Checkboxes
Agata Dalach4 downloadsChecklists that aren't tasks: tick "- ( )" items with a progress bar and heading counts, while task plugins ignore them.
- Overview
- Scorecard
- Updates2
Checklists that aren't tasks.
In Obsidian, every - [ ] is a task.
Meanwhile, your grocery list, the one for next week, and the one for the party all land in the Tasks plugin's queries, in Dataview task lists, in task: searches, and in every dashboard built on them.
Totally unwanted.
Checkboxes adds a second kind of box, - ( ), that you can tick just the same but that no task tool ever picks up.
Checkboxes does not manage tasks: no due dates, priorities, recurrence or queries. Keep using the Tasks plugin, Dataview or native tasks for your to-dos. Checkboxes takes care of everything else, so your task views show only real tasks.
Two kinds of boxes
## This week
- [ ] Send the reviewer response 📅 2026-10-20 ← a task: Tasks, Dataview and your dashboard see it
## Groceries
- ( ) Oat milk ← a checklist item: nothing but this note sees it
- (x) Coffee ✅ 2026-10-16 ← checked, with the day you checked it
- (-) Avocados ← skipped: struck through, not counted
Both kinds can live in the same note. A party note can hold "Order the cake 📅" as a task and the groceries as checklist items.
Features
- Clickable boxes everywhere you read a note: Live Preview, Reading view, embeds and hover previews. They use your theme's own checkbox, so they look like the boxes you already have.
- Done dates: checking writes
✅ 2026-10-16, unchecking removes it. - Progress bars where you want them: a small
checkboxescode block draws a filling bar with14/42for the section it sits in, a heading of your choice, or another note. It can stay pinned at the top while you scroll through its section. - Counts on headings, such as
3/6, so a grocery list shows at a glance which part of the shop is done. A heading counts its subheadings too. - Hide checked on a progress bar shows only what is left.
- Faint checked items with a grey ✅, so the open ones stand out.
- A count in the status bar for the note you are in, if you turn it on.
Usage
| Do this | How |
|---|---|
| Start a checklist item | Type - ( ) , or run Toggle checklist item on a line |
| Check or uncheck | Click the box, or run Toggle checklist item |
| Skip an item | Write - (-) instead of - ( ) |
| Turn a task into a checklist item | Run Toggle checklist item on the task (a checked task stays checked) |
| Convert a whole note | Command Convert tasks in this note to checklist items (one undoable step) |
| Add a progress bar | A checkboxes code block, see Progress bars |
| Show only open items | Hide checked on a progress bar, or the command Hide or show checked items |
Toggle checklist item works on the cursor line or on every selected line. It has no hotkey out of the box, so it cannot clash with yours; Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+L is a good choice under Settings → Hotkeys. Obsidian's own Cmd/Ctrl+L keeps toggling tasks, so both kinds are then one shortcut away.
Progress bars
Put a checkboxes code block where you want a bar:
```checkboxes
progress
```
It counts the checklist items of the section it sits in, subheadings included: at the top of a note it counts the whole note, under ## Weekend the whole weekend shopping with its subheadings, under ### Fruits and vegs only that list. The word progress is optional and it just tells anyone reading the raw text what the block is.
To count something else, add a heading, a note, or both:
```checkboxes
progress
heading: Fruits and vegs
note: Grocery list
```
A bar that counts its own note has a Hide checked switch. With Sticky progress bar on (the default), the bar stays at the top of the note while you scroll through its section; with bars in nested sections, the innermost one is shown.
Without the plugin
The lines stay readable: - ( ) Oat milk and - (x) Coffee ✅ 2026-10-16 are plain text in any editor, on GitHub, in an export or on a phone without the plugin. To check an item there, type an x between the brackets. Nothing is stored outside your notes.
Compatibility
- Works on its own: Tasks and Dataview are not needed. Alongside them, and with any theme, it works too; task plugins only read
- [ ], so they never see checklist items. - Desktop and mobile.
- Source mode shows the raw
- ( )text, like it shows- [ ]. - Lines starting with
- (a)or- (1)stay ordinary text: only- ( ),- (x),- (X)and- (-)are checklist items. - In an embed or hover preview, a click finds the item's line by its text. If a note has two items with the same text under the same heading, a notice asks you to tick it in the note itself.
Settings
Done dates, heading counts, the sticky progress bar and dimming of checked items can each be turned off. The status-bar count is off until you turn it on.
Installation
To install it by hand, download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/checkboxes/ and turn it on under Settings → Community plugins. BRAT can install pre-releases from adalach/obsidian-checkboxes.
Development
Building from source, the tests and the code layout are described in DEVELOPMENT.md.
License
MIT © Agata Dalach