[Bug]:Open links in new tabs or allow Open Tab Settings to work

[bluedepth]

Description

Just started with Smart Connections as a suggestion from ChatGPT 5.2 Instant. It indexed my vault, and I clicked on one of the connections links, and it loaded in my document that I have focused in the primary Obsidian pane. I thought it was a bug, until ChatGPT suggested that Smart Connections bypasses the link behavior, and something about "open leaf / reuse leaf” API calls, which is why Open Tab Settings is ignored. I prefer to navigate links and files by tab, please consider an option in the settings pane to allow end users to click on links to new tabs, instead of replacing the note that is visible. My thinking is hierarchical, and finding myself in that sort of one-to-the-next flow is jarring if I'm not expecting it. Thanks

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Obsidian with an indexed vault with Smart Connections displaying on the right pane
2. Click a link, expect the link to open a new tab. Link replaces current tab with where the link goes.
3. Prefer a new tab instead of replacing what I am looking at.

Expected Behavior

Prefer a setting, option even, so that when I click on a link in the Smart Connections pane, it opens as a new tab, not replacing the current view.

Actual Behavior

No response

Screenshots

NA

Operating System

Mac OSX 15.7.3

Obsidian Version

1.11.5

Smart Connections Version

4.1.8

AI Provider/Model

Built-In / TaylorAI/bge-micro-v2

Other Enabled Plugins

Advanced Copy
AI Image Analyzer
Completed Tasks
Dataview
File Diff
File Info Panel
Image Converter
Importer
LanguageTool
Notebook Navigator
OmniSearch
Open Tab Settings
Pandoc Plugin
Remember cursor position
Smart Connections
Style Settings
Tag Wrangler
Text Format
Text Generator
TimeStamper
Typewriter Scroll

Additional Context

No response

[brianpetro]

Hi @bluedepth

The link opening uses the same pattern as the default link interaction in Obsidian. Technical notes are below, in the meantime, try this:

CMD + CLICK: Open in new Tab

CMD + ALT + CLICK: Open in new Tab

"Middle click" is not yet supported, but it is in the works.

Additionally, you may be interested in:

Hold CMD while hovering a result to show in a "hover preview" window.

Lastly, the "pause" button is also available to freeze the current results while browsing other notes (prevents the connections from updating when the note active changes).

This page has additional information about the feature.

I'm also making note to update the page to add the CMD/CMD+ALT CLICK functionality.

Note for Windows users that may find this in the future: replace CMD in the above instructions with CTRL

---

something about "open leaf / reuse leaf” API calls, which is why Open Tab Settings is ignored

That is correct. I took a quick peak at the code for the Open Tab Settings plugin and it looks like it overrides the openFile method, which the connections results do not use since some results link directly to sections within a note.

It does raise a legitimate question about whether the functionality would be better implemented by relying on openFile. It would be more complex for handling linking to sections within notes and, when the respective code was originally written, that complexity was a deal breaker. However, with the improvements in AI, I think it's worth re-examining whether the functionality should be re-implemented in that way. I'm making a note to look into it.

🌴