Watermelon Workbench

给 Obsidian 小说作者的一张“西瓜味写作桌”：左边放章节，中间专心写，右边放灵感工具和码字仪表盘。

Watermelon Workbench is a cozy long-form writing workspace for Obsidian. It keeps your Markdown files plain and portable, while adding a focused writing interface for drafting novels, web fiction, worldbuilding notes, serial chapters, and any text that wants to grow into a small universe.

如果你经常在 Obsidian 里写小说，却觉得默认编辑器像一张太宽的白纸、章节跳转不够顺手、临时角色名又总卡壳——欢迎把这颗西瓜切开。

✨ Features

🧘 Focused writing workbench

• Opens the current Markdown file in a dedicated writing view.
• Exits back to Obsidian's normal Markdown editor without spawning extra tabs.
• Comfortable typography controls: font family, font size, and line height.
• Auto-scrolls near the bottom so the cursor stays in a comfortable writing zone.

📚 Chapter navigation

• Shows sibling Markdown files as a chapter list.
• Switch chapters without leaving the workbench.
• Supports sorting by path/name or modified time.

✍️ Writing-friendly indentation

• Press Enter and the next line starts at a Chinese-style first-line indent position.
• The indent is for the workbench writing experience; saved Markdown stays clean.
• Legacy full-width indent characters inserted by earlier builds are normalized when opening files.

🎲 Local random name generator

No API key. No network request. No waiting for the cloud muse to wake up.

Generate and insert:

• Chinese character names
• English names
• Two-character or three-character Chinese names
• Ancient-style or modern-style place names

Click a generated name to insert it into your draft.

🕰 Time Machine backups

For when chapter 7 takes a wrong turn into a swamp.

• Automatically creates a backup snapshot every ~100 new non-space characters.
• Stores backups in a 备份 folder next to your chapter file.
• View added/removed lines between a snapshot and the current draft.
• Restore a snapshot; the current draft is backed up first before restoration.

📊 Compact live stats

A small right-side dashboard tracks the essentials:

• Session words / typing speed
• Writing time / idle time
• Total characters / non-space characters
• Chapter count / total novel word count across the current folder

📦 Installation

Manual installation

1. Download or build the plugin files.

2. Copy these files into your Obsidian vault plugin folder:

   <your-vault>/.obsidian/plugins/watermelon-workbench/
   ├── main.js
   ├── manifest.json
   └── styles.css
   

3. Restart Obsidian or reload plugins.

4. Enable Watermelon Workbench in Settings → Community plugins.

Build from source

npm install
npm run build

For development watch mode:

npm run dev

Type-check only:

npm run typecheck

🚀 Usage

After enabling the plugin, use one of these entry points:

• Ribbon icon: Open Watermelon Workbench
• Command palette:
  • Open writing workbench
  • Open current file in writing workbench
  • Exit writing workbench

Inside the workbench:

• Left panel: chapter list
• Center: focused editor
• Right panel: plugin box + live stats
• Esc or the toolbar exit button returns to normal Obsidian editing

🧃 Philosophy

Watermelon Workbench tries to be a writing table, not a writing prison.

Your novel remains Markdown. Your backups are Markdown. Your random names are local. The plugin is there to make drafting feel smoother, not to trap your manuscript in a mysterious proprietary watermelon crate.

🗂 Project structure

src/
├── main.ts                         # Obsidian plugin lifecycle and commands
├── settings.ts                     # Settings schema and settings tab
├── services/
│   ├── RandomNameService.ts        # Local name/place generation
│   ├── StatsService.ts             # Writing statistics
│   └── TimeMachineService.ts       # Snapshot, diff, restore helpers
├── utils/
│   └── formatting.ts               # Toolbar text transforms
└── views/
    └── WorkbenchView.ts            # Main workbench UI

🛣 Roadmap ideas

• Better theme presets for different writing moods
• Search inside chapter scope
• More local name packs and worldbuilding generators
• Export/release packaging automation
• Optional per-project writing goals

🤝 Contributing

Issues, ideas, and pull requests are welcome.

If you find a bug, it helps to include:

• Obsidian version
• Plugin version
• Operating system
• A short reproduction step list
• Whether it happens in a fresh vault

📄 License

MIT License. See LICENSE.

Made for people who open a blank chapter, stare at it for 20 minutes, then suddenly write 3,000 words because the fake character name finally sounded right. 🍉