Review Simple

Helps you reread and refine your notes on a recurring schedule. Last review date lives in each note's frontmatter.

Features

• Per-note status bar indicator: ✓ 2025-11-04, ⚠ due · 2025-09-10, or ⚠ not reviewed.
• Folder filter: excluded mode or included-only mode for batch review scope. Both lists preserved when switching.
• Intervals can be set at three levels: global default, per-folder rules, per-note frontmatter overrides.
• Mark as reviewed via status bar click or command palette.
• Data stored in note frontmatter — no external database.
• Vault-wide counter of notes currently due for review.

Quick start

1. Install Review Simple from Obsidian's Community Plugins.
2. Set folders to review and mode that fits your needs.
3. Choose a review interval (in days).
4. Reread to refine. Open a random due note via command palette, or by clicking the counter in the status bar.
5. Mark it reviewed the same way — command palette or click the per-note indicator.

For unreleased builds from master, install CitrusRenegade/review-simple-obsidian through BRAT.

Intervals

Review Simple uses folder settings for batch rules and frontmatter for per-note overrides.

Precedence:

1. review_interval in the note's frontmatter.
   • A number of days includes that note with that interval, even if it is outside the included folders or inside an excluded folder.
   • never excludes that note, even if folder or global rules would include it.
2. Folder filter mode, when the note has no frontmatter interval override.
   • In excluded mode, listed folders are skipped.
   • In included-only mode, only listed folders are reviewed.
3. Folder interval rule (longest matching path wins).
4. Global default interval.

Example per-note frontmatter:

---
reviewed: 2025-10-15
review_interval: 14
---

Commands

[!TIP] Bind Open random note for review to Ctrl+Shift+R for a fast random review workflow.

A review can include editing, cleanup, and moving the note to a better folder with Obsidian's built-in Move current file to another folder command.

When the note is done, mark it reviewed.

• Open random note for review — opens a random note that's currently due.
• Mark current note as reviewed — writes today's date to frontmatter.

UI actions

• Clicking the per-note status bar review indicator marks the active note as reviewed today. This status is shown when the active note is included in review.
• Clicking the due counter status bar icon opens a random due note. The counter is hidden when there are no due notes.
• Clicking the ribbon icon opens a random due note.
• The folder context menu can exclude a folder from review when folder filtering is in excluded mode.

Configuration

Settings → Review Simple:

• Global review interval (days).
• Folder filter mode (excluded / included-only) for batch review scope.
• Folder-specific intervals, one folder/path,days rule per line.
• Toggles to hide the per-note indicator or the due counter.
• Advanced: customize frontmatter keys (reviewed, review_interval). A per-note review_interval overrides folder filters.

Alternatives

There are several Obsidian plugins and workflows for revisiting notes with their own trade-offs.

prncc/obsidian-repeat-plugin - A close alternative for reviewing notes with frontmatter-driven schedules. Requires the Dataview plugin. Every note to be reviewed must have a repeat property. Bulk setup for existing notes is done through a separate obsidian-scripts workflow rather than through the plugin settings.

zachmueller/spaced-everything - Implements a more opinionated workflow around spaced repetition for writing and incremental note development. Its "Onboard All Notes" feature performs a bulk frontmatter update, which may be less beginner-friendly in existing vaults. This is a broader onboarding model rather than a lightweight rule-based review workflow.

dartungar/obsidian-simple-note-review - The closest conceptual alternative: it focuses on reviewing, resurfacing, and repeating ordinary notes. Requires the Dataview plugin. It uses note sets based on tags, folders, creation date, or DataviewJS queries, and keeps a persistent queue for each note set. Maintenance status: no recent release; latest GitHub release was on Apr 5, 2024.

Obsidian Spaced Repetition - A mature spaced repetition plugin with a strong flashcards-first workflow. Whole-note review is supported, but the main workflow and documentation are centered around creating and reviewing flashcards.

ryanjamurphy/review-obsidian - Not a revisit notes workflow, just quick adds the current note to a future daily note by one, using the Natural Language Dates plugin to resolve the target date. Maintenance status: no recent release; latest GitHub release was on Dec 10, 2024.

Powerful plugins + home-grown templates - A similar workflow can be built with Dataview queries, custom query logic, and Templater commands for quickly marking notes as reviewed. This can be very flexible, but it also means maintaining a custom system instead of using a focused review workflow.

Inspired by the "Reviewed by ... on ..." field on WebMD and other.