Sort Checked Tasks

Keeps your checklists tidy by moving completed items to the bottom of their task group. Works in read mode only.

When you check off a task, the unchecked items stay at the top and the checked ones sink to the bottom — so what's left to do is always front and center.

Features

• Fully asynchronous — clicking a checkbox never blocks the UI. The sort is scheduled, debounced, and written back through Obsidian's own queued file API, so your click registers instantly and the reorder follows.
• Sorts on checkbox click in Reading View — tick an item and the list reorders automatically, including in pop-out windows.
• Command palette action — run Sort Checked Tasks: Sort current note to sort on demand in any mode (Source, Live Preview, or Reading View). Edit mode is only sorted via this command.
• Stable ordering — items keep their relative order within the checked and unchecked groups; only the checked/unchecked split moves.
• Nested-aware — sub-tasks travel with their parent and are themselves sorted, at every level of nesting.
• Custom statuses supported — only [x] counts as done. Other statuses such as [-], [/] and [>] are treated as not-done and stay near the top, so a list that uses them still sorts as a single group.
• Safe with your content — YAML frontmatter and fenced code blocks are left untouched, mixed tab/space indentation is handled, and original line endings (LF or CRLF) are preserved.
• Desktop and mobile — both are supported, and both are covered by the test suite.

Example

Before:

- [x] Buy milk
- [ ] Walk the dog
- [x] Pay rent
- [ ] Call the dentist

After sorting:

- [ ] Walk the dog
- [ ] Call the dentist
- [x] Buy milk
- [x] Pay rent

Nested checklists are sorted within their parent too. Before:

- [ ] Trip prep
    - [x] Book flights
    - [ ] Book hotel

After sorting:

- [ ] Trip prep
    - [ ] Book hotel
    - [x] Book flights

Usage

• Reading View: just click a checkbox. The list reorders after Obsidian saves the change.
• Editing (Source / Live Preview): open the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P) and run Sort Checked Tasks: Sort current note. You can assign a hotkey to it under Settings → Hotkeys.

Only runs of checklist items at the same indentation are treated as a group. Headings, paragraphs, and non-task list items act as boundaries between groups, and each group is sorted independently. Blank lines between items do not split a group, so a loose list still sorts as a whole.

Installation

From Community Plugins (once published)

1. Open Settings → Community plugins and disable Restricted mode.
2. Click Browse, search for "Sort Checked Tasks", and install it.
3. Enable the plugin.

Manual installation

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release.
2. Copy them into your vault at VaultFolder/.obsidian/plugins/sort-checked-tasks/.
3. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin under Settings → Community plugins.

Development

This project uses TypeScript and is bundled with esbuild.

npm install      # install dependencies
npm run dev      # build in watch mode
npm run build    # type-check and produce a production main.js
npm test         # run the unit tests (Vitest)
npm run lint     # lint with ESLint + eslint-plugin-obsidianmd

The sorting logic lives in src/sort.ts as a pure, dependency-free function (sortTaskGroups), which makes it easy to test without mocking the Obsidian API — see src/sort.test.ts. The plugin lifecycle and Obsidian wiring live in src/main.ts.

License

MIT © Adam Kamsheh