Lovely Dates

An Obsidian plugin that transforms your notes' frontmatter into calendar events, served via a local iCal server.

Features

• Frontmatter to calendar events: Convert dates in your notes' frontmatter into calendar events
• Local iCal server: Serves a .ics feed that any calendar app can subscribe to
• Flexible configuration: Create multiple configurations to handle different types of notes
• Scope filtering: Limit configurations to specific folders or frontmatter property values
• Custom reminders: Define reminders using ISO 8601 duration format (compatible with TaskNotes)
• All-day events: Automatically detects all-day events from date-only values
• Accent color sync: Calendar inherits your Obsidian accent color

Installation

From Obsidian

Note: This plugin is not yet registered in the Obsidian Community Plugins repository. Please use BRAT or manual installation methods below.

1. Open Obsidian Settings
2. Go to Community plugins
3. Click Browse and search for "Lovely Dates"
4. Click Install
5. Enable the plugin in the Installed plugins section

Using BRAT

BRAT (Beta Reviewer's Auto-update Tool) allows you to install and automatically update beta plugins directly from their GitHub repositories.

1. Install and enable the BRAT plugin from the Community plugins section
2. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P)
3. Run the command: BRAT: Add a beta plugin for testing
4. Enter the repository URL: aitorllj93/obsidian-lovely-dates
5. Click Add Plugin
6. Go to Settings → Community plugins
7. Find Lovely Dates in the list and enable it

BRAT will automatically check for updates and notify you when new versions are available.

Manual Installation

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page
2. Extract the files to your vault's .obsidian/plugins/lovely-dates/ folder
3. Reload Obsidian
4. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Manual installation

1. Download main.js and manifest.json from the latest release
2. Create a folder <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/lovely-dates/
3. Copy the downloaded files into that folder
4. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins

Usage

Basic setup

1. Open Settings → Lovely Dates
2. Configure the server port (default: 3000)
3. Add an event configuration:
   • Set the Start date property (e.g., scheduled, due, date)
   • Optionally configure end date, title, description, and location properties
4. Subscribe to the calendar URL in your calendar app:

   http://localhost:3000/calendar.ics
   

Commands

Command	Description
Copy ical URL to clipboard	Copies the calendar server URL to your clipboard

Frontmatter example

---
title: Team meeting
scheduled: 2025-01-28T10:00:00
end: 2025-01-28T11:00:00
location: Conference Room A
description: Weekly sync with the team
type: meeting
reminders:
  - id: rem_001
    type: relative
    relatedTo: scheduled
    offset: -PT15M
    description: 15 minutes before
  - id: rem_002
    type: relative
    relatedTo: scheduled
    offset: -PT1H
    description: 1 hour before
---

All-day events

If your date property contains only a date (no time component), the event will automatically be created as an all-day event:

---
title: Project deadline
due: 2025-02-15
---

Configuration

General settings

Setting	Description	Default
Calendar name	Name displayed in calendar clients	Obsidian Calendar
Server port	Port for the iCal server	3000

Event configurations

Each configuration defines how frontmatter properties map to calendar event fields.

Scope settings

Control which notes a configuration applies to:

• Folders: Limit to notes in specific folders
• Property filter: Limit to notes where a frontmatter property matches specific values

When both are set, both conditions must match (AND logic).

Event mapping

Property	Description	Required
Start date property	Frontmatter property for event start	Yes
End date property	Frontmatter property for event end	No
Duration	Default duration in minutes if no end date	No (default: 30)
Title property	Frontmatter property for event title	No (uses note title)
Description property	Frontmatter property for event description	No
Location property	Frontmatter property for event location	No
Reminders property	Frontmatter property for reminders array	No

Default reminders

Define fallback reminders when no matching reminders are found in the note's frontmatter. Uses ISO 8601 duration format:

Format	Meaning
-PT15M	15 minutes before
-PT1H	1 hour before
-P1D	1 day before
-P1DT2H	1 day and 2 hours before

Reminders in frontmatter

Reminders in frontmatter support the following format:

reminders:
  - id: rem_unique_id          # Optional unique identifier
    type: relative             # Optional: relative or absolute
    relatedTo: scheduled       # Required: must match the startDateProperty
    offset: -PT15M             # Required: ISO 8601 duration
    description: 15 min before # Optional description

The relatedTo field must match the startDateProperty of the configuration for the reminder to be included.

Subscribing to the calendar

Apple Calendar (macOS/iOS)

1. Open Calendar
2. Select File → New Calendar Subscription
3. Enter the URL: http://localhost:3000/calendar.ics
4. Configure refresh interval and alerts

Google Calendar

Google Calendar requires a publicly accessible URL. For local use, consider using a tunneling service like ngrok.

Outlook

1. Open Outlook Calendar
2. Select Add calendar → Subscribe from web
3. Enter the URL: http://localhost:3000/calendar.ics

Fantastical

1. Open Fantastical preferences
2. Go to Accounts → Add Account → Calendar Subscription
3. Enter the URL: http://localhost:3000/calendar.ics

Limitations

• Desktop only: This plugin requires a local server and is not compatible with Obsidian mobile
• Local network: The calendar URL is only accessible from your local machine unless you use a tunneling service

Support

If you find this plugin useful, consider sponsoring the development.

License

MIT