Note Lock

Some notes are not for the people sitting next to you on the train.

The Celestial Vault includes a frontend password gate for any note tagged with *Locked* in its categories. The note's content is hidden behind a soft cover until you enter your password — even though the file is still readable on disk.

How To Lock A Note

In the note's frontmatter, add *Locked* to the categories: list:

---
categories:
  - "*Notes*"
  - "*Locked*"
---

That's it. The lock activates immediately. Reload the note (or open it fresh) and you'll see a password prompt instead of the content.

What "Locked" Actually Does

What the lock does well:

• Hides the note's text from anyone glancing at your screen
• Hides the note's content if you accidentally open it during a screen share
• Adds friction to opening the note (so muscle-memory-clicking the wrong link doesn't expose the content)
• Persists the unlock for the session — once you've unlocked once, you don't have to re-enter the password until Obsidian restarts

Setting Your Password

The first time you create a *Locked* note, the lock prompts you to set a password. You'll do this through a small modal:

1. Type your desired password
2. Confirm it
3. Save

The password is stored locally (in the celestial-plugin's data). It does not sync between devices unless your .obsidian/ folder syncs (see Syncing Time Garden Between Devices).

Unlocking A Note

When you open a locked note, you see:

• A soft overlay covering the note content
• A password input
• A small "Unlock" button

Type the password, hit Enter. The overlay fades. The note is readable for the rest of your session.

If you reload Obsidian (Cmd/Ctrl + P → "Reload app without saving") or quit and reopen, you'll need to re-enter the password.

The Locked Category Page

The Locked.md file at the vault root is the category page for all your locked notes. It works like any other category page — it embeds a Locked.base view that auto-aggregates every note tagged *Locked*.

Open Locked.md and you'll see the table of all your locked notes. The category page itself isn't password-protected (it just shows note titles), but each individual locked note's content is.

Locking An Existing Note

You can lock a note you've already written:

1. Open the note
2. Add *Locked* to its categories: frontmatter
3. The lock activates on the next reload

You don't need to do anything special to "encrypt" the existing content — the lock just hides whatever's already there.

Unlocking Permanently

To remove a lock, open the note (unlock it temporarily) and delete *Locked* from its categories. The note becomes a regular note again, no overlay.

Disabling Note Lock Globally

If you want to disable the entire feature:

Settings → Celestial Vault → Polish & atmosphere → Note Lock → toggle off.

All *Locked* notes become readable without a password. Re-enabling restores the password gate.

(Useful temporarily, e.g., if you forgot your password and want to read a note without disabling category-based filtering.)

A Common Question

"Can I have different passwords for different locked notes?"

No. The Note Lock has a single vault-wide password. If you need finer-grained protection (different secrets for different sets of notes), the recommendation is:

• Use the single password for vault-wide sensitive content
• Use a dedicated password manager for truly secret information

Note Lock is designed for "things I don't want my screen to show by accident", not "things that absolutely must never be readable."

Up Next

• Wikilink Categories — how the *Locked* category works under the hood
• The 36 Category Pages — the category-pages system Note Lock plugs into
• Atmosphere & Polish Toggles — turning Note Lock on/off