# Auto-Expand Backlinks An Obsidian plugin that automatically expands the context shown in the bottom **backlinks panel** (and the standalone backlinks pane) so you don't have to click the chevrons on every match — giving you a Roam Research-style backlinks view where each linked mention appears with its surrounding bullets / paragraph already expanded. Inspired by this forum request: ## What it does When you open a note, this plugin: 1. Forces the backlinks panel's **"Show more context"** toggle on. 2. Programmatically clicks each match's **"show more above"** / **"show more below"** chevrons a configurable number of times — revealing the surrounding lines (or sub-bullets) without manual clicks. ## Settings | Setting | Default | What it does | | --- | --- | --- | | Enabled | on | Master toggle. | | Show more context | on | Forces the panel's "Show more context" header toggle on by default. | | Expand below (levels) | `5` | How many times to click each match's "show more below" chevron. Tune to taste. | | Expand above (levels) | `0` | How many times to click each match's "show more above" chevron. | | Apply delay (ms) | `200` | Wait between file open and applying expansion. Increase for slow vaults. | | Per-click delay (ms) | `20` | Pause between successive expand clicks. | ## How it works Obsidian's backlinks panel doesn't expose a documented API for default expansion. This plugin reaches into the internal `view.backlinks.backlinkDom` to flip `extraContext`, then clicks the per-match `.search-result-hover-button.mod-bottom` / `.mod-top` DOM buttons that Obsidian uses for context expansion. Because it relies on internal/undocumented APIs, it may break on future Obsidian releases. ## Known limitations - Only the bottom **backlinks panel** and the **standalone backlinks pane** are touched. The left-sidebar **search** panel is not (intentionally — different use case). - Each "level" of expansion = one click of the chevron = one more line of context in Obsidian's source file. ## License MIT — see [LICENSE](./LICENSE).