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The o keyword is the heart of Shimmering Obsidian. Trigger it from Alfred and you get a unified, real-time-filtered list of everything in your vault: notes, aliases, folder names, headings at every level, and canvas files — all in one place. You can open, preview, reveal, link-browse, or append to any result without ever touching your mouse.

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How the search works

Shimmering Obsidian does not scan your vault files directly. Instead it reads the JSON metadata files produced by the Metadata Extractor plugin on a configurable schedule.
By default, the Metadata Extractor refreshes its JSON every 30 minutes. Notes created, renamed, or re-tagged within that window will not appear immediately. You can shorten the refresh interval in the Metadata Extractor plugin settings inside Obsidian, or trigger a manual refresh with oupdate.
The three key JSON files the workflow reads are:
  • metadata.json — note filenames, aliases, tags, headings
  • canvas.json — canvas files
  • workspace.json — recently opened files

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Main search keyword

Type o followed by your query in Alfred. The search simultaneously covers notes (by filename), aliases, folder names, headings, and canvas files. 
o <query>

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Keyboard modifiers

Every search result supports a full set of keyboard modifiers:
ShortcutAction
⏎Open the file in Obsidian
⌘ + ⏎Open in a new tab (configurable: new window or split)
⌥ + ⏎Reveal the file in Finder
fn + ⏎Append content to the note (prompts for text or uses clipboard)
⌃ + ⏎Copy the Obsidian URI for the file to the clipboard
⇧ + ⏎Browse all links of the note (outgoing, backlinks, external)
⇧ or ⌘ + YQuick Look preview of the note
There are additional workflow configuration settings for how notes are opened and how appended text is formatted. Check the workflow’s configuration panel in Alfred for the full list.

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Smart queries

You can narrow results by appending special filter words anywhere in your query. Alfred’s fuzzy matching still applies to the rest of your search terms.
Filter wordWhat it shows
filename or titleFiles only — no aliases, folders, or headings
canvasCanvas files only
starredFiles you have starred/bookmarked
recentRecently opened files
#tagFiles tagged with a specific tag, e.g. o foobar #moc
aliasAliases only
folderFolders only
headingAll headings across the vault
h1, h2, h3 …Headings of a specific level only
Examples 
o obsidian filename   → notes whose filename contains "obsidian"
o foobar #moc         → notes named "foobar" that are tagged #moc
o weekly h2           → level-2 headings containing "weekly"
o canvas              → all canvas files in the vault
If heading results crowd out your note results, you can suppress specific heading levels entirely in the workflow configuration (h_lvl_ignore).

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Folder browsing

Selecting a folder result with ⏎ enters folder-browsing mode: Alfred now shows only the files and subfolders inside that folder. You can explore your entire vault directory tree this way. While browsing inside a folder two extra options appear at the bottom of the list:
Query / optionAction
..Go up to the parent folder
newCreate a new note in the current folder
Notes created from within folder-browsing mode use the template note defined in the workflow configuration, the same template used by the on keyword.
Press ⇧ + ⏎ on any o search result to open a link browser for that note. The list shows three categories of links:
  • Outgoing links — notes the selected note links to
  • Backlinks — notes that link back to the selected note
  • External links — web URLs referenced in the note
Unresolved internal links (links to notes that do not yet exist) are not displayed in the link browser.
For internal links (outgoing and backlinks), all the same modifiers apply:
ShortcutAction
⏎Open the linked note in Obsidian
⌘ + ⏎Open in a new tab
⌥ + ⏎Reveal in Finder
fn + ⏎Append content to the linked note
⌃ + ⏎Copy Obsidian URI
⇧ + ⏎Browse that note’s links in turn
For external links:
ShortcutAction
⏎Open the URL in your default browser
⌥ + ⏎Copy the URL to the clipboard
Because ⇧ + ⏎ is available on every internal link result, you can chain link-browsing steps to traverse your knowledge graph entirely from Alfred — no need to open Obsidian at all.

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Previewing notes via Quick Look

Press ⇧ or ⌘ + Y on any note result to open a Quick Look preview. Press the same key again to close it. Quick Look previews of Markdown files require one of the following tools to be installed:
  • QLMarkdown — free, Markdown only. Requires a one-time setup: launch QLMarkdown.app at least once (right-click → Open to bypass Gatekeeper), then enable YAML front matter display in its Advanced Options.
  • Peek — paid (around €5), supports Markdown plus a wide range of other file formats.
To avoid accidentally triggering Quick Look when you mean to take a different action, disable the Shift key trigger in Alfred’s settings under Features → Previews, and use ⌘ + Y exclusively.
The o keyword can be configured as Alfred’s Fallback Search. When any Alfred search returns no results, the fallback kicks in and runs your query against your Obsidian vault automatically — a seamless way to reach your notes from anywhere.

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Excluded files

The o search respects the Excluded files list configured in Obsidian’s settings. Files and folders added there are silently ignored. Regex-based exclusion filters do not work — only plain path-prefix entries take effect.

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