# Plainlist

Plainlist turns your notes into a clean, minimal task manager in Obsidian. A task file holds your Inbox and a list of projects, and each project is an ordinary note: any checkbox in it is a to-do. Everything you do in the view is written back as plain Markdown, and anything you type into the notes by hand shows up in the view straight away.

![Today](assets/today.png)

## Features

- **[Lists](docs/lists.md):** Inbox, Today, Upcoming, No Date, Someday and Completed, plus one list per project, in [Obsidian's left sidebar](docs/lists.md#the-sidebar). Open to-dos from past days move to today. Today can be grouped by project.
- **[Projects are notes](docs/projects.md):** create a new project note, turn an existing note into a project, or have [notes with a tag](docs/projects.md#adding-projects-by-tag) such as `#project` added automatically. Its checkboxes, nested ones included, become the project's to-dos, grouped by the note's headings. A ring in the sidebar shows how much of each project is done.
  - **[Sections](docs/projects.md#adding-and-arranging-sections):** add sections to a project and drag them to reorder them; each is a heading in the note.
  - **[Grouping](docs/projects.md#grouping-the-list):** group a project's list by heading, board status or date.
  - **[Areas](docs/projects.md#areas):** group projects in the sidebar under foldable areas such as Work and Home, and drag areas to reorder them.
  - **[Board](docs/board.md):** show a project as columns, such as To do, Doing and Done, or one per heading or date. Drag cards between columns or press `⌘←` / `⌘→`; moving a card into Done completes it.
- **[To-dos](docs/todos.md):** a title, a description, a date and a project, with `#tags`, `[[links]]` and `[web links](https://…)`. Click a to-do to edit it in place.
  - **[Links from URLs](docs/todos.md#adding-a-web-address):** add a to-do that is just a web address and it shows the page's title as a link.
  - **[Repeating](docs/todos.md#repeating-to-dos):** "every 2 weeks", "every last sunday", or "every month when done" to count from the day you complete it.
  - **[Sub-tasks](docs/todos.md#sub-tasks):** indent a checkbox under another, or press `Tab` / `Shift+Tab`.
  - **[Reorder](docs/todos.md#reordering):** drag to-dos, or press `Alt+↑` / `Alt+↓`. Today keeps any order you like.
  - **[Several at once](docs/todos.md#working-on-several-to-dos-at-once):** `Mod`-click or `Shift`-click to select to-dos, then complete, schedule, move or delete them together.
  - **[Paste a list](docs/todos.md#pasting-a-list):** paste `- [ ] Task` lines and each one becomes a to-do.
  - **[Swipe](docs/todos.md#swiping-on-touch-screens):** on touch screens, swipe right to complete a to-do, or left to schedule it.
  - **[Undo](docs/todos.md#undo):** press `Mod+Z` to undo your last changes, one at a time.
- **[Quick capture](docs/quick-capture.md):** a small palette that understands dates as you type ("fri", "next tue", "in 3 days", "someday"), repeat rules ("every mon") and `@project`.
- **[System-wide quick entry](docs/quick-capture.md#system-wide-quick-entry):** on desktop, a global shortcut opens the palette from any app.
- **[Add from other apps](docs/adding-from-other-apps.md):** `obsidian://plainlist-add` links, with x-callback-url, for Shortcuts, Drafts, Alfred and Raycast.
- **[Search and navigation](docs/search-and-navigation.md):** fuzzy-find any to-do, and jump to any list with a command or hotkey.
- **[Lists in notes](docs/lists-in-notes.md):** a `plainlist` code block shows Today's list inside any note, or a daily note's own day.
- **[Keyboard shortcuts](docs/keyboard.md):** move, open, complete, indent and reorder to-dos without the mouse.
- **[Plain Markdown](docs/file-format.md):** to-dos are ordinary checkboxes with `[date:: …]`, `[repeat:: …]` and `[col:: …]` fields. Plainlist only changes the lines it owns.

| Upcoming | Project |
|---|---|
| ![Upcoming](assets/upcoming.png) | ![Project](assets/project.png) |

Quick capture recognises dates as you type and takes them out of the title:

![Quick capture](assets/capture.png)

## Installing

In Obsidian, open **Settings → Community plugins → Browse**, search for **Plainlist**, then install and enable it. Plainlist needs Obsidian 1.13 or later, and works on desktop and mobile.

Run **Plainlist: Open** from the command palette (or click the ribbon icon) to get started. See [Getting started](docs/getting-started.md) for installing by hand and the hotkeys worth setting.

## Network use

Plainlist works offline and sends nothing about your notes anywhere. The one exception: when you add a to-do whose title is only a web address, it requests that page to read its title. If the site blocks the request, it asks once more as a link-preview crawler (`facebookexternalhit`). Turn this off with **Fetch titles for links** in [settings](docs/settings.md).

## Documentation

- [Getting started](docs/getting-started.md)
- [Lists](docs/lists.md)
- [To-dos](docs/todos.md)
- [Projects](docs/projects.md)
- [Board](docs/board.md)
- [Quick capture](docs/quick-capture.md)
- [Adding from other apps](docs/adding-from-other-apps.md)
- [Search and navigation](docs/search-and-navigation.md)
- [Lists in notes](docs/lists-in-notes.md)
- [Keyboard shortcuts](docs/keyboard.md)
- [File format](docs/file-format.md)
- [Settings](docs/settings.md)
- [Development and releasing](docs/development.md)
- [Changelog](CHANGELOG.md)