Multi-State Checkboxes

Switch Obsidian checkboxes between customizable statuses via click, keyboard shortcut, or context menu.

Features

• Define your list of checkbox statuses (e.g. [ ] not started, [/] in progress, [x] complete, [-] cancelled).
• Customize how your editor cycles between them.
• Transition between checkbox statuses on click:
  • Left-click to cycle to the next status.
  • Right-click to pick a status from the context menu.
• Define keyboard shortcuts using the provided editor commands:
  • Cycle to next status
  • Cycle to previous status
  • Set status: … (one command per defined status)

Installation

From Obsidian's Community Plugins (recommended)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins in Obsidian.
2. Make sure Restricted mode is off.
3. Click Browse, search for Multi-State Checkboxes, and click Install.
4. After installing, click Enable.

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest GitHub release.
2. Copy them into your vault under <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/multi-state-checkboxes/ (create the folder if it does not exist).
3. Reload Obsidian, then enable Multi-State Checkboxes under Settings → Community plugins.

Usage

1. Open the plugin's settings tab (Settings → Multi-State Checkboxes) to define your list of checkbox statuses. Each status has a single character (the value inside the brackets, e.g. /, x, -) and a label.
2. In any note, place your cursor on a checkbox line (or click a rendered checkbox) and:
   • Left-click a checkbox to cycle it to the next status.
   • Right-click a checkbox to pick a specific status from the context menu.
   • Use the Cycle to next status / Cycle to previous status commands from the Command Palette, or bind them to hotkeys under Settings → Hotkeys.
   • Use a Set status: … command to jump directly to a specific status.
3. Set custom keyboard shortcuts for any of the above commands

Example

With statuses configured as [ ] → [/] → [x] → [-], repeatedly cycling a line like:

- [ ] Write the README

will step through all the configured states:

- [/] Write the README
- [x] Write the README
- [-] Write the README
- [ ] Write the README

Once we arrive at the initial state, the cycle simply starts again.

Requirements

Requires a theme that styles multi-state checkboxes — many popular themes do, including:

• Minimal
• Things
• AnuPpuccin
• Cupertino

Without a supporting theme the checkbox character still cycles in the source, but won't render with a distinct visual.