Obsidian Hello World

Overview

Build a minimal working Obsidian plugin demonstrating core features: commands, settings, and ribbon icons.

Prerequisites

Completed obsidian-install-auth setup
Development vault configured
Build pipeline working

Instructions

Step 1: Create Main Plugin Class

// src/main.ts
import { App, Editor, MarkdownView, Modal, Notice, Plugin, PluginSettingTab, Setting } from 'obsidian';

interface MyPluginSettings {
  greeting: string;
}

const DEFAULT_SETTINGS: MyPluginSettings = {
  greeting: 'Hello, Obsidian!'
}

export default class MyPlugin extends Plugin {
  settings: MyPluginSettings;

  async onload() {
    await this.loadSettings();

    // Add ribbon icon
    this.addRibbonIcon('dice', 'Greet Me', (evt: MouseEvent) => {
      new Notice(this.settings.greeting);
    });

    // Add command to command palette
    this.addCommand({
      id: 'show-greeting',
      name: 'Show Greeting',
      callback: () => {
        new Notice(this.settings.greeting);
      }
    });

    // Add command with editor context
    this.addCommand({
      id: 'insert-greeting',
      name: 'Insert Greeting at Cursor',
      editorCallback: (editor: Editor, view: MarkdownView) => {
        editor.replaceSelection(this.settings.greeting);
      }
    });

    // Add settings tab
    this.addSettingTab(new MySettingTab(this.app, this));
  }

  onunload() {
    console.log('Goodbye from My Plugin!');
  }

  async loadSettings() {
    this.settings = Object.assign({}, DEFAULT_SETTINGS, await this.loadData());
  }

  async saveSettings() {
    await this.saveData(this.settings);
  }
}

Step 2: Create Settings Tab

// Add to src/main.ts
class MySettingTab extends PluginSettingTab {
  plugin: MyPlugin;

  constructor(app: App, plugin: MyPlugin) {
    super(app, plugin);
    this.plugin = plugin;
  }

  display(): void {
    const { containerEl } = this;
    containerEl.empty();

    containerEl.createEl('h2', { text: 'My Plugin Settings' });

    new Setting(containerEl)
      .setName('Greeting')
      .setDesc('The message to display when greeting')
      .addText(text => text
        .setPlaceholder('Enter your greeting')
        .setValue(this.plugin.settings.greeting)
        .onChange(async (value) => {
          this.plugin.settings.greeting = value;
          await this.plugin.saveSettings();
        }));
  }
}

Step 3: Create a Modal

// Add to src/main.ts
class GreetingModal extends Modal {
  greeting: string;

  constructor(app: App, greeting: string) {
    super(app);
    this.greeting = greeting;
  }

  onOpen() {
    const { contentEl } = this;
    contentEl.createEl('h1', { text: this.greeting });
    contentEl.createEl('p', { text: 'Click outside or press Escape to close.' });
  }

  onClose() {
    const { contentEl } = this;
    contentEl.empty();
  }
}

// Add to onload():
this.addCommand({
  id: 'show-greeting-modal',
  name: 'Show Greeting Modal',
  callback: () => {
    new GreetingModal(this.app, this.settings.greeting).open();
  }
});

Step 4: Build and Test

# Build the plugin
npm run build

# In Obsidian:
# 1. Open Settings > Community plugins
# 2. Enable "My Plugin"
# 3. Click the dice icon in ribbon
# 4. Open command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+P) and search "Show Greeting"

Output

Working plugin with:
- Ribbon icon that shows a notice
- Commands in command palette
- Editor command to insert text
- Settings tab to configure greeting
- Modal for displaying content

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
Plugin not loading	Build errors	Check console for TypeScript errors
Settings not saving	Missing loadData/saveData	Verify async/await usage
Command not showing	Plugin not enabled	Enable in Community Plugins
Ribbon icon missing	Wrong icon name	Use valid Lucide icon name

Examples

Available Icon Names

Obsidian uses Lucide icons. Common examples:

file-text, folder, search, settings
star, heart, bookmark, tag
edit, trash, copy, clipboard
link, external-link, globe
dice, bot, sparkles, wand

Status Bar Item

// Add to onload():
const statusBarItem = this.addStatusBarItem();
statusBarItem.setText('Plugin Active');

Register Event Listeners

// Listen to file open
this.registerEvent(
  this.app.workspace.on('file-open', (file) => {
    if (file) {
      console.log('Opened:', file.path);
    }
  })
);

Resources

Next Steps

Proceed to obsidian-local-dev-loop for hot-reload development workflow.

obsidian-hello-world