Introduction
Card Workspace is an Obsidian plugin for capturing, gathering, organizing, and reframing notes. It turns notes into a readable card stream: on desktop it sits in the left sidebar beside the editor, and on phones and tablets it opens in the main workspace. Each Markdown card shows a title and a light excerpt with cues for links, lists, and tasks, so you can understand a set of notes without reducing it to filenames.
The stream can come from a folder, a card box, or the outgoing links and backlinks around a note. Local search works in every source, and tag and property filters narrow folders and card boxes. The navigation guide explains how those sources stay together in one compact pane.
Markdown cards show a local image preview when the note body embeds a supported image. Image files, PDFs, audio, video, Canvas, and Excalidraw files can appear as cards too; Canvas and Excalidraw show a small diagram.
Click a card to open its note; switch notes in the editor and the matching card is selected. Card boxes collect notes without moving them. When you do want to reorganize, drag cards onto a folder, tag, property value, or card box in the navigation column.
A four-part workflow
Section titled “A four-part workflow”- Capture — jot an idea into quick input, create a note that inherits the current tags and properties, or start from a template.
- Gather — browse folders and card boxes with tags and frontmatter properties, or follow linked notes.
- Organize — sort, group, pin, and save a useful view as a card box; drag cards onto navigation entries to move or tag them.
- Reframe — open context beside your work or drag a card into the note you are writing.
Who it is for
Section titled “Who it is for”Card Workspace is for people who scan and collect notes while writing: research topics, long-running projects, reading lists, and any body of work that crosses folder boundaries. It gives you direct controls instead of introducing another query language.
Requirements
Section titled “Requirements”- Desktop, Android, and iOS/iPadOS. See Phones and tablets for how the mobile layout differs.
- Obsidian 1.11.4 or later. Vaults on an older Obsidian stay on Card Workspace 1.3.4. Obsidian 1.13 or later adds settings search and native confirmation dialogs.
- The interface follows Obsidian’s language: Simplified Chinese for languages beginning with
zh, otherwise English.
Continue with Installation, then Getting started. Returning users can read 1.4.4–1.5.3 for quick input, templates, mobile support, appearance, and drag-to-organize.