Obsidian Sample Plugin is a template for building community plugins for Obsidian that provides build configuration and development best practices.
The template addresses the need for a standardized starting point when developing Obsidian plugins. It demonstrates core plugin API functionality including ribbon icons, modals, settings tabs, global event listeners, and interval-based operations. The project uses TypeScript to provide type checking and documentation, with the plugin API available as TypeScript definitions containing TSDoc comments. Developers clone the template, install dependencies with npm, and run a development server that automatically compiles changes from the source TypeScript file to the output JavaScript file.
The template suits developers new to Obsidian plugin development who want to understand basic API patterns before building their own plugins. It works well for anyone creating a plugin for the Obsidian ecosystem, whether building a simple utility or a more complex feature. The README explicitly recommends checking the existing plugin directory before starting development to avoid duplicating effort.
The project maintains active engagement with plugin developers through documentation and tooling. The template includes npm scripts for development compilation in watch mode and version management. Release procedures are documented with guidance on updating manifest and version files, creating GitHub releases, and submitting plugins to the community plugin list. The repository provides clear instructions for manual plugin installation and references the plugin guidelines that developers must follow before publishing to the community.
