Notes Dashboard

A beautiful Kanban-style dashboard plugin for Obsidian that allows you to organize and display your favorite notes as cards in customizable columns.

Description

Notes Dashboard transforms any note into an interactive Kanban board where you can organize your notes into columns. Each card represents a note in your vault, and you can easily add, remove, and organize them visually.

Features

• Kanban Board Layout - Organize notes in customizable columns
• Custom Grid - Set how many columns the board grid is divided into (plugin settings)
• Random Note Card - Pin a random note card that rotates daily, optionally scoped to one or more folders
• Easy Card Management - Add and remove cards with a single click
• Multiple Sorting Options - Sort cards by name, modification date, or creation date
• Tag Display - See tags associated with each note card
• Internationalization - Supports English and Russian (with easy extension for more languages)
• Beautiful UI - Modern, responsive design that matches Obsidian's theme
• Fast Performance - Optimized file handling and rendering

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins

1. Open Obsidian Settings
2. Go to Community Plugins
3. Search for "Notes Dashboard"
4. Click Install, then Enable

Manual Installation

1. Download the latest release from GitHub
2. Extract the files to your vault's .obsidian/plugins/notes-dashboard/ folder
3. Reload Obsidian
4. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community Plugins

Usage

Creating a Dashboard

1. Create a new note in Obsidian
2. Add the following YAML frontmatter:

---
dashboard: true
layout: kanban
sort: modified
columns:
    - name: To Do
      pages:
          - /path/to/note/My Note 1
          - /path/to/note/My Note 2
    - name: In Progress
      pages:
          - /path/to/note/My Note 3
    - name: Done
      pages:
          - /path/to/note/My Note 4
cssclasses: props-hidden
embeds:
    - path: /path/to/note/Note
      span: 2
    - path: /path/to/base/Base
      span: 1
---

3. Open the note - the dashboard will render automatically!

Adding Columns

• Click the "+" button at the bottom of the board
• Type the column name and press Enter

Adding Notes

• Click the "+" button in a column header
• Search for and select a note from your vault
• The note will be added as a card to that column

Removing Notes

• Click the "×" button on any card to remove it from the dashboard

Removing Columns

• Click the trash icon in the column header

Opening Notes

• Click on any card to open the corresponding note

Configuration Options

Frontmatter Parameters

• dashboard: true - Required to enable dashboard rendering
• layout: kanban - Sets the layout type (currently only "kanban" is supported)
• sort - Card sorting method:
  • modified - Sort by last modification date (default)
  • created - Sort by creation date
  • name - Sort alphabetically by file name
• columns - Array of column definitions:
  • name - Column name (required)
  • pages - Array of note paths relative to the vault root (e.g. Folder/Note.md) to display as cards
  • order - Position on the board (all items — columns, embeds and the random note — are rendered in ascending order)
• embeds - Array of column definitions:
  • path - Path to note
  • span - Width in grid columns (from 1 to the number of grid columns from settings)
  • order - Position on the board (notes are rendered in ascending order; default: array order)
• random - Random embedded note:
  • path - Path to note
  • span - Width in grid columns (from 1 to the number of grid columns from settings)
  • order - Position on the board among the notes; kept when the note is shuffled
  • date - Date of the last change (YYYY-MM-DD, set automatically). The note rotates to a new random note automatically each day (also while the dashboard stays open at midnight).

CSS Classes

• props-hidden - Hides the properties section in Obsidian's UI

Plugin Settings

Open Settings → Community Plugins → Notes Dashboard to configure:

• Grid columns - Number of columns the dashboard grid is divided into (default: 3)
• Dashboard width - Board width: a number is treated as px (e.g. 1600), or any CSS length (e.g. 100%). Empty — the note's default width
• Embed max height - Height limit for embedded note content in px; 0 — no limit (default: 600)
• Random note max height - Height limit for the random note content in px; 0 — no limit (default: 600)
• Folders for random notes - Random cards are picked only from notes in these folders (including subfolders). Empty list — the whole vault

Examples

Simple Dashboard

---
dashboard: true
layout: kanban
columns:
    - name: Favorites
      pages:
          - /path/to/note/Daily Note
          - /path/to/note/Project Ideas
          - /path/to/note/Meeting Notes
embeds:
    - path: /path/to/note/Note
      span: 2
    - path: /path/to/base/Base
      span: 1
cssclasses:
    - props-hidden
---

Dashboard with Sorting

---
dashboard: true
layout: kanban
sort: name
columns:
    - name: Recent
      pages:
          - /path/to/note/Note 1
          - /path/to/note/Note 2
cssclasses:
    - props-hidden
---

Troubleshooting

Dashboard not rendering?

• Make sure dashboard: true is in the frontmatter
• Check that the note paths in pages match the actual file paths in the vault
• Try reloading Obsidian

Notes not appearing?

• Verify that the note paths in the pages array match the exact file paths of the notes in your vault
• Check that the files exist and are accessible

Styling issues?

• The plugin uses Obsidian's CSS variables, so it should adapt to your theme automatically
• If you have custom CSS, make sure it doesn't conflict with .kanban-* classes

Development

Building from Source

npm install
npm run build

Development Mode

npm run dev

Live testing in a vault

Instead of copying build artifacts manually, link the plugin folder in your vault to the out directory once. Rebuilds from npm run dev then show up after reloading the plugin in Obsidian.

# Windows (PowerShell). Symlinks need Developer Mode or admin rights; otherwise use -ItemType Junction
Remove-Item "<vault>\.obsidian\plugins\notes-dashboard" -Recurse -Force
New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "<vault>\.obsidian\plugins\notes-dashboard" -Target "<project>\out"

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Support

If you encounter any issues or have feature requests, please open an issue on GitHub.

Made with ❤️ for the Obsidian community