Reminder Telegram

Never miss a deadline again! Get Telegram notifications automatically when your Obsidian tasks are due.

Why This Plugin?

Do you manage tasks in Obsidian but sometimes forget to check them? This plugin bridges the gap between your note-taking and your daily workflow by sending timely Telegram reminders directly to your phone or desktop.

Whether you use YAML frontmatter for structured task management or prefer inline task lists, Reminder Telegram ensures you stay on top of your deadlines without constantly checking Obsidian.

Key Features

• 📋 YAML Frontmatter Support: Parse tasks from markdown files with structured frontmatter
• ✅ Inline Task Support: Works with traditional Obsidian task format (- [ ] Task 📅 2024-01-01)
• 🗂️ Flexible Scanning: Choose to scan your entire vault or a specific folder
• 📱 Telegram Integration: Instant notifications via Telegram Bot API
• ⏱️ Configurable Intervals: Check for due tasks every 30 minutes (or your preferred interval)
• 📦 Multi-task Digest: Get all due tasks in a single organized message
• 🚫 Duplicate Prevention: Smart tracking to avoid repeated notifications
• 🔔 Interactive Status Bar: Click the status bar icon to manually check for due tasks
• ⏰ Status Updates: See when the last check was performed in the status bar
• 🎨 Customizable Messages: Personalize Telegram notification text with templates and variables
• 📝 Markdown Support: Enable Telegram Markdown formatting for rich text notifications
• 📊 Task Sidebar: Dedicated sidebar panel showing overdue, due today, and upcoming tasks at a glance
• ✨ Enhanced UX: Clickable variable chips, character counters, and live preview

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins

1. Go to Settings → Community plugins → Browse
2. Search for "Reminder Telegram"
3. Install and enable the plugin

Manual Installation

1. Clone this repository or download the latest release
2. Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to your vault's .obsidian/plugins/obsidian-reminder-telegram/ folder
3. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Usage

Setting Up Telegram

1. Create a Telegram Bot:

   • Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
   • Send /newbot command
   • Follow instructions to name your bot and get the Bot Token

2. Get Your Chat ID:

   • Open Telegram and search for @userinfobot
   • Send /start command
   • It will reply with your Chat ID

3. Configure the Plugin:

   • Go to Settings → Reminder Telegram
   • Enter your Telegram Bot Token
   • Enter your Telegram Chat ID
   • Enable Notifications
   • Set your preferred Check Interval (default: 30 minutes)

Task Formats Supported

YAML Frontmatter (Recommended)

Create markdown files with YAML frontmatter:

---
status: open
priority: normal
scheduled: 2024-12-25
tags:
  - task
---

# My Task
Complete this task by Christmas

Supported Frontmatter Fields:

• status: open, done, in-progress, completed, cancelled, archived
• scheduled: Deadline date (ISO format: YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM)
• due: Alternative deadline field
• tags: Array of tags (must include task or #task to be recognized)
• completedDate: If set, task is considered completed

Inline Tasks

Traditional Obsidian task format within any markdown file:

- [ ] Complete project by 📅 2024-12-25
- [ ] Review notes due:: 2024-12-20
- [ ] Meeting scheduled:: 2024-12-15

Supported Date Formats:

• 📅 YYYY-MM-DD
• due:: YYYY-MM-DD
• scheduled:: YYYY-MM-DD
• starts:: YYYY-MM-DD
• Plain dates: YYYY-MM-DD, MM/DD/YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY

Scan Configuration

Choose what to scan:

1. Whole Vault (default): Scans all markdown files in your entire vault
2. Specific Folder: Scans only files in a specified folder

To use a specific folder:

• Set Scan Mode to "Specific Folder"
• Enter the folder path (e.g., Tasks or Meta/TaskNotes/Tasks)

Sidebar

Open the Reminder Telegram sidebar via:

• The 🔔 bell icon in the left ribbon
• Command palette → "Toggle sidebar"

The sidebar shows three sections:

1. Overdue — tasks past their deadline (highlighted in red)
2. Due Today — tasks due today
3. Upcoming — tasks due in the next N days (configurable)

Each task row shows:

• Task description
• Source file name
• Relative date (Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow, etc.)

