Shell Path Copy for Obsidian

Copy a file or folder path out of your Obsidian vault. Right-click, pick a format, paste.

What it does

Right-click a file or folder, pick a format, and the result is on your clipboard. The command palette does the same for the note you have open.

It comes with formats for relative and absolute paths, file:// and Obsidian URLs, Markdown and wiki links, filenames, and links that point at a heading or a block. Four are turned on out of the box; the rest take one toggle in settings.

If none of them fit, you can build your own. A format is a template such as <filename> -> <obsidian-url>, and the plugin fills in the tokens when you copy. This is optional. If the built-in formats cover you, you never have to touch a template.

Works on desktop and mobile.

Why this plugin?

Obsidian often sits next to a terminal or an AI assistant like Claude Code or Gemini CLI. You might run Obsidian on Windows with a WSL terminal, or on an iPad connected to a remote Linux server. Either way, you need a path out of your vault and into a shell command, a prompt, or a document, in the format that target expects.

Obsidian's own "Copy file path" command is buried in the command palette and gives one format. Shell Path Copy puts copy actions in the right-click menu and the command palette, and lets each format be what you want.

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (recommended)

1. Open Obsidian settings.
2. Go to Community plugins.
3. Click Browse.
4. Search for Shell Path Copy.
5. Click Install, then Enable.

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Create a folder named shell-path-copy in your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory.
3. Copy the three files into it.
4. Reload Obsidian.
5. Enable Shell Path Copy in Settings → Community plugins.

BRAT (optional, for pre-release testing)

BRAT installs pre-release builds before they reach the Community Plugins marketplace. Regular users should install from Community Plugins instead.

1. Install the BRAT plugin from Community Plugins.
2. Open BRAT settings and click Add Beta Plugin.
3. Enter https://github.com/ckelsoe/obsidian-shell-path-copy.
4. Click Add Plugin.
5. Enable Shell Path Copy in Settings → Community plugins.

Quick start

You can copy from four places:

• Right-click a file or folder in the file explorer.
• Right-click inside an open note. The formats act on that note, and the heading-aware formats link to the heading your cursor is in.
• Command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+P): type Copy: and pick a format. It acts on the active file.
• Ribbon (optional): turn on Show in ribbon for a format to add a left-ribbon icon that copies it from the active note in one click. Off by default, so the ribbon stays uncluttered until you opt a format in.

In the right-click menu, the enabled formats sit inside a Copy path as submenu to keep the menu tidy. Pick the format you want and the result lands on your clipboard. In settings you can turn that submenu off, show individual formats at the menu root as well, and fold every format into Obsidian's native Copy path submenu so all path-copy choices (the built-in ones and yours) live in one place. Those options are independent, so a format can appear in more than one of those places at once.

Out of the box four formats are enabled: Relative Linux/macOS path, Relative Windows path, Obsidian URL, and Markdown link. Open the settings to enable the others or add your own.

Built-in formats

These formats are seeded into every vault. Enable, edit, or delete any of them in settings.

Format	Template	Example result
Relative Linux/macOS path	<relative-path-unix>	`./folder/file.md`
Relative Windows path	<relative-path-windows>	`.\folder\file.md`
Absolute path	<absolute-path>	`C:\Users\you\vault\folder\file.md`
file:// URL	<file-url>	file:///C:/Users/you/vault/folder/file.md
Obsidian URL	<obsidian-url>	obsidian://open?vault=MyVault&file=folder%2Ffile
Markdown link	<markdown-link>	[[file]]
Filename	<filename>	file
Filename with extension	<filename-ext>	file.md

Seven more formats ship disabled, ready to enable or copy from:

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