Depthinker Timer

A Pomodoro and stopwatch timer for Obsidian with a calendar-style focus log that lives inside your vault — so disabling or uninstalling the plugin never erases your history, and your data syncs across devices with whatever sync method you already use.

Works on desktop and mobile (Android / iOS).

Features

• Pomodoro timer with custom focus / short-break / long-break lengths and an adjustable long-break interval.
• Stopwatch mode for open-ended focus sessions.
• Auto-cycle that rolls from focus → break → focus automatically (toggleable).
• Calendar view with a monthly heatmap of focus time, daily totals, and a streak counter.
• Edit / delete / manually add any session from the calendar.
• Finish cues: a short chime, vibration, and an in-app notice. All optional.
• Accurate timing on mobile: elapsed time is derived from wall-clock timestamps, not tick counts, so backgrounding or locking the screen never slows the clock.
• Crash recovery: an in-progress timer is restored when Obsidian reopens.
• Bilingual UI: follows Obsidian's interface language (English / 中文).

Installation

From the community browser (once published)

1. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins and turn off Restricted mode if needed.
2. Browse and search for Depthinker Timer, then click Install and Enable.

From a release (manual)

Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest GitHub release and place them in <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/depthinker-timer/. Then enable the plugin.

Build from source

npm install
npm run build        # outputs dist/main.js, manifest.json, styles.css
npm run deploy       # copies the build into a local vault for testing

Settings

Where your data lives

Every day's focus log is written as a plain Markdown note:

<Data folder>/<Year>/<YYYY-MM-DD>.md

Example: FocusLog/2026/2026-08-17.md. The note holds a frontmatter block plus a json code block listing that day's sessions. Because these are ordinary vault notes:

• They survive disabling or uninstalling the plugin.
• They sync with your vault through Obsidian Sync, iCloud, Git, etc.
• They're protected by Obsidian's file history and can be opened or edited by hand.

To keep these notes out of global search and the graph, add -path:FocusLog (or your chosen folder name) to a search filter or to a folder exclusion.

To erase your history entirely, delete the data folder.

Known limitations

• Cross-device edit conflicts. If the same session is edited on two devices before they sync, the later write wins (sessions are keyed by id; the newer updatedAt wins). Different sessions written on different devices merge cleanly. Use Obsidian's version history to recover an overwritten edit.
• Mobile background audio. iOS and some Android setups mute or block audio while the app is in the background; the in-app notice and vibration still fire where supported. The timer itself keeps accurate time regardless.
• Cross-midnight sessions. A session is filed under the calendar day its start time belongs to, even if it runs past midnight.

Development

npm install
npm run dev    # watch build that writes straight into a vault plugin folder
npm run check  # type-check only
npm run build  # production bundle to dist/

The plugin targets Obsidian 1.7.2+ and sets isDesktopOnly: false.

License

GPL-3.0.