The Shortcut Bar
A context-aware status bar that shows you exactly which shortcuts apply to whatever note you’re currently inside.
At the bottom of every Obsidian window in the Celestial Vault sits a status bar of context-aware shortcuts. It changes depending on what kind of note you're looking at — and every binding is rebindable.
What You'll See
The shortcut bar lives in the bottom-left of the Obsidian window, pixel-aligned to the workspace edge (it follows the sidebar as you resize or collapse).
When you're on a vault note (any non-temporal note), the bar shows:
new note · daily · templateWhen you open a daily note, it shifts:
alias | new note · monthly · dreamline · yearlyWhen you open a monthly note:
alias · summarize · wheel | new note · daily · dreamline · yearlyWhen you open a yearly note:
alias · summarize · ask | new note · daily · monthly · dreamlineWhen you open a Dreamline (quarterly note):
prev · next | new note · daily · monthly · yearlyThe Logic
Each hint is a clickable shortcut — click it to fire its action without touching the keyboard. The hints split into two groups, separated by a |:
- Note-specific actions on the left (e.g., AI summarize, AI alias, navigate prev/next)
- General navigation on the right (jump to today's daily, this month's monthly, etc.)
The shortcut bar is rebuilt every time you navigate. It reads the current note's path, infers the note type, and renders the right hints automatically.
It's not just decoration.
The shortcut bar is the fastest way to interact with your vault if you've forgotten which key does what. Click the hint, get the action. Once you remember the keys, ignore the bar — but it stays there as a soft reminder.
The Default Bindings (Mac)
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
⌥⇧D | Open today's daily note |
⌥⇧M | Open this month's monthly note |
⌥⇧Q | Open this Dreamline (quarterly) |
⌥⇧Y | Open this year's yearly note |
⌥⇧N | Create a new unique note (for the categorical layer) |
⌥⇧T | Insert a template into the current note |
⌥⇧A | (Daily) Generate AI alias for this note |
⌥⇧S | (Monthly/Yearly) Run AI summarize |
⌥⇧W | (Monthly) Generate Wheel of Life |
⌥⇧K | (Yearly) Ask the AI a question |
⌥⇧← | Navigate to previous (Dreamline) |
⌥⇧→ | Navigate to next (Dreamline) |
On Windows / Linux, Alt + Shift replaces ⌥⇧. The shortcut bar automatically renders the right symbols for your platform.
Why Mac Alt+Shift Needs Special Handling
A geeky-but-cool detail.
On macOS, pressing Option + Shift + A doesn't actually send the letter "A" to the app — the OS transforms it into a special character (like Å). Most plugins use Obsidian's built-in command-hotkey system, which sees the transformed character and breaks.
Celestial intercepts shortcuts at the raw keydown event using ev.code — the physical key on your keyboard, not the transformed character. So ⌥⇧A always works, every time, regardless of input method or keyboard layout.
You don't need to know this to use the shortcuts. But it's why they reliably work on Mac when other plugins fall over.
Rebinding Shortcuts
Don't like the defaults? Every shortcut is rebindable.
- Open Settings → Celestial Vault
- Scroll to Shortcut bindings
- Find the binding you want to change (12 capturable rows)
- Click the binding (e.g., the current key shown next to "Open daily note")
- The label changes to "Press a key…"
- Press your new key combo (any modifier + key). The new binding saves immediately.
Each row also has a small revert button to restore that one row's default. There's a Reset all button at the bottom of the section that restores every default at once.
(Full breakdown: Customizing Shortcuts.)
Turning The Bar Off
If you find the shortcut bar visually noisy:
Settings → Celestial Vault → Polish & atmosphere → Dynamic shortcut status bar → toggle off.
The bar disappears. Your shortcuts still work — they're still bound — you just won't see hints. Toggling it back on restores the bar instantly.
When Sidebar Resize Breaks Alignment
Rarely, after dragging a sidebar to a new width, the shortcut bar's alignment can lag behind for a frame or two. Click anywhere in the workspace and it re-aligns.
If alignment seems persistently off, a quick Cmd/Ctrl + P → Reload app without saving is the cleanest fix.
Up Next
- Customizing Shortcuts — full settings walkthrough
- The Four Veils — what plays when you actually use these shortcuts
- Atmosphere & Polish Toggles — turning various UI elements on/off