Memopad

A quick capture plugin for Obsidian that standardizes your thoughts into a single inbox file.

Dump thoughts from anywhere; the plugin auto-formats them as tasks, notes, ideas, or logs with proper metadata. No folders, no complexity—just one Memopad.md file that's easy to process later with Tasks, Dataview, or manual review.

Features

• Universal capture modal — Open from anywhere with a hotkey
• Smart formatting — Automatically detects entry types and categories
• Live preview — See exactly how your entry will be saved before submitting
• Natural date parsing — Write "tomorrow" or "next tuesday" and get proper dates
• Checkbox tasks — Tasks are saved with - [ ] markdown for compatibility with task plugins
• Configurable categories — Add your own categories with keyword detection
• Single inbox file — All entries go to one file, organized by date

Installation

1. Open Settings → Community plugins
2. Select Browse and search for "Memopad"
3. Select Install, then Enable

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a folder called memopad in your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory
3. Copy the downloaded files into the memopad folder
4. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Usage

Opening the capture modal

• Use the command palette: Memopad: Capture thought
• Or assign a hotkey in Settings → Hotkeys (search for "Memopad")

Entry types

Type naturally and Memopad will format your entry:

Explicit prefixes

Start your input with a type or category to override auto-detection:

• note: — Create a note entry
• idea: — Create an idea entry
• log: — Create a log entry
• task: — Create a task entry
• work: — Create a work task (or any custom category name)
• personal: — Create a personal task

Task detection

Memopad automatically detects tasks when your input starts with action words:

fix, call, email, send, buy, finish, complete, review, check, update, create, make, write, schedule, book, meet, submit, prepare, clean, organize

These keywords are configurable in settings.

Category detection

Tasks are automatically categorized based on keywords in your input:

Categories and their keywords are fully configurable in settings.

Natural date parsing

Memopad understands relative dates and converts them to 📅 YYYY-MM-DD format:

Example: call dentist next tuesday → - [ ] [task:personal] call dentist 📅 2025-12-30

Output format

Entries are saved to Memopad.md (configurable) organized by date:

# Memopad Inbox

## 2025-12-27
- [ ] [task:work] review PR for auth service 📅 2025-12-30
- [ ] [task:personal] call mum tomorrow 📅 2025-12-28
- [note] interesting article about AI agents
- [idea] plugin for daily quotes

## 2025-12-26
- [log] finished quarterly report
- [ ] [task:work] deploy hotfix 📅 2025-12-27

Settings

General

• Inbox file path — Where to save captured entries (default: Memopad.md)
• Default category — Fallback category for tasks when no keywords match (default: personal)

Task keywords

Comma-separated list of words that trigger task detection when they appear at the start of your input.

Entry types

Comma-separated list of entry types (e.g., note, idea, log, task).

Categories

Add, edit, or remove categories. Each category has:

• Name — Used in the output format [task:name] and as an explicit prefix
• Keywords — Words that trigger this category when found in your input

Tips

• Quick capture: Assign a global hotkey like Ctrl+Shift+M for instant access
• Process later: Use Obsidian's Tasks plugin or Dataview to query your Memopad entries
• Keep it simple: Don't overthink—just dump thoughts and let Memopad format them

Keyboard shortcuts

License

0BSD