Folia Kanban

Kanban from plain Markdown.

An interactive Kanban board for Obsidian where every card is a plain Markdown file — drag-and-drop, nested subcards, comments, and history, with no database and no lock-in.

Columns, drag-and-drop, nested subcards, comments and an automatic history — backed entirely by plain .md files. Everything about a card (description, subtasks, subcards, comments, history) lives inside that one file as ordinary Obsidian-flavoured Markdown. No database, no proprietary blob, no weird syntax buried in your notes: your board is your notes.

Contents

• Your board is just Markdown
• Features
• Set up a board
• Settings
• Keyboard & mouse
• Your data stays yours
• Install
• Develop
• Support · Feedback · License

Your board is just Markdown

There's no hidden state. Open any card in your editor and this is the whole thing:

---
status: doing        # which column
order: 2.5           # position within the column (fractional)
priority: A
due: 2026-06-15
---

# Card title

Description text…

## Subtasks
- [ ] a plain todo
- [x] a done todo
- [ ] [[A Subcard]]      ← a nested child card (its own file)

## Comments
- [2026-06-13 14:32] looks good

## History
- [2026-06-13 14:30] Moved from Todo to Doing

Parentage has a single source of truth: a card is a subcard of P iff P's ## Subtasks links to it. Body edits splice only the touched section; frontmatter is written via Obsidian's processFrontMatter, so unrelated bytes in your notes are never rewritten.

Features

• Drag-and-drop that persists — by pointer or keyboard. Dropping a card writes its status and a fractional order (one card rewritten per move, never a mass reindex) and appends a ## History line.
• Quick actions on every card — mark done, open the note, or delete (with confirm) straight from the board, or right-click for the full context menu (change priority, move up/down, add subcard, and more).
• Next actions on the card — optionally surface the next N unchecked todos inline, so the board shows the next step without opening anything.
• Card detail panel — present it as a docked side panel (split or floating) or a centred modal, your choice. It renders the description and comments with Obsidian's own Markdown engine, and lets you edit description, status, priority, due date and your custom properties (area, energy, …), manage subtasks/subcards, and add/edit/delete comments. Resizable, closes on click-outside, and never clips behind the status bar. Priority accepts any scale (A/B/C/D or urgent/high/medium/low).
• Subcards grouped Jira-style — - [ ] [[Child]] is a full child card; children render nested in a bordered group under their parent, in the parent's column.
• Configurable — a real settings tab: detail presentation, add-card flow, how many next-todos to show, and what History records (see Settings).
• Search & quick filters — press / to search by title, tag or priority; one-click Overdue / Due soon filters.
• Soft WIP limits — set a per-column limit; the board nudges (never blocks) when you go over.
• In-app column management — add, rename, recolour, set limits, reorder and delete columns; changes are written back to the board note's columns frontmatter.
• Relative due dates — Today, Tomorrow, in 3d, Yesterday, with overdue cards flagged.
• Comments and auto-generated history, appended to the card file with timestamps.
• Live reload when files change outside the board, with a self-write echo guard.
• Accessible & themed — keyboard-navigable, ARIA roles and focus management throughout; styled with Obsidian's own CSS variables (light + dark) for a clean, shadcn-grade look.

Set up a board

1. Make a board note — any note with this frontmatter (see examples/basic/ for a minimal board, or examples/feature-showcase/ for one that exercises every feature):

   folia-board: true
   card-folder: Cards      # folder holding the card notes
   columns:
     - todo
     - doing
     - done
   

2. Put card notes (each with a status matching a column) in that folder.

3. Run the command “Open Folia Kanban board” or click the layout-grid ribbon icon.

Columns can be edited by hand in the board note's columns property, or managed in-app from each column's ⋯ menu (rename, recolour, WIP limit, reorder, delete) and the Add column button — the plugin reads and writes that frontmatter list either way. A column entry may be a plain string (- todo) or an object ({ id, title, color, limit }).

Settings

Under Settings → Folia Kanban (changes apply live, no reload):

• Card details — presentation — side (docked beside the board) or modal (centred dialog).
• Side panel — layout — split (shrinks the columns to the left) or float (overlays the columns); used when presentation is side.
• Side panel — width — the docked panel's width; you can also drag its left border.
• Add-card button — flow — inline (add in the column), inline-edit (add, then open the new card's details), or detail (open a details form to create).
• Add-card — open new card's details as — which presentation to use for the two detail-opening add flows.
• Card — next todos shown — how many upcoming unchecked todos to surface on each card (0 = none).
• History — what to record — moves (card moves/reorders only), structural (also priority/status/due/order changes), or all (also comments and subtasks).

Keyboard & mouse

Your data stays yours

Folia Kanban runs entirely on the files in your vault. There is no database, no account, no sync service, and no telemetry — the plugin makes no network requests at all. Every card is a .md file you can read, edit, grep, version-control, or open in any other editor. Switch to a different app tomorrow and your board comes with you, because it was never anything but Markdown.

Edits are surgical: body changes splice only the section they touch, and frontmatter is written through Obsidian's processFrontMatter, so unrelated bytes are never rewritten. A byte-stability round-trip over the fixtures in test/fixtures/ proves it.

Install

Requirements: Obsidian 1.7.0+. Runs on desktop and mobile.

From Community Plugins

Coming soon — Folia Kanban is awaiting review for the Obsidian community store. Until it's listed, use the manual install below.

1. Open Settings → Community plugins and turn off restricted mode.
2. Click Browse, search for Folia Kanban, and install it.
3. Enable it under Settings → Community plugins.

Manual

Download a release from the Releases page (or build it yourself — see Develop; the bundle lands in dist/), then copy main.js, manifest.json and styles.css into <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/folia-kanban/ and enable it under Settings → Community plugins.

Develop

pnpm install
pnpm build       # production bundle -> dist/ (main.js, manifest.json, styles.css)
pnpm dev         # watch build
pnpm test        # vitest: model, board graph, drag, and UI flows
pnpm typecheck   # tsc --noEmit

The pure model (src/model), board graph + drag reducer, and UI logic are unit-tested, including a byte-stability round-trip over the fixtures in test/fixtures/ that proves edits never corrupt untouched bytes of a card file. The dist/ build output, node_modules and the pnpm store are git-ignored; releases ship the built dist/main.js.

Support

If Folia Kanban makes your week a little easier, a ⭐ on GitHub genuinely helps other people find it.

Feedback & issues

Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue on GitHub Issues.

License

AGPL-3.0 © Rafael Stavarengo