Loom View

Loom View is a grid-based timeline visualization plugin for Obsidian. It maps time across the X-axis and categories (regions, projects, genres) across parallel horizontal lanes -- letting you see what was happening simultaneously across different dimensions.

Features

• Regional Lanes: View events side-by-side in dedicated horizontal lanes (regions, plot threads, project tracks -- whatever you define).
• Entity Glow: Hover over any note to instantly highlight every other note sharing the same key-figures or connections, with thread lines drawn between them.
• Dual Date Engine:
  • Year mode: Integer years with BCE/CE support (e.g., -500 becomes 500 BCE). Fictional calendars work too (e.g., Era 450).
  • Date mode: Full dates (2026-01-15) with Month, Week, and Day resolution. Auto-detected from your frontmatter.
• Configurable Zoom: Year, Decade, Century (or custom increments) in year mode. Month, Week, Day in date mode.
• Era-Snap Bookmarks: Jump to key periods with one click. Supports both year bookmarks (Bronze: -3000) and date bookmarks (Sprint 1: 2026-01-15).
• Lane Filtering: Solo specific lanes for focused comparison.
• Data Scoping: Limit the view to specific folders and/or tags to keep it performant and relevant.

Note: Loom auto-detects whether your notes use integer years (e.g. -44) or full dates (e.g. 2026-01-15). You cannot mix both in the same view -- whichever format appears first in your scoped files determines the mode.

Getting Started

Frontmatter Schema

Loom View reads your Markdown frontmatter. For a note to appear on the Loom, it needs date and lane properties:

Year mode (historical, world-building):

region: [Europe]
year-start: -44
year-end: -44
key-figures: [Caesar]

Date mode (journals, project tracking):

region: [Project Alpha]
year-start: 2026-01-15
year-end: 2026-02-01
key-figures: [Alice]

The property names are fully configurable in Settings.

Configure Settings

Go to Settings > Loom View to map your vault structure:

• Start/End Date Keys: Which frontmatter keys hold your dates (default: year-start, year-end).
• Date Format: How to parse date strings (default: yyyy-MM-dd). Uses date-fns format tokens.
• Lane Key & Order: Which key defines lanes and their display order.
• Connection Keys: Which keys to use for Entity Glow connections (e.g., key-figures, mentors).
• Source Folders / Tags: Scope the view to specific parts of your vault.
• Era Bookmarks: Quick-jump points for navigation.

Usage

Open with the Command Palette: "Loom View: Open Loom View", or click the ribbon icon.

• Zoom: Use the top buttons to switch resolution (Year/Decade/Century or Month/Week/Day).
• Navigate: Scroll horizontally, or use Era-Snap bookmarks at the bottom to jump to specific periods.
• Filter: Click "Filter" to show/hide specific lanes.
• Connect: Hover any note to highlight all related notes (Entity Glow) and see thread lines between them.
• Open: Click any note block to open the source file.

Use Cases

• Historians: Compare the rise and fall of empires across continents simultaneously.
• World Builders: Track parallel plotlines across different fictional kingdoms or planets.
• Project Managers: Visualize sprints, milestones, and deliverables across teams on a shared timeline.
• Researchers: See which artists, scientists, or authors were active in the same period and who influenced whom.

License

MIT License.