The Command Palette
The Obsidian Command Palette is the single most useful keyboard shortcut for any Time Garden user. How to use it.
The Command Palette is the single most useful keyboard shortcut in Obsidian — and a key tool you'll see referenced all over Time Garden's docs.
It's a search bar that runs any command in your vault. Plugins, settings, navigation, templates — all of it.
How to Open It
The shortcut
Mac: Cmd + P Windows / Linux: Ctrl + P
A floating search box appears at the top of your screen. Start typing what you want to do — Obsidian filters live as you type.
What You Can Do With It
Almost anything. A few examples that come up in Time Garden tutorials:
- Run an update: type
Brat Update All→ see Updating Time Garden - Insert a template manually: type
Templater: insert template→ see Adjusting Templates Yourself - Open a community plugin's settings: type the plugin name
- Toggle Reading/Writing View: type
Toggle reading view - Jump to a daily note: type
Daily Notethen pick the journal command - Open Obsidian Settings: type
Open settings
Why Time Garden Tutorials Lean On It
The Command Palette is keyboard-driven menus.
Instead of hunting through settings tabs and submenus, you just say what you want. That's why most Time Garden how-tos say "hit Cmd/Ctrl + P, type X" instead of "click here, then here, then scroll, then…"
It's also more reliable. A button on a daily note might fail if you accidentally clicked into the wrong block. The Command Palette always works.
Hidden Useful Commands
Worth knowing these even if no tutorial mentions them:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
Open today's daily note | Jumps to (or creates) today's entry |
Reveal current file in navigation | Highlights the open file in the file explorer |
Open another vault | Switches to a different vault |
Reload app without saving | A safe restart if something feels broken |
Open graph view | The visual constellation of all your linked notes |
A Tip for Power Users
You can bind any command to a custom hotkey: open Obsidian Settings → Hotkeys → search for the command → click the + icon and press your keys.
A nice one to bind is "Templater: Open insert template modal" — it'll save you a Command Palette trip when you're inserting components manually.
TL;DR
Cmd/Ctrl + P opens it.
Type what you want to do.
Hit Enter.
That's it.