Flow

GTD-powered task management for Obsidian.

Flow captures everything demanding your attention and helps you focus on what matters. Built on David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology.

The Problem

Your mind is constantly interrupted by things you need to remember: tasks, ideas, commitments, follow-ups. These open loops consume mental energy that should go towards your actual work.

Flow gets everything out of your head and into a trusted system, so you can focus completely on what you're doing right now. It's based on GTD principles but doesn't require you to follow the methodology rigidly.

Features

• Quick Capture — Get thoughts out of your head instantly via command, ribbon icon, or external tools
• Inbox Processing — Intuitive flow to categorise inbox items into projects, actions, reference, or someday/maybe
• Sphere Organisation — Organise life areas (work, personal) with hierarchical projects
• Focus View — Curate a focused list of next actions from across your vault
• Waiting For — Track items you're waiting on others to complete
• Planning Mode — Build your focus list by selecting actions from sphere views

A note on AI-assisted engineering

The first version of Flow was handcrafted, but all my code now is written by AI, including code in this plugin. I've been a software engineer for 29 years, have been CTO at several companies, and have built a lot of software both individually and as part of different-sized teams. I stand by the architecture and code in this plugin, and have checks in my workflow to manage security and correctness.

Quick Start

1. Install Flow in Obsidian (Settings → Community Plugins)
2. Click the inbox ribbon icon and capture something
3. Run "Process Inbox" to categorise items

Installing Beta Builds

To try unreleased builds before they reach the stable community plugin listing:

1. Install BRAT from Community Plugins
2. Open BRAT settings and click "Add Beta plugin"
3. Enter tavva/flow and enable it

BRAT will automatically update to the latest beta when new versions are released. To switch back to stable, remove the plugin from BRAT.

If you use a beta build we'd love to hear from you in the repo Discussions.

How It Works

Capture — When something has your attention, add it to your inbox. Don't organise yet, just get it out of your head.

Process — Review your inbox regularly. For each item you choose:

• What category it belongs to (project, action, reference, someday)
• Which existing project it might fit
• The sphere, and any other metadata required

Screenshot from the current inbox processing flow.

Plan — Open a sphere view, enter planning mode, and click actions to add them to your focus. Your focus is your curated list of what to work on.

Do — Work from your focus. When done, mark complete. When blocked, convert to waiting-for.

Focus File Location

Choose Settings → Flow → Output Files & Folders → Focus File to set the vault-relative path for your focus list. The default is flow-focus-data/focus.md; leaving the setting blank uses this default. Click Apply to move your focus file to the new location.

Flow creates missing folders and moves your existing focus file automatically. If the destination already exists, Flow asks whether to use that file instead; neither file is overwritten or merged. Cancelling or a failed move keeps your current location.

Focus Items From Other Plugins

Other Obsidian plugins can put items into your focus that have no line in your vault, such as a ticket from an issue tracker. These items show in the Focus view under their source's name. Clicking one opens it at its source, and the pencil button changes its wording. Completing or removing one tells the plugin that added it.

For plugin developers

Flow publishes an API on its plugin instance. Look it up once the workspace layout is ready, because Obsidian loads plugins in no set order:

this.app.workspace.onLayoutReady(() => {
  const flow = this.app.plugins.getPlugin("flow")?.api;
  if (flow?.apiVersion === 1) {
    // Use the API
  }
});

app.plugins isn't in Obsidian's public typings, so declare the narrow type you use. Flow also fires flow:api-ready (with the API) on the workspace when it loads and flow:api-unloaded when it unloads, so you can notice Flow being enabled, disabled or reloaded later.

The interface is FlowApi in src/focus-api.ts; copy it into your plugin.

• sourceName identifies your plugin's items (for example "linear"); sourceLabel is what the user sees (for example a workspace name). externalId is your record's own ID, and one record can have several items.
• projectName is the project the record belongs to in your tool (for example a Linear project). Flow shows it under the item's wording, so items from the same source can be told apart. It's optional: pass null or "" to updateFocusItem to clear it.
• url must be an http or https link. Flow won't open anything else.
• Calls with an unknown id reject with an error. addFocusItem rejects empty text, sphere, sourceName, sourceLabel or externalId, and updateFocusItem rejects an empty value for any field it changes.
• When Flow unloads, the API object you hold stops working: writes reject, and callbacks stop. Get the API again after the next flow:api-ready.
• Objects you receive, from getFocusItems or in change events, are your own copies. Changing them doesn't change Focus.

