Shimmering Focus is an opinionated Obsidian theme that hides the interface so you can focus on your notes. UI elements you don’t need as a keyboard user — tab bars, sidebar buttons, close buttons, URL clutter — are hidden or shown only when relevant. Over 100 customization options let you shape the theme to your exact workflow. Downloaded more than 333,000 times and winner of Obsidian October 2022.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/chrisgrieser/shimmering-focus/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Installation
Install from the Obsidian theme store or manually from GitHub in under a minute.
Style Settings
Unlock 100+ options for fonts, colors, vim mode, and more via the Style Settings plugin.
Features
Explore smart UI hiding, heading styles, image captions, table highlights, and vim support.
Color Schemes
Choose from built-in community schemes or create your own with a CSS snippet.
What makes Shimmering Focus different
Shimmering Focus is not just a color theme. It restructures the Obsidian interface around keyboard-first use:Radical Minimalism
The tab bar hides when only one tab is open. Sidebar buttons appear only on hover. Close buttons, new-tab buttons, and sidebar toggles are removed — all accessible via hotkey.
Deep Customization
More than 100 settings via the Style Settings plugin cover fonts, color tone, heading sizes, vim cursor, image sizes, longform typography, and plugin-specific tweaks.
Vim Mode
Explicit cursor styling for each vim mode, relative line numbers, a configurable cursorline, and optional suppression of all mouse tooltips.
Writer Mode
Longform plugin integration and a
cssclasses: writing note class give fiction and longform writers serif fonts, justified text, first-line indents, and distraction-free editing.Color Schemes
Switch between five community color schemes — Gamma, macOS Native, Coffee, Everforest, and Gruvbox — or craft your own with a short CSS snippet.
Standalone Snippets
Want just one feature? Thirteen standalone CSS snippets (image captions, relative line numbers, annotation tags, and more) work without the full theme.
Get started
Install the theme
Open Obsidian → Settings → Appearance → Themes → search for Shimmering Focus → Install and Use. See Installation for manual instructions.
Install Style Settings (recommended)
Open Settings → Community Plugins → search for Style Settings → Install and Enable. This unlocks all 100+ customization options.
Explore settings
Open Settings → Style Settings → Shimmering Focus to browse options organized by category: Show/Hide UI, Workspace, Fonts, Colors, Vim Mode, Writing, and more.
Pick a color scheme
In Style Settings under Colors & shapes, select an alternative scheme such as Everforest or Gruvbox — or create your own.
For questions, feature requests, or bug reports, open an issue on GitHub.