Name: Related Notes by Tag – Obsidian Plugin · Obsidian Stats
Rating: 47 (18 reviews)
Author: Chris Howard

by Chris Howard

Score: 47/100

Description

Category: Learning & Knowledge Management

The Related Notes by Tag plugin helps you uncover connections across your vault by surfacing notes that share common tags with the one you're viewing. It quietly runs in the background, updating in real time as you switch between notes, and shows the results in a clean sidebar panel. You can sort related notes by name or date, filter them based on how many tags they share, and even see exactly which tags link them together. Notes open instantly with a click, or in new tabs with a modifier key, making navigation fluid.

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Stats

stars

3,503

downloads

forks

374

days

total PRs

open PRs

closed PRs

merged PRs

total issues

open issues

closed issues

commits

Latest Version

0.5.0

2 days ago

Changelog

[0.5.0]

Changed

Comprehensive compliance pass addressing every finding from Obsidian's plugin review scan: async/promise handling correctness, popout-window (activeDocument/activeWindow) compatibility, removal of all !important CSS declarations, minor DOM API and type-safety cleanup, and switching the committed lockfile to pnpm-lock.yaml to match the project's package manager. See the entries below for full detail on each change.

Fixed

Fix an intermittent "Cannot read properties of null" error in hover preview, and a low-contrast hover state on the folder exclusion delete button in themes with translucent error colours, both found and verified while testing this pass.

[0.4.11]

Changed

Switch the committed lockfile from package-lock.json (npm) to pnpm-lock.yaml, matching the project's actual package manager
Ignore session-exports/ in git; move OBSIDIAN-PLUGIN-REVIEW.md into plans/ and track it alongside the cleanup plan it drove

[0.4.10]

Changed

Minor DOM API cleanup flagged by Obsidian's plugin review scan: use createDiv() instead of createEl('div', ...) in the dropdown menu item and tag group header, and drop two type assertions (as HTMLInputElement, as RelatedNotesView) that were already redundant since the value was narrowed by an earlier instanceof guard
Fix README support link pointing at chrishoward/related-notes-by-tag; the actual repository is under chrishoward-projects/related-notes-by-tag

[0.4.9]

Fixed

Fix low-contrast hover on the folder exclusion delete button, where the red icon became hard to read against the red hover background in some themes. The hover now uses Obsidian's neutral --background-modifier-hover instead of --background-modifier-error-hover, which is defined as a translucent overlay in several themes rather than a solid fill

Changed

Remove all !important declarations from styles.css, per Obsidian's plugin review guidelines. The dropdown menu's show/hide toggle now relies on the .is-visible compound selector's natural specificity, and the folder exclusion delete button is scoped to its settings container so it outranks Obsidian's default button styling on specificity alone. This stops the plugin's styles from overriding themes and user CSS snippets

[0.4.8]

Fixed

Fix intermittent "Cannot read properties of null (reading 'appendChild')" error in hover preview: the preview popup could be dismissed (via releasing the modifier key, moving the mouse away, or clicking elsewhere) while its content was still being read from disk, leaving a stale render call to run against a popup that no longer existed; now re-checks the popup is still current before rendering
Resolve popout-window compatibility issues flagged by Obsidian's plugin review scan: replaced bare document/setTimeout/clearTimeout with activeDocument/activeWindow.setTimeout()/activeWindow.clearTimeout() throughout, so hover preview, dropdown outside-click handling, and folder autocomplete keep working correctly in popped-out tabs; persistent preview listeners now use Obsidian's registerDomEvent for automatic cleanup

[0.4.7]

Fixed

Resolve async/promise-handling issues flagged by Obsidian's plugin review scan: unawaited promises in view updates, settings saves, and file-opening now properly awaited or explicitly marked with void where fire-and-forget is intentional; DOM event listener callback no longer mismatched with an async return type

See all version on GitHub

README file from

Github

Discover related content in your Obsidian vault through tag-based connections. This plugin displays notes that share tags with your currently active note, helping you find related notes and build stronger knowledge connections. For note takers using generic titles, like Zettelkasten and atomic notes, use its excerpts feature.

If you're a heavy tag user, this plugin makes tags even more useful.

1.00

Features

Automatic Discovery: Instantly shows related notes when you open any tagged note
Sidebar Integration: Clean, unobtrusive sidebar panel that fits seamlessly into your Obsidian workflow
Real-time Updates: Automatically refreshes when you switch between notes
Tag-based Matching: Finds notes that share one or more tags with your current note
Flexible Sorting: Sort related notes by name, modified date, or creation date
Tag Filtering: Set minimum tag match requirements (1, 2, or 3+ matching tags)
Matched Tags Display: Toggle to show which specific tags are shared between notes
Titles and Excerpts: Show a note's title, a content excerpt, or both — ideal for Zettelkasten or atomic notes with generic, date-based titles
Collapsible Groups: Organize results by tag with expandable/collapsible sections
Folder Exclusion: Exclude files from specific folders with granular control over subfolders

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins

Open Obsidian Settings
Go to Community Plugins
Search for "Related Notes by Tag"
Click Install, then Enable

Manual Installation

Download the latest release from GitHub
Extract to your vault's .obsidian/plugins/related-notes-by-tag/ folder
Enable the plugin in Obsidian Settings > Community Plugins

How to Use

Find the Panel: After installation, the Related Notes by Tag panel automatically appears in your right sidebar (but stays closed)
Open the Panel: Click on the "Related Notes by Tag" tab in the right sidebar, or use the command palette ("Open Related Notes by Tag sidebar")
Browse Related Notes: The panel will automatically show notes related to your active note
Customize Display: Use the controls to sort, filter, and toggle tag visibility
Navigate: Click note titles to open them, or use modifier keys for new tabs
Quick Navigation: Click any note title to open it immediately
Modifier Support: Cmd/Ctrl+click to open notes in new tabs
Preview Support: Hover with Cmd/Ctrl held to preview note content

USAGE TIP

If you're finding a tag for a note has too many notes below it, try switching the filter to 2 matches or 3 matches. Also, try adding more tags to your current note

Settings

Access plugin settings through Obsidian Settings > Plugin Options > Related Notes by Tag:

General Settings

Default Sort Mode: Choose how related notes are sorted by default
Excluded Tags: Specify tags to ignore when finding related notes (# prefix optional)
Default Group State: Set whether tag groups start collapsed or expanded

Titles and Excerpts

Note Display Mode: Show the title, an excerpt of the note's content, or both
Excerpt Length: Set how much content to show, measured in sentences, words, or characters
Include Heading: Optionally include a note's leading heading as part of the excerpt
Plain Text Excerpts: Markdown formatting, links, and tags are automatically stripped so excerpts read as plain text
Title Colour: Set a custom colour for the note title/excerpt link, with a reset button to return to your theme's default
Title Font Size: Set a custom font size in pixels, with a reset button to return to your theme's default
Title Font Weight: Choose Normal, Medium, Semibold, or Bold, or leave at Default for your theme's usual weight

Folder Exclusion

Exclude Specific Folders: Add multiple folder paths to exclude from related notes
Autocomplete Support: Type folder paths with intelligent autocomplete suggestions
Include Subfolders Toggle: Choose whether to exclude just the folder or include all subfolders
Dynamic Descriptions: Real-time preview of what will be excluded as you configure settings
Easy Management: Add folders with one click, delete with intuitive trash icon