Dayline

Dayline

Dayline is an Obsidian plugin for capturing short daily check-ins in a right sidebar timeline. It stores data locally in your vault as markdown-first timeline files, with attachment files saved separately in the vault.

What it does

• Opens a dedicated right sidebar timeline view.
• Creates daily timeline files automatically.
• Saves each entry as a markdown block with hidden JSON metadata.
• Supports text notes, images, files, and audio recordings.
• Lets you search and filter by text, tag, time range, and date preset.
• Supports opening the source entry, editing, duplicating, and deleting entries.
• Creates linked check-ins from the active note, editor selection, or file menu.
• Embeds filtered Dayline timelines in notes with a dayline Markdown code block.
• Maintains optional day-file properties for Obsidian Properties, Bases, and Daily notes workflows.

Storage model

The plugin is local-first and markdown-first:

• Daily timeline files are stored under Timeline/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD.md by default.
• Attachments are stored under Timeline Attachments/YYYY/MM/.
• File-level metadata is stored in frontmatter.
• Entry-level metadata is stored in an HTML comment block inside each entry.

Example entry format:

## 08:15 ^tl-20260520-081500-a3f9

<!-- timeline-entry
{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "id": "tl-20260520-081500-a3f9",
  "type": "checkin",
  "date": "2026-05-20",
  "time": "08:15",
  "createdAt": "2026-05-20T08:15:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-20T08:15:00.000Z",
  "tags": ["health", "morning"],
  "source": "manual",
  "sourceContext": {
    "type": "selection",
    "path": "Projects/App redesign.md",
    "linktext": "Projects/App redesign",
    "subpath": "#Meeting notes",
    "display": "App redesign",
    "capturedAt": "2026-05-20T08:15:00.000Z"
  },
  "attachments": []
}
-->

Context: [[Projects/App redesign#Meeting notes|App redesign]]

Slept a bit less than usual, but energy is still decent.

sourceContext is optional. Older entries without it remain valid. When source context exists, Dayline also writes a normal Obsidian wikilink outside the hidden JSON block so Backlinks, Graph view, Page preview, and Obsidian's link handling can see the relationship.

If Write Dayline tags as Obsidian tags is enabled, Dayline also writes entry tags as a native Markdown tag line outside the hidden JSON block:

Dayline tags: #health #morning

Obsidian indexes these tags on the Dayline day file. Dayline still treats the hidden JSON tags array as the source of truth for entry-level filtering.

Privacy and permissions

Dayline is local-first. It does not send note content, filenames, metadata, attachments, audio, or clipboard data over the network.

Vault access:

• Dayline reads and writes daily timeline files inside the configured timeline folder, Timeline/ by default.
• Dayline saves attachment files inside the configured attachment folder, Timeline Attachments/ by default.
• Dayline keeps an in-memory index of Markdown files inside the configured timeline folder so the timeline view, filters, embedded timelines, and day-file properties can stay current.
• Linked check-ins store the vault path and link text for the note or file the user explicitly links from the active editor, file menu, or timeline action.

Clipboard access:

• When the user pastes into the composer or quick check-in modal, Dayline inspects the paste event for image items and attaches only pasted images to the draft.
• Dayline does not read the system clipboard in the background.
• The metadata reading-view panel includes Copy JSON buttons that write the displayed entry metadata to the clipboard only after the user selects the button.

Linked check-ins

Linked check-ins connect a Dayline entry back to a note or file in your vault. Use them when a check-in belongs to a project note, meeting note, reading note, or any note you want to revisit later.

Ways to create a linked check-in

• Command palette: Dayline: Create linked check-in
  • Requires an active Markdown note.
  • Creates a blank check-in linked to the active note.
• Command palette: Dayline: Create linked check-in from selection
  • Requires an active Markdown editor.
  • Uses the selected text as the initial check-in content.
  • Links the entry to the active note and nearest heading when available.
• Editor context menu: Add selection to Dayline
  • Right-click in the editor.
  • If text is selected, it becomes the initial content.
  • If no text is selected, the entry is still linked to the note.
• File context menu: Add file to Dayline
  • Right-click a Markdown file in the file explorer.
  • Opens a check-in linked to that file.

What gets saved

Linked entries save two things:

• sourceContext in the hidden entry JSON metadata.
• A visible Obsidian wikilink line in the Markdown body.

