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Getting Shimmering Obsidian running takes only a few minutes. The process involves installing two Obsidian community plugins, downloading the Alfred workflow file, and pointing the workflow at your vault. Follow the steps below in order — skipping the plugin setup is the most common cause of the workflow not finding any notes.

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Prerequisites

Confirm the following before you begin:
  • macOS — Alfred is a macOS-exclusive application and is required for this workflow.
  • Alfred 5 with an active Powerpack license. The free version of Alfred cannot run workflows.
  • Obsidian installed with at least one vault already created.

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Installation Steps

1

Install the Advanced URI plugin

Open Obsidian and navigate to Settings → Community Plugins → Browse. Search for Advanced URI, or open the plugin page directly:obsidian://show-plugin?id=obsidian-advanced-uriInstall the plugin and enable it. Advanced URI gives the workflow a way to open notes, navigate to headings, and append text to files by sending URI commands to Obsidian.
2

Install the Metadata Extractor plugin

Still in Settings → Community Plugins → Browse, search for Metadata Extractor, or open it directly:obsidian://show-plugin?id=metadata-extractorInstall the plugin and enable it. Metadata Extractor writes JSON files containing your vault’s note names, aliases, tags, and headings — these are the data source for every search feature in the workflow.
3

Configure the Metadata Extractor plugin

In Obsidian, go to Settings → Metadata Extractor and apply the following settings:
  1. Enable the option Write JSON files automatically when Obsidian launches.
  2. Set Configure frequency for writing the three JSON files to your preferred refresh interval. A value of 30 minutes is a reasonable default that balances freshness with performance.
  3. Do not change any other settings — the workflow relies on the default file paths and filenames that Metadata Extractor uses.
  4. Restart Obsidian so the plugin writes its initial JSON files.
Changing the default output paths or filenames in the Metadata Extractor settings will break the workflow’s ability to locate vault metadata. Only adjust the launch-write toggle and the refresh frequency.
4

Download and install the Alfred workflow

Download the latest .alfredworkflow release file from GitHub:github.com/chrisgrieser/shimmering-obsidian/releases/latestOnce the download is complete, double-click the .alfredworkflow file. Alfred will open an import dialog — click Import to add it to your workflow library.
5

Set your vault path in the workflow configuration

In Alfred, open Preferences → Workflows, select Shimmering Obsidian, and click the [x] configuration button in the toolbar to open the workflow variables panel.Set the vault_path variable to the absolute path of your Obsidian vault on disk. For example:
/Users/yourname/Documents/MyVault
You can find the path by right-clicking your vault folder in Finder and selecting Get Info, or by dragging the folder into a Terminal window.

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Workflow Configuration Variables

After the initial setup, you can fine-tune the workflow’s behavior by editing its configuration variables. The two most important variables are:
VariableDescription
vault_pathRequired. The absolute path to your Obsidian vault folder. Without this, the workflow cannot locate your notes or metadata.
config_folderThe name of Obsidian’s configuration folder inside your vault. This is .obsidian by default and rarely needs to change unless you have customized it.
Additional variables control behaviour like where new notes are created, which template to use, how many backups to keep, and heading levels to include or ignore in search results. These are all documented with inline descriptions inside the Alfred workflow configuration panel.

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Using Multiple Vaults

Shimmering Obsidian supports switching between multiple Obsidian vaults using the ov keyword. However, each vault you want to control must be independently configured.
The Advanced URI and Metadata Extractor plugins must be installed, enabled, and configured in every vault you want to control with the workflow — not just your primary vault. After switching to a new vault, open its Metadata Extractor settings and confirm the auto-write option is enabled, then restart Obsidian to generate the initial metadata files for that vault.
Use the ov keyword in Alfred to list all your Obsidian vaults and switch between them instantly. Press ⏎ to open a vault in Obsidian, ⌥ + ⏎ to reveal it in Finder, or ⌃ + ⏎ to open it in your default terminal. Press ⇧ + ⏎ to make that vault the active target for the workflow.

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Metadata Refresh and Manual Updates

Because the workflow reads from cached JSON files rather than your vault directly, there is a delay between changes you make in Obsidian and when those changes appear in Alfred search results.
Recently created notes, renamed files, or updated tags may not appear in search results until the next scheduled metadata refresh (every 30 minutes by default). To pick up changes immediately, trigger a manual refresh using the oupdate keyword in Alfred. This also updates any outdated community plugins in your vault at the same time.

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