MarkGarden VS Code Extension

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An elegant and high-performance VS Code extension that brings Obsidian's premium note-taking workflows directly into your editor: Interactive Graph View, Wikilinks Navigation ([[ ]]), Tag & Category Management, Daily Notes, and Smart Template Insertion. Perfect for Quartz users, markdown journalers, and digital gardeners.

Features

🕸️ Interactive Graph View & Local Graph

Visualize your knowledge network with a stunning, physics-driven force-directed graph:

Global Graph: Explore the full landscape of your digital garden, note relationships, and clusters.
Local Graph Mode: Focus directly on your active note and dynamically filter to immediate neighbors (customizable depth: 1-hop, 2-hop, 3-hop, 4-hop).
Live Synchronization: Updates in real-time as notes and wikilinks are created, edited, or deleted.
Search & Filters:
- Live search by note title.
- Filter and highlight nodes by tag or category.
- Toggle orphan notes (notes with zero links).
Interactive Physics & Controls:
- Smooth pan, zoom, and node dragging.
- Node hover highlights connected notes and displays rich metadata tooltips (Title, Path, Tags, Categories, and Inbound/Outbound link counts).
- Single click on any node opens the markdown note in the editor.
- Fit-to-screen view and simulation pause/resume.
Commands & Shortcuts:
- MarkGarden: Open Graph View (Ctrl+Alt+G / Cmd+Alt+G or click the graph icon in the editor title bar).
- MarkGarden: Open Local Graph View.

🔗 Wikilink Navigation & Auto-Creation (`[[ ]]`)

Experience seamless cross-note hyperlinking just like in Obsidian:

Interactive Jumping: Ctrl/Cmd+Click or F12 (Go to Definition) on any [[Note Name]] to jump straight to the target note.
Heading Anchors: Link directly to section headers with [[Note#Section]] or within the current file [[#Section]]. The editor scrolls directly to the heading line.
Display Aliases: Support for pipe syntax [[Target Note|Custom Display Text]].
Automatic Note Creation: Clicking a non-existent note link prompts/creates it automatically at your preferred location with initial title metadata and opens it in the editor.
Follow Link Shortcut: Press Alt+Enter on any link to navigate instantly.
IntelliSense Autocompletion: Typing [[ suggests note titles and note headings across the workspace.

🏷️ Tag & Category Management

Organize your second brain with full hybrid tag and category support:

Hybrid Tag Detection: Automatically indexes YAML frontmatter (tags: [...] or multi-line list) and inline hashtags (#productivity, #project/alpha/v1).
Category Support: Automatically indexes YAML frontmatter (categories: [...] or category: ...).
Sidebar Activity Bar Views:
- Tags Explorer: Displays all workspace tags with note count badges (e.g. 🏷️ project (5)). Expand to view matching notes and click to open.
- Categories Explorer: Displays all workspace categories with note counts and note drill-downs.
Command Palette Actions:
- MarkGarden: Add Tag to Current Note (adds to YAML frontmatter or inline)
- MarkGarden: Remove Tag from Current Note
- MarkGarden: Add Category to Current Note
- MarkGarden: Remove Category from Current Note
- MarkGarden: Find Notes by Tag (QuickPick search)
- MarkGarden: Find Notes by Category (QuickPick search)
- MarkGarden: Rename Tag Across Workspace (batch updates frontmatter and inline hashtags across all markdown notes)
- MarkGarden: Rename Category Across Workspace (batch updates frontmatter across all markdown notes)
Tag IntelliSense: Typing # provides autocompletion of existing workspace tags (smartly filtered to ignore markdown # Heading syntax, code blocks, and URLs).

🔍 Hover Note Previews & Transclusion (`![[ ]]`)

Inspect connected thoughts without losing your place:

Rich Hover Tooltips: Hover over any [[Note Name]], [[Note#Section]], [[Note#^block-id]], or ![[Embed]] in the editor to view an instant markdown tooltip showing note title, tags, category badges, and clean note preview.
Anchor-Specific Peeking: Hovering over a #heading or ^block-id link isolates and previews only that specific subsection or paragraph.
Missing Note Indicator: Hovering over an uncreated note link displays a one-click "Create Note" quick action.

✂️ Note Refactor & Zettelkasten Extraction

Effortlessly distill brain dumps and daily journals into atomic concept notes:

Extract Selection to Note: Select any markdown text and press Ctrl+Alt+E / Cmd+Alt+E (or right-click -> Extract Selection to Note).
Smart Title Suggestion: Automatically infers a clean note title from the selection's top heading or opening sentence.
Flexible Replacement Modes:
- Replace with [[New Note]] wikilink (default).
- Replace with ![[New Note]] transclusion embed.
- Replace with [[New Note|Custom Alias]].
- Create note without modifying the selection in source note.
Automatic Frontmatter & Source Backlinks: Generated notes automatically include YAML frontmatter with date and a bidirectional backlink source: "[[Source Note]]".

