Memopad

A quick capture plugin for Obsidian that standardizes your thoughts into a single inbox file.

Dump thoughts from anywhere; the plugin auto-formats them as tasks, notes, ideas, or logs with proper metadata. No folders, no complexity—just one Memopad.md file that's easy to process later with Tasks, Dataview, or manual review.

Features

• Universal capture modal — Open from anywhere with a hotkey
• Smart formatting — Automatically detects entry types and categories
• Live preview — See exactly how your entry will be saved before submitting
• Natural date parsing — Write "tomorrow" or "next tuesday" and get proper dates
• Checkbox tasks — Tasks are saved with - [ ] markdown for compatibility with task plugins
• Configurable categories — Add your own categories with keyword detection
• Single inbox file — All entries go to one file, organized by date

Installation

1. Open Settings → Community plugins
2. Select Browse and search for "Memopad"
3. Select Install, then Enable

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
2. Create a folder called memopad in your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory
3. Copy the downloaded files into the memopad folder
4. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Usage

Opening the capture modal

• Use the command palette: Memopad: Capture thought
• Or assign a hotkey in Settings → Hotkeys (search for "Memopad")

Entry types

Type naturally and Memopad will format your entry:

You type	Memopad saves
fix login bug tomorrow	- [ ] [task:personal] fix login bug 📅 2025-12-28
note: interesting article about AI	- [note] interesting article about AI
idea: plugin for daily quotes	- [idea] plugin for daily quotes
log: finished the report	- [log] finished the report
work: review PR for auth service	- [ ] [task:work] review PR for auth service

Explicit prefixes

Start your input with a type or category to override auto-detection:

• note: — Create a note entry
• idea: — Create an idea entry
• log: — Create a log entry
• task: — Create a task entry
• work: — Create a work task (or any custom category name)
• personal: — Create a personal task

Task detection

Memopad automatically detects tasks when your input starts with action words:

fix, call, email, send, buy, finish, complete, review, check, update, create, make, write, schedule, book, meet, submit, prepare, clean, organize

These keywords are configurable in settings.

Category detection

Tasks are automatically categorized based on keywords in your input:

Keywords detected	Category
jira, meeting, standup, client, deploy, pr, sprint, ticket, slack, report	work
home, family, gym, doctor, shopping, groceries	personal

Categories and their keywords are fully configurable in settings.

Natural date parsing

Memopad understands relative dates and converts them to 📅 YYYY-MM-DD format:

You write	Result
today	Today's date
tomorrow	Tomorrow's date
yesterday	Yesterday's date
tuesday	Next Tuesday
next friday	The upcoming Friday
this wednesday	This week's Wednesday
next week	Next Monday
in 3 days	3 days from now
in 2 weeks	14 days from now
in 1 month	1 month from now

Example: call dentist next tuesday → - [ ] [task:personal] call dentist 📅 2025-12-30

Output format

Entries are saved to Memopad.md (configurable) organized by date:

# Memopad Inbox

## 2025-12-27
- [ ] [task:work] review PR for auth service 📅 2025-12-30
- [ ] [task:personal] call mum tomorrow 📅 2025-12-28
- [note] interesting article about AI agents
- [idea] plugin for daily quotes

## 2025-12-26
- [log] finished quarterly report
- [ ] [task:work] deploy hotfix 📅 2025-12-27

Settings

General

• Inbox file path — Where to save captured entries (default: Memopad.md)
• Default category — Fallback category for tasks when no keywords match (default: personal)

Task keywords

Comma-separated list of words that trigger task detection when they appear at the start of your input.

Entry types

Comma-separated list of entry types (e.g., note, idea, log, task).

Categories

Add, edit, or remove categories. Each category has:

• Name — Used in the output format [task:name] and as an explicit prefix
• Keywords — Words that trigger this category when found in your input

Tips

• Quick capture: Assign a global hotkey like Ctrl+Shift+M for instant access
• Process later: Use Obsidian's Tasks plugin or Dataview to query your Memopad entries
• Keep it simple: Don't overthink—just dump thoughts and let Memopad format them

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
Enter	Capture and close
Shift+Enter	New line
Escape	Cancel and close

License

0BSD