click an image to open it full-size. Use ← / → (or the on-screen arrows) to flip through the whole board; Esc or click to close.
• Right-click any pin for Open note or Delete pin. Delete moves the file (and its caption note) to trash, so it's recoverable.
• Hover a pin and click ✎ Note to create/open a note for that pin. The note has a caption: field — whatever you put there shows under the pin.

Notes

• A "board" is just a folder. Subfolders are included, so a topic folder with sub-topics shows everything together. Newest files appear first.
• Supported files: images (png, jpg, jpeg, gif, webp, svg, bmp, avif) and videos (mp4, webm, mov, m4v, ogv). Other file types in the folder are ignored.
• The board updates itself. Drop an image into the folder (or remove/rename one) while the board is open and the pin appears, disappears, or updates on its own — no manual refresh needed. Editing a pin's caption note updates the caption live too.
• Big boards load in small batches: only a handful of pins render at first, and more load as you scroll (or via the "Load more" button). Nothing renders the whole folder at once, so large boards stay light on memory. Adjust the batch size in settings ("Pins per batch") if you want it even lighter.
• Captions are stored in a sidecar note named <image>.md next to each file, so they're real, searchable Obsidian notes — nothing locked inside the plugin.
• Settings let you change the default folder, how many columns the masonry shows, caption display, batch size, and whether the board follows folder clicks.

Troubleshooting

• Only one picture shows, or the board "disappeared." The tab wasn't pinned, so clicking a picture replaced the board with that single image. Reopen it (ribbon icon or Open Pin Board) and pin the tab (right-click it → Pin).
• It's showing pictures from other folders. The board is set to "All pins" / "Entire vault." Pick the folder you want from the dropdown at the top-left.
• A picture I added isn't showing up. Make sure it landed in the folder the board is currently set to (check the dropdown). The board updates on its own once the file is in the right folder.
• Pictures are too big or too small. Change Columns across in settings — fewer columns = bigger pictures, more columns = smaller. The masonry also fills out as you add more pictures, so a board with only a few will look sparse.
• Notes/captions are showing on the board and I don't want them. Turn off Show captions in settings. Your notes still exist; they just won't display under the pins.
• I can't paste a video from a website. Browsers can't copy video the way they copy images, so this isn't possible — see Adding videos above for how to add a video instead.

Why this won't rot

It's plain JavaScript using only Obsidian's stable public API — no TypeScript, no esbuild, no external dependencies. If something ever breaks, the whole plugin is one short readable file you (or a helper) can patch in minutes.

Support

If you enjoy Pin Board, you can support its development here:

☕ Buy Me a Coffee

License

MIT — see the LICENSE file. You're free to use, modify, and share it.