Opening a Coral

Liefwork runs in the Obsidian desktop app, version 1.8.7 or later. It needs the desktop because it reads folder creation times from the file system, and mobile has no such API.

Installing takes a minute. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Liefwork, install, and enable — or go straight there from the directory listing.

Once it's enabled, there are two ways to open a coral.

The whole vault. Click the sprout icon in the left ribbon. Your entire vault renders as one coral, with the vault root at the base.

Any folder. Right-click a folder in the file explorer and choose Open as Liefwork coral. That folder becomes the root and everything inside it grows from there. There is a second option, Open as Liefwork coral in new window, if you want it on another screen — corals survive being dragged between windows.

Either way, what you get is the same tree you already have. Every folder is a branch. Every file is a lief. Within a branch, growth runs oldest to newest: the base is where the branch started, the tip is where it is now.

That ordering is worth knowing early, because it is what makes a coral readable at a glance. You are not looking at an arbitrary graph layout — you are looking at time. A long branch is a thread of work with history behind it. A short one has just begun.

Nothing has been copied, converted, or uploaded. Close the coral and your vault is exactly as it was.

Next: Moving Around.