Longform Extended
Werner Thomassen Andrade187 downloadsExtend Longform projects with configurable note groups, timelines, kanban boards, and an editable subplot grid.
- Overview
- Scorecard
- Updates4
Longform Extended is an Obsidian plugin for writing and organizing novels, essays, screenplays, and other long projects. It is a fork of Longform: everything Longform does — scenes, drafts, word counts, writing sessions, and compile workflows — is still here, with configurable note groups and a small set of views and stats around the project.
[!NOTE] Compatibility: Longform Extended uses Longform's
longformfrontmatter and project layout, so existing Longform projects keep working without changes.
For security reasons, external JavaScript is not supported in the Compile tab.
Requires Obsidian 1.14 or newer. The kanban board uses Obsidian's native Bases Kanban view, and the subplot grid uses a plugin-provided Bases view; enable the Bases core plugin.
Features
| Feature | What it does | Docs |
|---|---|---|
| Scenes and drafts | An ordered, nestable scene list with multiple drafts. | Multiple-scene projects |
| Single-scene projects | Short works that live as one note and reuse the same compile workflow. | Single-scene projects |
| Word counts and sessions | Project, draft, and scene counts, plus daily writing goals. | Word counts and sessions |
| Subplots, characters, and custom groups | Built-in Subplots and Characters groups plus any number of custom folders, each with its own tree. | Subplots, characters, and note groups |
| Compile | Workflow-based steps that turn a project into a manuscript. | Compile |
| Autocompile | Recompiles a project and regenerates its status files on a per-project interval. | Compile |
| Timeline | Chronological scene view driven by a timeframe property, with per-level subplot tables. |
Timeline |
| Kanban | Status-driven board; dragging a card writes its status back to the note. | Kanban |
| Subplot grid | Editable grid of subplots and characters across the scene hierarchy. | Subplot grid |
| Overview block | Daily writing-goal bar plus compile, refresh, and open actions, always visible above the tabs. | Overview |
| Generated files | Where the timeline, kanban, and subplot grid are written. | Generated files |
The additions are deliberately lightweight: no required fields, no per-scene character or plot schema, and no separate story database. Each auxiliary group — Subplots, Characters, and custom groups — is just a name, a folder, an optional template, and an order overlay; folder membership decides which notes belong to it.
Installation
From the Community plugins directory
Once Longform Extended is listed, install it from Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Longform Extended, then install and enable it.
Manually
- Download
main.js,manifest.json, andstyles.cssfrom the latest release. - Create the folder
.obsidian/plugins/longform-extended/in your vault. - Copy the three files into that folder.
- Reload Obsidian, then enable Longform Extended in Settings → Community plugins.
The plugin folder is longform-extended, not upstream Longform's longform/.
[!WARNING] Do not enable Longform and Longform Extended at the same time. Both discover and track the same
longformprojects through their own panes and commands, so enabling both duplicates the UI and can make them compete over the same projects. Disable upstream Longform before enabling Longform Extended.
From source
npm install
npm run build
npm run build writes the release files to the repository root. Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css into the plugin folder as above.
Getting started
- Create a project. Right-click a folder and choose Create longform extended project. Pick Multi for a novel or screenplay, or Single for a shorter work.
- Add scenes. In the pane's Notes → Scenes tab, type a title in New Scene and press Enter.
- Add subplots and characters. Use Notes → Subplots and Notes → Characters. Membership is folder-based; no
typeflag is needed. - Check the Project tab. Timeline, kanban, and subplot grid are enabled by default. Their outputs go to
Build/inside the project folder; the Scene, Subplot, and Character Folders are under Project Metadata. - Use the Overview block. The refresh action regenerates every enabled generated file. The compile action runs the current workflow, and the open actions open the configured outputs.
New to Longform or Longform Extended? Getting Started covers creating multi-scene and single-scene projects, drafts, and the inherited workflow. Longform's own guide is the upstream reference.
Compatibility and migration
- Existing Longform and Longform Extended projects need no migration for note groups or the added views.
- A project with no note-group configuration has the three built-in groups and the default folders. The timeline, kanban, and subplot grid are enabled by default.
- Projects migrated from Longform 1.x get the added features at their defaults. See Migrating from version 1 to 2.
- A migrated project may keep a project-root scene folder (
/). Because that folder contains the Subplot and Character Folders, the subplot grid will not generate until you choose a distinct, non-nested Scene Folder. - Every note-group folder must be distinct and non-nested; see Folders and membership.
If a project looks out of sync after a frontmatter or folder change, see Troubleshooting.
Removed: user-script compile steps
User-script compile steps were removed in 1.0.0 for security and linter compliance. See Compile.
Documentation
| Topic | Document |
|---|---|
| Getting started, project creation, and drafts | GETTING_STARTED.md |
| Multiple-scene projects | MULTIPLE_SCENE_PROJECTS.md |
| Single-scene projects | SINGLE_SCENE_PROJECTS.md |
| Index files and frontmatter | INDEX_FILE.md |
| Word counts and writing sessions | WORD_COUNTS.md |
| Compile | COMPILE.md |
| Timeline | TIMELINE.md |
| Kanban | KANBAN.md |
| Subplot grid | PLOT_GRID.md |
| Generated files and output paths | GENERATED_FILES.md |
| Subplots, characters, and note groups | PLOTS_AND_CHARACTERS.md |
| Overview block | OVERVIEW.md |
| Scene-only styling | SCENE_ONLY_STYLING.md |
| Commands | COMMANDS.md |
| Troubleshooting | TROUBLESHOOTING.md |
| Migrating from Longform 1.x | MIGRATING_FROM_VERSION_1_TO_2.md |
| Upstream Longform repository | Longform |
Examples
The repository includes four source-only sample projects in examples/: a short story, a long story, an essay, and a screenplay. The essay uses Arguments and References in place of plots and characters.
Development
npm install
npm run dev # watch build
npm run lint # type check and lint
npm run test:unit # unit tests
npm run build # production build
Bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome in the issue tracker.
Support
Sponsorship is deeply appreciated: github.com/sponsors/wandrade.
License and attribution
Longform Extended is dual-licensed.
- The original Longform code remains under its original license, the Fuck Around and Find Out License. See LICENSE.md.
- All additions and changes in this fork are under a separate license that allows private use and modification but requires consent for redistribution. See LICENSE-ADDITIONS.md.
Longform is created by Kevin Barrett. Longform Extended is maintained by Werner Thomassen Andrade.
The fork was explicitly approved by the original author.