Screwdriver

Screwdriver exports files from inside your vault into a Markdown note, and restores those files from that note later.

It is useful for moving or synchronising files that normal Markdown synchronisation workflows may not handle well, such as plug-in files, theme files, CSS snippets, or hidden files under .obsidian.

Since v0.0.7, Screwdriver can be controlled from note properties.

Features

• Export files from selected folders into the current note.
• Fetch remote files into the current note.
• Restore exported files back into your vault.
• Filter or ignore files while exporting.
• Restore files under hidden folders such as .obsidian.

Important

Screwdriver stores exported files inside a Markdown note. The note can become very large. Consider excluding Screwdriver notes from plug-ins that scan Markdown content heavily, such as Templater or Dataview.

How to use

Install

You can install Screwdriver in either of these ways:

• From Community Plugins
• Via BRAT

Basic local export workflow

Use these commands from the command palette:

1. Screwdriver: Create local export note
2. Screwdriver: Add folder to this export note
3. Screwdriver: Export files into this note
4. On another device or vault, run Screwdriver: Restore files from this note

The first command creates the required properties on the active note. The second command adds a folder to the targets property. The third command reads those properties and embeds the matching files into the note body.

Screwdriver note properties

A Screwdriver note for local exports uses properties like this:

targets:
  - .obsidian/plugins/tagfolder
urls: []
ignores:
  - /node_modules
  - /.git
filters:
  - main\.js$
  - manifest\.json$
  - styles\.css$
comment: "Use 'Add folder to this export note' to add targets"
tags: []
adjustObsidianDir: true
skipNewFile: false
skipOldFile: false

You usually do not need to write this by hand. Run Screwdriver: Create local export note on an empty note, then run Screwdriver: Add folder to this export note.

When you choose a plug-in or theme folder, Screwdriver adds common filters automatically:

• Plug-ins: main.js, manifest.json, styles.css
• Themes: manifest.json, theme.css
• CSS snippets: selected .css files

You can edit these properties manually if needed:

• targets: folders to export from
• urls: remote files to fetch
• ignores: paths to skip while exporting
• filters: regular expressions for files to include
• adjustObsidianDir: store the Obsidian config folder as .obsidian so the note can be restored across vaults
• skipNewFile: do not overwrite an existing file with a newer exported copy
• skipOldFile: do not overwrite an existing file with an older exported copy

To export several folders into the same note, run Screwdriver: Add folder to this export note more than once.

Fetch remote files

To create a note for remote files, run:

Screwdriver: Create remote fetch note

Then add URLs to the urls property and run:

Screwdriver: Export files into this note

This is useful for storing CSS snippets or other small text assets from remote sources.

Export files

Run:

Screwdriver: Export files into this note

Screwdriver keeps the note properties and appends exported files to the note body.

Example output:

---
targets:
  - .obsidian/plugins/tagfolder
urls: []
ignores:
  - /node_modules
  - /.git
filters:
  - main\.js$
  - manifest\.json$
  - styles\.css$
comment: "Use 'Add folder to this export note' to add targets"
tags: []
adjustObsidianDir: true
skipNewFile: false
skipOldFile: false
---

# .obsidian/plugins/tagfolder/main.js
- Created :2023/7/12 9:28:27
- Modified:2023/8/25 17:52:29

```screwdriver:.obsidian/plugins/tagfolder/main.js:plain:1692953549000
/*
THIS IS A GENERATED/BUNDLED FILE BY ESBUILD
if you want to view the source, please visit the github repository of this plug-in
*/
```

Tip

You can edit exported text files directly in the note before restoring them.

Restore files

Run:

Screwdriver: Restore files from this note

Screwdriver restores files from fenced code blocks whose opening line starts with ```screwdriver:. It also supports compatible fenced blocks that contain a filename after the opening backticks.

Important

Restore only from notes you trust. Screwdriver writes files to paths recorded in the note.

Restore paths must be canonical, portable Vault-relative paths using / separators. Screwdriver skips absolute paths, parent traversal, backslashes, empty path components, control characters, and names that are invalid or reserved on common desktop platforms. When adjustObsidianDir is enabled, the portable .obsidian/ prefix is validated and mapped below the active Vault configuration directory.

Screwdriver can be useful with Self-hosted LiveSync or remotely-save when you want to sync configuration files between devices.