📌 Block References (`^block-id`)

Link to granular paragraphs, quotes, and list items across your workspace:

Block Anchors: End any paragraph or bullet item with ^my-block-id.
Block Autocompletion: Typing [[Note#^ or [[#^ suggests all indexed block IDs in the note with preview snippets.
Block Navigation & Definition: Ctrl/Cmd+Click or F12 on [[Note#^my-block-id]] jumps and centers directly on that block's line.

📅 Daily Note

Create or open today's daily log file instantly.

Command: MarkGarden: Create Daily Note
Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+D (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Alt+D (macOS)
Smart Templating: If today's daily note doesn't exist, it's automatically created. If a template is configured (e.g. templates/daily.md), it is read, parsed, and populated with resolved timestamps and filename values.
Auto-Open: Optionally open or create your daily note automatically on editor startup.

📋 Insert Template

Quickly insert processed markdown templates into your active markdown file at the cursor position.

Command: MarkGarden: Insert Template
Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+T (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Alt+T (macOS)
Metadata-Rich Dropdown: Scans your templates folder and reads the YAML frontmatter of each template to display Title, Filepath, Description, and Tags in an elegant, search-filterable VS Code QuickPick selector.

📝 Obsidian Properties & Frontmatter Suite

Supercharge frontmatter authoring with full Obsidian-like context-aware editing, auto-maintenance, and refactoring:

Context-Aware YAML IntelliSense:
- Property Key Completion: Suggests built-in Obsidian keys (title, date, updated, modified, tags, categories, aliases, author, status, summary, draft, publish, banner, up, related, type, etc.) and all custom property keys across your workspace.
- Tag & Category Suggestions: Typing under tags: or categories: (inline or list - item) suggests workspace-indexed tags and categories.
- Wikilink Completion: Typing [[ inside frontmatter fields (e.g. up:, related:, source:) completes note names.
- Date & Timestamp Snippets: Autocompletes today, now, YYYY-MM-DD, and full timestamps under date properties.
- Workspace Enum Value Suggestions: Suggests distinct previously used values for custom properties (e.g. status: suggests draft, in-progress, completed).
Auto-Update Modified Date on Save:
- Automatically updates the updated: or modified: timestamp in frontmatter on save without breaking formatting.
Frontmatter Management Commands:
- MarkGarden: Add / Set Frontmatter Property: QuickPick to select or create a property key and set its value.
- MarkGarden: Format Frontmatter: Normalizes YAML indentation, key order, and list syntax.
- MarkGarden: Rename Property Across Workspace: Batch-renames a frontmatter property key across all notes in the vault.
- MarkGarden: Convert Inline Tags to Frontmatter: Extracts inline #tags and moves/merges them into frontmatter tags:.
- MarkGarden: Sync Note Title with Filename: Synchronizes title: property with filename or H1 header.

🌱 Digital Garden Suite & Growth Stages

Transform your vault into a well-tended digital garden with full Quartz & Obsidian Publish compatibility:

Dedicated Digital Garden Sidebar View:
- Garden Health & Overview: Real-time health score, total note count, and publication ratio (% public).
- Growth Stages Explorer: Organize notes into 🌱 Seedlings (raw sparks/drafts), 🌿 Budding (developing structures), and 🌲 Evergreen (mature, high-value assets) with expandable trees.
- Publication Status Explorer: Group notes into 📢 Published vs 🔒 Private.
- Garden Doctor: Automated audits surfacing ⚠️ Broken Wikilinks, 🛡️ Privacy Leaks (public notes linking to private/unreleased notes), 🏝️ Orphan Notes, and 🚪 Dead Ends.
Interactive Status Bar Controls:
- Clickable status bar pills for instantaneous Growth Stage cycling (🌱 Seedling / 🌿 Budding / 🌲 Evergreen) and Publish Status toggling (📢 Published / 🔒 Private).
Live In-Editor Diagnostics:
- Non-blocking editor squiggles and warnings on broken links and privacy leaks in publishable notes.
Commands:
- MarkGarden: Toggle Publish Status (Ctrl+Alt+P / Cmd+Alt+P)
- MarkGarden: Set Growth Stage
- MarkGarden: Run Digital Garden Audit
- MarkGarden: Refresh Digital Garden

💡 Obsidian Callouts & Admonitions (`> [!note]`)

Author expressive, beautiful callout blocks with standard Obsidian syntax:

Supported Callout Types: note, abstract, summary, tldr, info, todo, tip, hint, important, success, check, done, question, help, faq, warning, caution, attention, failure, fail, missing, danger, error, bug, example, quote, cite.
Quick Inserter Command: MarkGarden: Insert Obsidian Callout / Admonition (Ctrl+Alt+C / Cmd+Alt+C). Interactive QuickPick to choose callout category, custom title, and foldability (+ expanded, - collapsed, or normal).
Editor Styling & Decorations: Subtle tinted background and accent borders in the markdown editor.
Markdown Preview Rendering: Full markdown-it integration converting callouts into theme-styled HTML blocks and interactive collapsible <details><summary> elements.

