Full File Extensions

A minimal Obsidian plugin that keeps the final file extension visible in the native File Explorer. The extension sits directly beside a short filename. When space is limited, only the filename stem shortens with an ellipsis and the extension remains visible.

Examples:

A very long research document about payments….md
Quarterly banking statistics.pdf
archive.tar.gz

Settings

All settings are enabled by default:

• Show the final extension: keeps the last extension, such as .md, .pdf, or .txt, visible beside the filename.
• Shade file extension: displays the extension at 0.5 opacity while keeping the same font size and typography as the filename. Disable it to use the normal filename appearance.
• Treat filenames without an extension normally: leaves names such as README as normal unsplit labels. When disabled, they use the aligned layout with an empty extension slot.
• Treat dotfiles as complete filenames: keeps .env and .gitignore together.
• Preserve the normal rename field: removes plugin formatting while Obsidian's inline rename editor is active. The plugin never edits the input.
• Show the complete filename on hover: adds a native tooltip with the full filename.

Security and privacy

The plugin is intentionally narrow:

• No network access
• No telemetry
• No note-content or file-content reads
• No vault file writes
• No Node.js or Electron APIs
• No dynamic code execution
• No runtime dependencies
• Stores only six local boolean preferences through Obsidian's plugin settings storage

It reads the native File Explorer's existing data-path attributes and changes display markup only. Disabling the plugin restores Obsidian's native labels.

Install with BRAT

1. Update the GitHub repository full-file-extensions with the contents of this package.
2. Create a new release tagged 1.1.3.
3. Attach these files individually:
   • main.js
   • manifest.json
   • styles.css
4. Keep the release tag and manifest version at 1.1.3.
5. Update through BRAT and enable Full File Extensions under Community plugins.

Manual install

Copy these files into:

<Your Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/full-file-extensions/

Required files:

main.js
manifest.json
styles.css

Reload Obsidian, then enable the plugin.

Scope and compatibility

The plugin targets Obsidian's native File Explorer. It does not modify alternative explorer views supplied by other plugins.

The File Explorer DOM classes and data-path attribute are not part of Obsidian's public plugin API. A future Obsidian interface change may require a selector update. The plugin does not patch Obsidian internals.

Build and verify

Requires Node.js 18 or newer. The project has no npm dependencies.

npm ci
npm run build
npm test
npm run check

The build-critical files build.mjs, main.ts, and test.cjs are kept at the repository root.

License

MIT