Click any task to open its source file and jump directly to the task line.

Filters:

• Today — shows only Overdue + Due Today (hides Upcoming)
• Week — shows all sections with Upcoming limited to next 7 days
• Tag — intersect with a selected frontmatter tag
• Clear — removes all filters, showing everything

Commands

Message Template Customization

Customize the content and format of your Telegram notifications with an enhanced editing experience:

Available Template Variables

Multi-task Digest Template (for multiple tasks):

• {count}: Number of due tasks
• {tasks}: List of formatted tasks (each using the individual template)

Individual Message Template (for single tasks):

• {taskName}: Task name/text
• {fileName}: File name containing the task
• {deadline}: Task deadline date
• {filePath}: Full path to the file
• {taskId}: Unique task identifier

Enhanced Template Editing

The plugin now includes powerful UX improvements for template customization:

Clickable Variable Chips

Instead of manually typing variables, click on the available variable chips to insert them at your cursor position:

• Multi-task digest: {count}, {tasks} chips
• Individual template: {taskName}, {fileName}, {deadline}, {filePath}, {taskId} chips

Character Counter

Telegram has a 4096 character limit for messages. The character counter shows:

• Current character count vs limit
• Percentage used
• Warning when approaching 80% of the limit

Live Preview

Enable the "Live preview" setting to see real-time rendering of your templates with sample data:

• Individual task preview with example content
• Multi-task digest preview with multiple sample tasks
• Test notification preview

Markdown Examples

The Markdown formatting toggle now includes examples:

• *bold* for bold text
• _italic_ for italic text
• `code` for monospace text
• [link](https://example.com) for links

Example Templates

Bulk Notification:

📋 You have {count} pending tasks due today:

{tasks}

Please check your Obsidian vault!

Individual Notification:

🔔 REMINDER: {taskName}
📁 File: {fileName}
📅 Due: {deadline}

Test Notification:

✅ Reminder Telegram plugin is working!
This is a test from your Obsidian vault.

Markdown Formatting

Enable Markdown formatting in settings to use Telegram's Markdown syntax for rich text formatting:

• *bold* for bold text
• _italic_ for italic text
• `code` for monospace text
• [link](https://example.com) for links

Settings

Notification Content

Bulk Notification (Multiple Tasks)

⏰ You have X task(s) due:

• Task 1 (2024-01-01) - file1.md
• Task 2 (2024-01-02) - file2.md

Individual Notification

⏰ Task Reminder

📝 Task name
📁 File name
📅 Deadline

Test Notification

✅ Reminder Telegram plugin is working!

This is a test notification from your Obsidian vault.

When Notifications Are Sent

1. On startup: If periodic checking is enabled
2. On interval: Every N minutes (configurable)
3. Manual trigger: Via command palette or status bar

Notifications are sent for tasks that are:

• Due today
• Overdue (past deadline)

Completed tasks (status: done or [x]) are skipped.

Future Improvements

Here are some planned enhancements for future versions:

• Message templates: Customization of Telegram notification text ✅ IMPLEMENTED
• Enhanced UX: Clickable variables, character counters, and live preview ✅ IMPLEMENTED
• Task sidebar: Dedicated sidebar with urgency grouping and filters ✅ IMPLEMENTED
• Advanced filters: Exclude specific folders or patterns from the scan
• Timezone aware: Explicit time zone management for precise deadlines
• Recurring support: Recognition of recurring tasks (daily, weekly)
• Snooze / Postpone: Inline interaction on Telegram to postpone a task
• Advance notifications: Alert N days before the deadline

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm

Install Dependencies

npm install

Development Mode (Watch)

npm run dev

Production Build

npm run build

Lint

npm run lint

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! Please open an issue first for significant changes.

License

This plugin is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3). See LICENSE for details.

Credits

• Inspired by the Obsidian Tasks plugin
• Built with Obsidian Plugin API