Supported Template Variables

Placeholders are resolved at the moment of file creation or insertion relative to the target document:

{{title}} - The name of the file being edited or created (without the .md extension).
{{date}} - Today's date (defaults to YYYY-MM-DD).
{{date:FORMAT}} - Today's date formatted using customized tokens.
{{time}} - Current time (defaults to HH:mm).
{{time:FORMAT}} - Current time formatted using customized tokens.

Date/Time Format Tokens

YYYY - 4-digit Year (e.g., 2026)
MM - 2-digit Month (e.g., 05)
DD - 2-digit Day (e.g., 20)
HH - 2-digit Hour (e.g., 18)
mm - 2-digit Minute (e.g., 55)
ss - 2-digit Second (e.g., 30)
Z - Timezone offset formatted precisely (e.g., +07:00, -05:00, or Z)

Example: {{date:YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ}} yields 2026-05-20T18:55:30+07:00.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Command	When
`Ctrl+Alt+G` / `Cmd+Alt+G`	Open Graph View	Global
`Alt+Enter`	Follow Wikilink Under Cursor	Active Markdown Document
`Ctrl+Alt+E` / `Cmd+Alt+E`	Extract Selection to Note (Zettelkasten)	Active Selection in Markdown
`Ctrl+Alt+C` / `Cmd+Alt+C`	Insert Obsidian Callout / Admonition	Active Editor in Markdown
`Ctrl+Alt+P` / `Cmd+Alt+P`	Toggle Note Publish Status	Active Editor in Markdown
`Ctrl+Alt+D` / `Cmd+Alt+D`	Create / Open Today's Daily Note	Global
`Ctrl+Alt+T` / `Cmd+Alt+T`	Insert Markdown Template	Active Editor

Extension Settings

Customize settings inside your settings.json (Workspace or User) under the markgarden prefix:

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`markgarden.digitalGarden.publishProperty`	`string`	`"publish_external"`	Frontmatter property key used to determine publish status.
`markgarden.digitalGarden.growthProperty`	`string`	`"growth"`	Frontmatter property key used for note growth stages (`seedling` 🌱, `budding` 🌿, `evergreen` 🌲).
`markgarden.digitalGarden.enableDiagnostics`	`boolean`	`true`	Enable editor squiggles and warnings for broken wikilinks and privacy leaks.
`markgarden.digitalGarden.showStatusBar`	`boolean`	`true`	Show interactive Growth Stage and Publish Status indicators in the status bar.
`markgarden.callouts.enableDecorations`	`boolean`	`true`	Highlight Obsidian Callouts in the editor with custom background tint and border accents.
`markgarden.frontmatter.enableCompletions`	`boolean`	`true`	Enable context-aware IntelliSense completions in YAML frontmatter.
`markgarden.frontmatter.autoUpdateModifiedDate`	`boolean`	`true`	Automatically update last modified timestamp in YAML frontmatter on saving markdown notes.
`markgarden.frontmatter.modifiedDateKey`	`string`	`"updated"`	Frontmatter property key used for auto-updating modified timestamps.
`markgarden.frontmatter.dateFormat`	`string`	`"YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss"`	Date/time format string used when writing timestamps in frontmatter.
`markgarden.frontmatter.defaultProperties`	`array`	`["title", "date", ...]`	Default property keys suggested in frontmatter completion.
`markgarden.hoverPreviewEnabled`	`boolean`	`true`	Show rich markdown preview tooltip when hovering over `[[links]]`, `![[embeds]]`, headings, and blocks.
`markgarden.hoverPreviewMaxLength`	`number`	`1200`	Maximum character length for hover preview body before truncation.
`markgarden.newNoteFolderStrategy`	`string`	`"root"`	Where to create new notes when following a non-existent `[[link]]`: `"root"`, `"sameAsCurrent"`, or `"custom"`.
`markgarden.notesFolder`	`string`	`""`	Destination folder path for new notes when strategy is `"custom"`.
`markgarden.tagPrefix`	`string`	`"frontmatter"`	Default insertion style when adding tags: `"frontmatter"` (YAML frontmatter) or `"inline"` (`#tag` at end of file).
`markgarden.templatesFolder`	`string`	`"templates"`	Path to the templates directory relative to workspace root.
`markgarden.dailyNotesFolder`	`string`	`""`	Path to daily notes folder relative to workspace root.
`markgarden.dailyNoteTemplate`	`string`	`"daily.md"`	Name of the daily note template file.
`markgarden.dateFormat`	`string`	`"YYYY-MM-DD"`	Format for today's daily note filename.
`markgarden.openDailyNoteOnStartup`	`boolean`	`false`	Automatically open or create today's daily note on startup.
`markgarden.excludedFolders`	`array`	`["/node_modules/", "/.git/", ...]`	Glob patterns to exclude from metadata and tag indexing.

Installation & Setup

Option 1: Install from VSIX

Download the latest .vsix package from the Releases page.
Install it in VS Code:
```
code --install-extension markgarden-1.2.0.vsix
```
Or open Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X), click ... (Views and More Actions) > Install from VSIX....

Option 2: Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/nichsedge/vscode-markgarden.git
cd vscode-markgarden
npm install
npm test
npm run package
code --install-extension markgarden-1.2.0.vsix

vscode-obsidian-notes