Change events

• Change events cover every change to the focus file: the Focus view, your own API calls, auto-clear and edits synced from another device. Pinning and reordering aren't reported. There are no events for the state when Flow starts; call getFocusItems and work from that.
• Flow compares the focus file with the last version it saw. Changes made close together arrive together, compared against that earlier version. For example, items you add inside a flow:api-ready handler, before Flow has read the file, are part of the starting state and get no added event. An item added and removed between two comparisons isn't reported at all.
• After a change from outside Flow (such as sync), Flow waits for the file to stay unchanged for a second before comparing.
• Treat events as hints that something changed: the file is the source of truth. This matters most for removed. A sync can briefly leave the focus file empty or cut short, or bring back an older copy from a device that was offline, and an out-of-date Flow on another device can remove your items. Before you act on a removed event outside Flow, such as removing a label in your own tool, wait a few seconds and confirm with getFocusItems that the item is still gone.
• Tell your users to update Flow on every device that syncs the vault before they install your plugin. Flow 1.3.12 and earlier don't know about external items and remove them when their Focus view refreshes, and that removal syncs to the other devices.
• apiVersion changes only when an existing method changes in a way that breaks callers. New methods don't change it.

Focus File Format

The focus file (flow-focus-data/focus.md unless changed in settings) is JSONL: one JSON object per line, in the order the Focus view shows them. Other tools may read it directly. A vault item looks like:

{
  "file": "Projects/Ship v1.0.md",
  "lineNumber": 12,
  "lineContent": "- [ ] Write release notes",
  "text": "Write release notes",
  "sphere": "work",
  "isGeneral": false,
  "addedAt": 1793520000000,
  "contexts": []
}

An item from another plugin looks like:

{
  "id": "7c1e…",
  "text": "Draft section 2 of the evals plan",
  "sphere": "work",
  "addedAt": 1793520000000,
  "external": {
    "sourceName": "linear",
    "sourceLabel": "Rootcause",
    "url": "https://linear.app/rootcause/issue/ROO-123/evals-plan",
    "externalId": "ROO-123",
    "projectName": "Proptics"
  },
  "contexts": []
}

• A line with external is an item from another plugin. Any other line is a vault item with file (vault-relative path), lineNumber, lineContent, text, sphere, isGeneral and addedAt.
• external.projectName is the item's project in the other plugin's tool. It's optional: a line without it has no project. Writers should leave the field out rather than write null; Flow ignores a value that isn't text and keeps the item.
• addedAt and completedAt are milliseconds since the epoch.
• isPinned: true means the item is in the Pinned section.
• completedAt is set once the item is completed. Completed items stay in the file until they're removed or auto-cleared.
• Skip lines that fail to parse, as Flow does.
• Flow may add new fields. Ignore fields you don't know.

Project Structure

Flow projects use YAML frontmatter:

---
priority: 2
tags: project/work
status: live
parent-project: "[[Parent Project]]"
---

# Ship v1.0

## Next actions

- [ ] Write release notes
- [ ] Update documentation
- [w] Waiting for design review from Sarah

Context Tags

Add GTD context tags to your actions to filter by where or how you can do them:

- [ ] Call dentist #context/phone
- [ ] Review budget spreadsheet #context/computer
- [ ] Pick up dry cleaning #context/errands

Context tags appear as filters in sphere and waiting-for views. The prefix is configurable in settings — change context to at, ctx, or whatever suits your workflow.

Cover Image Generation

Flow can generate cover images for projects using AI. Configure an image-capable model via OpenRouter in Settings → Flow (openai/gpt-5-image creates great cover images in our experience).

Documentation

• GTD Guide — Understanding GTD methodology and Flow's implementation
• Project Templates — Customising project templates, including Templater support
• Quick Capture Methods — Tools and workflows for capturing from any device
• Contributing — Development setup, architecture, and how to contribute

Privacy

• AI features are optional and disabled by default — Flow works fully without them
• API keys stored locally in Obsidian settings
• Flow contacts OpenRouter only when AI cover image generation is enabled and you trigger image generation
• Project title, description, and context used for cover generation are sent to your configured OpenRouter-compatible endpoint for that request
• No telemetry or analytics
• Your vault stays under your control

Support

• Report bugs
• Discussions

License

GPL-3.0-or-later — see LICENSE for details.