graph-colorize

$28

User intent

Mode

"color by tag", "color my graph", "make it colorful" (default)

by-tag

"color by folder", "color by category", "color by directory"

by-category

"highlight visibility", "show internal/pii in graph", "visibility colors"

by-visibility

User provides explicit mapping (tag:#foo = red, or JSON blob)

custom

"combine tag and visibility" / "both"

combined (visibility first, then tag)

Step 2: Build the colorGroups Array

Palette (10 distinct, colorblind-friendly colors)

Use in order. If more groups than colors, cycle and add a lightness shift by dividing brightness ~20% via a second pass — or just cap at 10 and tell the user the remaining tags share the "other" color.

#

Hex

rgb (packed int)

Role

0

#4E79A7

5142951

blue

1

#F28E2B

15896107

orange

2

#E15759

14767961

red

3

#76B7B2

7780786

teal

4

#59A14F

5873999

green

5

#EDC948

15583048

yellow

6

#B07AA1

11565217

purple

7

#FF9DA7

16751527

pink

8

#9C755F

10253663

brown

9

#BAB0AC

12234924

gray

Every color is wrapped as {"a": 1, "rgb": <int>}.

Mode: by-tag

• Glob $VAULT_PATH/**/*.md excluding _archives/, _raw/, .obsidian/, node_modules/, index.md, log.md, _insights.md.

• Parse frontmatter tags from each page. Count usage per tag.

• **Drop visibility/* tags** from the frequency list — they are reserved system tags, handled only in by-visibility or combined mode.

• Take the top 10 tags by usage. If there are fewer than 10 unique tags, use all of them.

• For each tag T at index i: emit {"query": "tag:#T", "color": palette[i]}.

• Optionally, append a final catch-all entry for untagged pages at the end: {"query": "-[\"tag\":]", "color": palette[9]} — skip if color slot 9 is already taken by a real tag.

Mode: by-category

Use the seven vault top-level folders in this fixed order so colors are stable across runs:

Folder

Color index

concepts

0 (blue)

entities

1 (orange)

skills

2 (red)

references

3 (teal)

synthesis

4 (green)

projects

5 (yellow)

journal

6 (purple)

Emit one entry per folder that exists AND contains at least one .md file. Each entry is:

{"query": "path:\"<folder>\"", "color": {"a": 1, "rgb": <int>}}

Mode: by-visibility

Emit exactly three entries, in this order (first-match wins, so most restrictive comes first):

• visibility/pii → #E15759 (red, rgb 14767961)

• visibility/internal → #F28E2B (orange, rgb 15896107)

• visibility/public → #59A14F (green, rgb 5873999)

{"query": "tag:#visibility/pii", "color": {"a": 1, "rgb": 14767961}}

Pages with no visibility/ tag remain Obsidian's default color — do not add a catch-all.

Mode: combined

Emit by-visibility entries first, then by-tag entries. Visibility wins on conflict because it appears first in the list.

Mode: custom

If the user gave explicit mappings, honor them literally. Convert any hex they give (e.g. #FF00FF) to packed int using int(hex_without_hash, 16). Wrap each as {"a": 1, "rgb": <int>}.

Step 3: Merge into graph.json (Do Not Clobber)

-

Read the existing $VAULT_PATH/.obsidian/graph.json. If it doesn't exist, start from this minimal default:

{

  "collapse-filter": true,

  "search": "",

  "showTags": false,

  "showAttachments": false,

  "hideUnresolved": false,

  "showOrphans": true,

  "collapse-color-groups": false,

  "colorGroups": [],

  "collapse-display": true,

  "showArrow": false,

  "textFadeMultiplier": 0,

  "nodeSizeMultiplier": 1,

  "lineSizeMultiplier": 1,

  "collapse-forces": true,

  "centerStrength": 0.518713248970312,

  "repelStrength": 10,

  "linkStrength": 1,

  "linkDistance": 250,

  "scale": 1,

  "close": true

}

-

Back up first: copy the existing file to .obsidian/graph.json.backup-<YYYYMMDD-HHMM> before writing. If a backup from the same minute exists, reuse it — don't pile up duplicates.

-

Replace only the colorGroups field with your new array. Leave every other field untouched. This preserves the user's zoom, physics, filter, search, and display preferences.

-

Write the file back with the same JSON style as the original (usually compact single-line or 2-space indent — preserve what's there).

Step 4: Report and Log

Print a summary like:

Graph colorized → .obsidian/graph.json

  Mode:    by-tag

  Groups:  7 color assignments

  Palette: blue, orange, red, teal, green, yellow, purple

  Backup:  .obsidian/graph.json.backup-20260424-1432

Reload Obsidian (Cmd/Ctrl+R) to see the new colors.

If Obsidian is currently open, close it first OR reload immediately — Obsidian

overwrites graph.json on close and can erase these changes.

Append to $VAULT_PATH/log.md:

- [TIMESTAMP] GRAPH_COLORIZE mode=<mode> groups=<N> backup=graph.json.backup-<stamp>

Edge Cases

• No tags in vault in by-tag mode → fall back to by-category and tell the user.

• User wants to undo → restore from the latest graph.json.backup-* and note that in log.md.

• User wants to clear all color groups → set colorGroups: [], back up, log as GRAPH_COLORIZE mode=clear.

• **.obsidian/ missing** → the vault hasn't been opened in Obsidian yet. Tell the user to open it once, then re-run. Don't create .obsidian/ yourself — Obsidian populates many files there on first open.

• Query syntax gotchas: folder paths with spaces need quoting (path:"my folder"); tags with nested slashes work literally (tag:#visibility/internal); don't URL-encode.

• Obsidian open during edit: surface the risk — Obsidian reads graph.json at startup and rewrites it on close. If the user is editing live, tell them to close Obsidian first or run the reload (Cmd/Ctrl+R) immediately and avoid opening graph settings before they do.

Notes

• This is a pure config edit — no page content changes, no frontmatter writes.

• Re-running is safe: each run creates a new backup, only colorGroups is rewritten.

• If the user has manually curated color groups they want to keep, offer combined mode or ask before overwriting.

• The palette here matches wiki-export's graph.html community colors, so the Obsidian graph and the exported visualization look consistent.