An Obsidian plugin that generates an index (or MOC) for any zettelkasten-style numbered folders.
This plugin was generated using Claude Sonnet 4. Because it's AI slop, I haven't submitted it to the main Obsidian plugin repository. I've checked the code and it looks safe, but there's no warranty on this plugin. Caveat emptor, etc.
I have no idea if this will be useful to anyone. I've been finding it useful.
The plugin looks for zettelkasten-style numbered folders, and adds them to a note called "Numbered Folders Index".
In my Vault, I have folders organized like this:
- 01 - Collections
- 02 - Work
- 03 - planning
etc.
In Collections, I have nested folders like:
- 01.01 - Topics
- 01.02 - People
- 01.10 - Committees
- 01.11 - Institutions
- 01.20 - Ideas
- 01.80 - Articles
- 01.81 - Clippings
- 01.82 - Code snippets
etc.
So, those are actually nested like:
- 01 - Collections
- 01.01 - Topics
- 01.02 - People
- 01.10 - Committees
- 01.11 - Institutions
- 01.20 - Ideas
- 01.80 - Articles
- 01.81 - Clippings
- 01.82 - Code snippets
etc.
And this keeps going, for something like:
- 02 - Work
- 02.02 - learning technologies
- 02.02.01 - brightspace
- 02.02 - learning technologies
etc.
I have some that are nested 4 levels deep.
I also have some folders that start with a year, like "2022 videoconferencing" - and these aren't included in the index. Only folders that use the ##.##.##.## format get included.
Additionally, I use the Folder Notes Plugin by Lost Paul to generate notes for specific folders. Sometimes, folder notes include additional info. Usually, that is another index generated by the Waypoint plugin. Sometimes, they include dataviews, notes, and other useful tools. If a folder note exists for a numbered folder, the Numbered Folders Index page will link directly to it. Handy.
If you organize your Obsidian Vault using numbered folders ala zettelkasten, this might work for you.
The Numbered Folders Index note gets generated (or refreshed) when the plugin is activated. There is also a Command to refresh the index on demand - "Numbered Folders Index: Regenerate numbered folders index", which does what it says on the tin.
The plugin isn't customizable in any way (other than modifying the code). There aren't any settings or configuration options.
One potential issue is if you already have a note named "Numbered Folders Index" at the root of your Vault. This plugin will overwrite that file. There isn't a config setting to change the note used for the index.
This plugin isn't in the main Obsidian Plugins Directory because it's an "AI Slop" project, created with Claude. The Obsidian team has been overrun by AI-generated plugins, so I'm holding back on adding this to their queue until I've been using it for awhile.
Download the numbered-folders-index folder from Git, unzip it, and copy it into your Obsidian vault at:
(vault directory)/.obsidian/plugins/
Then open your Obsidian vault's settings, go to Community Plugins and hit the "refresh" button just above the list of installed plugins. "Numbered Folders Index" should show up. Turn it on. That's it. The Numbered Folders Index note should have been automatically created and filled with an index of all of your numbered folders.
Kind of. But it's handy to have a page with the links (for reference), and the index feeds The Graph™ to help make connections based on the zettelkasten folder structure.
Yup. I did that initially. But those don't feed into The Graph™, and the view refreshes pretty often. Adding numbered folders doesn't happen very often, so running it once in a while is more than enough.