Depthinker Timer

A Pomodoro and stopwatch timer for Obsidian with a calendar-style focus log that lives inside your vault — so disabling or uninstalling the plugin never erases your history, and your data syncs across devices with whatever sync method you already use.

Works on desktop and mobile (Android / iOS).

Features

• Pomodoro timer with custom focus / short-break / long-break lengths and an adjustable long-break interval.
• Stopwatch mode for open-ended focus sessions.
• Auto-cycle that rolls from focus → break → focus automatically (toggleable).
• Calendar view with a monthly heatmap of focus time, daily totals, and a streak counter.
• Edit / delete / manually add any session from the calendar.
• Finish cues: a short chime, vibration, and an in-app notice. All optional.
• Accurate timing on mobile: elapsed time is derived from wall-clock timestamps, not tick counts, so backgrounding or locking the screen never slows the clock.
• Crash recovery: an in-progress timer is restored when Obsidian reopens.
• Bilingual UI: follows Obsidian's interface language (English / 中文).

Installation

From the community browser (once published)

1. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins and turn off Restricted mode if needed.
2. Browse and search for Depthinker Timer, then click Install and Enable.

From a release (manual)

Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest GitHub release and place them in <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/depthinker-timer/. Then enable the plugin.

Build from source

npm install
npm run build        # outputs dist/main.js, manifest.json, styles.css
npm run deploy       # copies the build into a local vault for testing

Settings

Setting	What it does
Focus length	Minutes per Pomodoro.
Short break / Long break	Rest minutes after a Pomodoro / after a full cycle.
Long break after	Number of Pomodoros before a long break.
Auto cycle	Start the next phase automatically when one ends.
Default mode	Timer shown when the panel opens (Pomodoro or Stopwatch).
Minimum session length	Shorter runs are discarded instead of stored (0 = keep everything).
Daily goal	Minutes; drives the calendar colour scale and the daily hint.
Sound / Vibrate / Notice on finish	End-of-phase cues.
Data folder	Vault folder for the daily log notes.
Week starts on	Sunday or Monday.

Where your data lives

Every day's focus log is written as a plain Markdown note:

<Data folder>/<Year>/<YYYY-MM-DD>.md

Example: FocusLog/2026/2026-08-17.md. The note holds a frontmatter block plus a json code block listing that day's sessions. Because these are ordinary vault notes:

• They survive disabling or uninstalling the plugin.
• They sync with your vault through Obsidian Sync, iCloud, Git, etc.
• They're protected by Obsidian's file history and can be opened or edited by hand.

To keep these notes out of global search and the graph, add -path:FocusLog (or your chosen folder name) to a search filter or to a folder exclusion.

To erase your history entirely, delete the data folder.

Known limitations

• Cross-device edit conflicts. If the same session is edited on two devices before they sync, the later write wins (sessions are keyed by id; the newer updatedAt wins). Different sessions written on different devices merge cleanly. Use Obsidian's version history to recover an overwritten edit.
• Mobile background audio. iOS and some Android setups mute or block audio while the app is in the background; the in-app notice and vibration still fire where supported. The timer itself keeps accurate time regardless.
• Cross-midnight sessions. A session is filed under the calendar day its start time belongs to, even if it runs past midnight.

Development

npm install
npm run dev    # watch build that writes straight into a vault plugin folder
npm run check  # type-check only
npm run build  # production bundle to dist/

The plugin targets Obsidian 1.7.2+ and sets isDesktopOnly: false.

License

GPL-3.0.