Example:

Context: [[Projects/App redesign#Meeting notes|App redesign]]

Followed up on the loading-state issue.

sourceContext values:

How to use linked entries

• Select the source chip on a timeline entry to open the linked source.
• Open the entry menu and select Open linked source.
• Use the timeline filter panel and choose Current note under Source to show entries linked to the active note.

source: current in embedded dayline blocks only matches entries whose sourceContext.path is the note containing the block. It does not mean "entries stored in this timeline file."

All linked check-ins stay local to the vault. Dayline does not send note content, filenames, or metadata over the network.

Embedded timelines

Add a fenced dayline code block to any note to render a compact timeline in Reading view:

```dayline
source: current
tag: work
date: this-week
limit: 10
attachments: any
```

All keys are optional. If you omit every key, Dayline shows the latest entries from the current timeline index, up to the default limit.

Query keys

Unsupported keys are ignored with a compact warning. The query format is plain key/value text and never executes JavaScript.

Examples

Show recent entries from this week:

```dayline
date: this-week
limit: 10
```

Show work-tagged entries from today:

```dayline
tag: work
date: today
limit: 20
```

Show entries linked to the note containing this block:

```dayline
source: current
date: all
limit: 10
```

Show entries linked to a specific note path:

```dayline
source: Projects/App redesign.md
date: all
limit: 10
```

Show entries linked to a wikilink target:

```dayline
source: [[Projects/App redesign]]
tag: work
limit: 10
```

Show image entries from a date range:

```dayline
date: 2026-06-01..2026-06-07
attachments: image
limit: 30
```

Show text-only entries:

```dayline
attachments: none
limit: 20
```

Common no-result cases

• source: current returns nothing if the matching entries were not created as linked check-ins.
• source: current in a Dayline daily file does not match normal entries in that file unless those entries are linked to that file.
• tag: work matches only entries with metadata tag work; plain text #work in content is not enough unless it was saved as an entry tag.
• date: this-week uses the current week at render time.

Day-file properties

Dayline day files are normal Markdown files with frontmatter. Dayline manages a small set of keys so Obsidian Properties and Bases can query daily timeline data.

Required managed keys

These keys are always used by Dayline day files:

• type
• date
• timeline_version
• entry_count
• created_at
• updated_at

Example:

---
type: timeline-day
date: 2026-06-07
timeline_version: 1
entry_count: 4
created_at: 2026-06-07T08:00:00.000Z
updated_at: 2026-06-07T17:30:00.000Z
---

Optional aggregate keys

When Add Dayline properties is enabled, Dayline also maintains these aggregate keys:

• dayline_tags
• dayline_sources
• dayline_attachment_count
• dayline_image_count
• dayline_audio_count
• dayline_file_count
• dayline_last_entry_at

Example:

dayline_tags:
  - "work"
  - "idea"
dayline_sources:
  - "[[Projects/App redesign]]"
dayline_attachment_count: 2
dayline_image_count: 1
dayline_audio_count: 0
dayline_file_count: 1
dayline_last_entry_at: 2026-06-07T17:30:00.000Z

If Daily notes alignment is set to link mode, Dayline writes a configurable Daily note property, defaulting to daily_note.

Example:

daily_note: [[2026-06-07]]

Dayline only updates its managed keys. Custom frontmatter keys are preserved.

Bases examples

Use these properties in an Obsidian Base to inspect Dayline day files:

• Filter by type equals timeline-day.
• Sort by date descending.
• Show entry_count, dayline_tags, dayline_sources, and dayline_last_entry_at.
• Filter dayline_tags contains work to find active work days.

Install for local development

1. Place this plugin folder under your vault at: <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/dayline/
2. Install dependencies: npm install
3. Build once: npm run build
4. Reload Obsidian.
5. Enable Dayline in Settings → Community plugins.

Development

• npm run dev: watch mode
• npm run build: production build
• npm run lint: lint the project

Current capabilities

• Right sidebar timeline view
• Quick composer for text entries
• Image, file, and audio attachments
• Search and filters
• Edit, duplicate, delete
• Source jumping to block IDs
• Linked source chips and current-note filtering
• Embedded dayline query blocks
• Bases-friendly day-file properties
• Broken metadata warning banner for malformed entries

Settings

Notes

• The plugin does not automatically delete attachment files when an entry is deleted.
• Mobile support has not been fully verified yet.
• If a timeline entry contains invalid metadata JSON, the plugin skips it and shows a warning banner instead of crashing.