Vestaboardian

Compose a message in an Obsidian note and send it to your Vestaboard split-flap display — with a live tile preview, validation, one-click auto-fix, and a message history table kept right in your note.

Features at a glance

• Send from any note — write your message under a ## Vestaboard heading and send it with one command or the ribbon button.
• Live tile preview — a right-sidebar view renders your message as Vestaboard tiles while you type, with validation status.
• Confirm before sending — a modal shows exactly what the board will display before anything is transmitted.
• Validation and auto-fix — unsupported characters, over-wide rows, and extra rows are caught with precise errors, or normalized automatically.
• Color tiles — emoji squares (🟥 🟧 🟨 🟩 🟦 🟪 ⬜ ⬛) become colored Vestaboard tiles.
• History table — each send is logged in a ## Vestaboard History table in the note, newest first, including when the message left the board.
• Two transports — Vestaboard Cloud Read/Write API (works from anywhere) or the Local API (LAN only, no cloud round-trip).
• Both devices — Flagship (6 rows × 22 columns) and Note (3 × 15).

Status

Beta. The plugin builds cleanly and its logic is covered by 74 unit tests, but it has had limited testing inside a running Obsidian instance and against physical boards. Please report issues on this repo. Desktop only for now.

Requirements

• A Vestaboard (Flagship or Note) that is paired and online.
• Obsidian 1.5.0 or newer (desktop).
• An API key for at least one transport — see Getting your API keys below.

Installation

Via BRAT (recommended while in beta)

1. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins, select Browse, and install BRAT (Beta Reviewer's Auto-update Tool). Enable it.
2. Open Settings → BRAT, select Add beta plugin.
3. Enter the repository: patrick-knight/Vestaboardian. Leave the version field empty to track the latest release.
4. Select Add plugin. BRAT downloads and installs it.
5. Go back to Settings → Community plugins and make sure Vestaboardian is enabled.

BRAT will keep the plugin updated as new releases are published.

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Create the folder <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/vestaboardian/ and copy the three files into it.
3. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins, refresh the list, and enable Vestaboardian.

Getting your API keys

You only need the key for the transport you plan to use. Cloud is the simplest to set up.

Cloud Read/Write API key

1. Sign in at web.vestaboard.com (or use the Vestaboard mobile app).
2. Open the Developer section (web app) or Settings → API tokens (mobile app).
3. Create a new Read/Write API key.
4. Copy the key immediately — Vestaboard shows it only once. If you lose it, revoke it and create a new one.

Local API key

The Local API lets the plugin talk directly to the board over your LAN. It requires a one-time enablement:

1. Request a Local API enablement token from Vestaboard at vestaboard.com/local-api. Your board must be paired, online, and up to date. The token arrives by email.

2. In Settings → Vestaboardian, paste the token into Enable Local API and press Enable (your computer must be on the same network as the board). The plugin exchanges it with the board for the permanent key and stores it automatically. Alternatively, do the same by hand:

   curl -X POST \
     -H "X-Vestaboard-Local-Api-Enablement-Token: YOUR_ENABLEMENT_TOKEN" \
     http://vestaboard.local:7000/local-api/enablement
   

   and paste the returned apiKey into the Local API key setting.

3. If vestaboard.local does not resolve on your network, find the board's IP address in your router's client list and put that in the plugin's Local host setting first.

Token storage note: the plugin stores your keys in plaintext in this vault's .obsidian/plugins/vestaboardian/data.json. They stay in your vault and are never sent anywhere except to Vestaboard's API (Cloud) or your board (Local). Keep this in mind if you sync or share your vault.

Configuring the plugin

Open Settings → Vestaboardian:

Usage

1. Write a message

Add the marker heading (default ## Vestaboard) anywhere in a note, with your message on the lines below it:

## Vestaboard
🟦 STANDUP IN 🟦
10 MINUTES

The message is the block from the first non-blank line after the heading up to the next blank line, heading, or end of file — capped at the device's row count. Text is case-insensitive (the board is uppercase-only); each character and each color emoji occupies one tile.

2. Preview it (optional)

Run Open Vestaboard preview from the command palette. A right-sidebar view shows the tile rendering live as you type, plus a validation status line and a Send button.

3. Send it

Run Send message from this note (command palette or the send ribbon icon). A confirmation modal shows the exact tiles; select Send. To override the default transport for a single send, use Send message from this note via Local or … via Cloud instead.

If the message is invalid and auto-fix is off, the send is blocked with a Notice describing each problem (row, column, and character).

Commands

Colors and special characters

Use emoji for colored tiles, one tile each:

🟥 red · 🟧 orange · 🟨 yellow · 🟩 green · 🟦 blue · 🟪 violet · ⬜ white · ⬛ black · ❤️ → character code 62 (renders as ° on Flagship, ♥ on Note).

Supported text: letters, digits, space, and !@#$()-+&=;:'"%,./?. Anything else is flagged by validation (or dropped by auto-fix).

History

After each successful send, the plugin appends a row to a ## Vestaboard History table in the same note (creating the table if needed):

## Vestaboard History
| Live (sent) | Exited | Transport | Message |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2026-07-05 09:30 | — (live) | cloud | STANDUP IN 10 MIN… |

The Exited time for the previous message is stamped when you post the next one (infer-on-next-post). If polling is enabled, the plugin also notices when the board is changed from elsewhere and clears its "currently live" state; the authoritative exit timestamp still comes from the next post.

Troubleshooting

• "No ## Vestaboard section found" — the note needs the marker heading exactly as configured in settings (default ## Vestaboard), and the message must start within the same section (blank lines directly after the heading are skipped).
• Cloud send fails with 401/403 — the Read/Write key is wrong or was revoked. Create a new key in the Developer section and paste it into settings.
• Local send fails or times out — confirm the board and computer are on the same network, and try the board's IP address in Local host instead of vestaboard.local (mDNS does not resolve on some networks). Verify the Local API was enabled (step 2 of the key setup).
• Message looks different on the board — auto-fix may have normalized it. The history row records what was actually sent. Turn Auto-fix by default off to be shown validation errors instead.
• Preview shows the wrong grid size — check the Device setting matches your board model.

Development

npm install
npm run build   # tsc --noEmit && esbuild -> main.js
npm test        # vitest unit suite

Pure logic lives in src/core/ (no Obsidian imports), transports in src/transport/, and the Obsidian glue in src/obsidian/. main.js is committed because BRAT and manual installs consume it directly.

Disclaimer

This is an unofficial community plugin. It is not created by, affiliated with, or supported by Vestaboard, Inc.

License

MIT