Kanban Level Up

pending

by Jakob Eilts

Manage your todos in a customizable Kanban board with drag-and-drop support. Also level up your skills by doing so.

Updated 25d agoMITDiscovered via Obsidian Unofficial Plugins
View on GitHub

Kanban Todo Board – Obsidian Plugin

A full-featured Kanban board plugin for Obsidian with Skill tracking, completion history, and drag-and-drop support. Boards are stored as .kanban files directly in your vault.

✨ Feature Overview

FeatureDescription
Multiple BoardsEach board is a .kanban file in your vault — visible in the file list
Flexible ColumnsAdd, rename (double-click), delete columns. Mark any column as "Done"
Drag & DropDrag cards between columns with visual drop zones
Arrow buttonsMove cards left/right by clicking ◀ ▶ on each card
LabelsAssign color-coded labels to cards. Defined in plugin settings
Auto-archiveCards in Done columns older than 1 week are hidden from the board (but preserved)
All Done TodosA dedicated page listing every completed todo, grouped by date
Skill ChartA radar chart that grows as you complete labeled tasks
Historical comparisonCompare your skill chart against any custom date range

🛠 Installation

Requirements

Steps

  1. Install dependencies

    npm install

  2. Build the plugin

    npm run build

    This generates main.js.

  3. Copy to Obsidian

    • Navigate to <Your Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/
    • Create a folder: kanban-todo-board/
    • Copy into it:
      • main.js
      • manifest.json
      • styles.css

  4. Enable the plugin

    • Settings → Community Plugins → disable Safe Mode → enable Kanban Todo Board

Tip: Show hidden folders in Finder with CMD + SHIFT + .

📋 Kanban Board

Creating a board

  • Click the dashboard ribbon icon or run the command New Kanban Board
  • Enter a name — a .kanban file is created in your vault root and opened immediately
  • The board appears in your file list like any other note

Columns

  • Add a column: Click the + icon at the right edge of the board
  • Rename a column: Double-click the column title to open the column settings
  • Delete a column: Click the trash icon in the column header
  • Mark as Done: In the column settings modal, toggle "Mark as Done column"

⚠️ Important: The "Done" status is set explicitly — it is NOT inferred from the column name. This means you can rename your Done column to anything (e.g. "🎉 Completed", "Shipped", "Archiv") without breaking Skill Chart or All Done Todos tracking.

Cards

  • Add a card: Click + Add card at the bottom of any column
  • Edit a card: Hover over a card → click the pencil icon
  • Delete a card: Hover over a card → click the × icon
  • Move a card: Drag and drop, or use the ◀ ▶ arrow buttons
  • Cards support a title, optional description, and one or more labels

Auto-archive

Cards in Done columns that are older than 7 days are automatically hidden from the board view. They continue to count in the Skill Chart and appear on the All Done Todos page. A small note in the Done column shows how many items are archived.

✅ All Done Todos

Open via the ribbon (checkmark icon) or command Open All Done Todos.

  • Aggregates all completed cards from all .kanban files in your vault
  • Shows the completion date and time for each card
  • Grouped by day, sorted newest first
  • Displays the board name each card belongs to
  • Shows assigned labels

Cards are tracked here regardless of whether they are still visible on the Kanban board or have been auto-archived.

📡 Skill Chart

Open via the ribbon (activity icon) or command Open Skill Chart.

How it works

Every time a card is moved into a Done column, the Skill Chart increments by 1 for each label on that card. Moving the card back out decrements it. The chart grows over time as you complete labeled work.

Radar chart

  • One axis per label defined in settings
  • The shape shows the distribution of your completed work across label types
  • Long label names wrap automatically and are never clipped

Comparison / history

The plugin takes automatic snapshots of your scores (at most once per 20 hours). You can compare your current chart against any past point:

  • Quick presets: 1W, 2W, 1M, 3M, 6M — sets the comparison range to that many days ago
  • Custom date range: Set a "From" and "To" date manually using the date pickers
  • Toggle: Disable comparison entirely with the toggle switch
  • The dashed polygon on the chart shows your skills at the start of the selected period
  • The stats grid shows the delta (e.g. +3) per label

🏷 Labels

Manage labels in Settings → Kanban Todo Board → Labels:

  • Add labels with + Add label
  • Rename labels inline — changes reflect immediately on all open boards
  • Change color using the color picker — the label preview updates live
  • Delete labels (note: cards retain the label ID, so re-adding a label with the same name won't reconnect them)

Labels assigned to a card are shown as color-coded chips on the card. They drive the Skill Chart axes.

⚙️ Settings

SettingDescription
LabelsAdd, rename, recolor, and delete labels
Reset skill scoresWipes all accumulated Skill Chart scores and snapshot history

📁 File structure

obsidian-kanban-plugin/
├── main.ts          # All plugin logic (TypeScript source)
├── styles.css       # Styles (uses Obsidian CSS variables — adapts to any theme)
├── manifest.json    # Plugin metadata
├── package.json     # npm config
├── tsconfig.json    # TypeScript config
└── esbuild.config.mjs  # Build config

Board data is stored in .kanban files in your vault (plain JSON).
Label definitions and Skill Chart scores are stored in .obsidian/plugins/kanban-todo-board/data.json.

💻 Development

npm run dev     # Watch mode — rebuilds on file changes
npm run build   # Production build

For plugin developers

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