Papertrail

Link: https://github.com/ankitchouhan1020/papertrail

Papertrail — skim the vault, keep writingPapertrail
Skim the vault. Keep the editor.

Obsidian’s file tree is great for where a note lives. It is worse for what’s in a hundred notes when you just want to skim, jump, and keep writing.

Papertrail is a sidebar list of every markdown note: compact rows with title, excerpt, and modified date. A footer handles filter and quick-create. Right-click stays aligned with File Explorer — open in new tab, rename, delete, reveal in navigation — plus whatever else plugins hang on the file menu.

Why it exists

I wanted Bear-like calm in Obsidian: a narrow reading column, less cockpit chrome, and a way to browse notes as documents, not paths. Papertrail is that list view — pick a note, open it, keep context beside the editor.

Sort by modified date, title, or path. Optionally hide excluded paths (and dotted segments) so the list stays honest about what you actually open.

Install

From Releases, drop main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css into .obsidian/plugins/papertrail/, or add ankitchouhan1020/papertrail via BRAT. Requires Obsidian 1.5.0+.

Source: github.com/ankitchouhan1020/papertrail.