Apple Calendar — Obsidian plugin

Shows your macOS Apple Calendar events — and optionally your Apple Reminders due that day — in Obsidian's sidebar, following whichever journal note you have open. Read-only: it never creates, edits, or deletes anything.

How it works, in plain terms:

• A tiny Swift helper (bin/apple-calendar-helper) asks macOS for your events through EventKit — the same official API Calendar.app itself uses — and prints them as JSON.
• The plugin runs that helper, then renders one compact row per event: title plus a one-line summary (6–9 PM · Personal, or Sep 4 – Sep 7 for multi-day events). No location, no clutter.
• Optionally, a "Reminders" section below the events lists Apple Reminders due on the shown day (timed ones show 6 PM · Groceries, dated ones just the list name). Read-only and plain text.
• Click an event title to jump to that event in Calendar.app. Reminder titles are plain text and don't open anything.
• The plugin only runs on macOS desktop. There is nothing to sync, no account to connect, and no network involved — everything stays on your Mac.

Install

Prerequisites: macOS with Xcode command-line tools (xcode-select --install), plus Node.js 20+ and npm.

npm install
npm run helper:build   # compiles the Swift helper into bin/
npm run build           # bundles the plugin into main.js

Then install into your vault:

VAULT_PLUGINS="<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-apple-calendar"
mkdir -p "$VAULT_PLUGINS/bin"
cp manifest.json main.js styles.css "$VAULT_PLUGINS/"
cp bin/apple-calendar-helper "$VAULT_PLUGINS/bin/"

In Obsidian: Settings → Community plugins → turn off Safe mode if needed → enable "Apple Calendar". A calendar-icon ribbon button opens the sidebar view; it also opens automatically on startup.

First run: permissions

The first fetch triggers a macOS prompt asking for Calendars access. Allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Calendars, then press Retry in the sidebar (or run the "Refresh Apple Calendar" command). If you deny it by accident, same place to fix it — the sidebar tells you exactly this. With "Show reminders" on, the first fetch also prompts for Reminders access (separate permission, same Privacy & Security page).

No other permission is needed. Opening events uses Calendar's own link format, not automation, so there is no Automation prompt.

Daily use

• Open a journal note named with a date (2026-09-04, or whatever your Daily Notes format is) and the sidebar shows that day's events plus reminders due that day (if enabled).
• Open a note without a date and the sidebar keeps showing the last day, so browsing around doesn't yank the list. With nothing open, it shows today.
• Daily Notes is required: enable the Daily Notes core plugin with a numeric date format. YYYY-MM-DD, DD-MM-YYYY, M-D-YYYY, and similar numeric formats just work. Formats with month or weekday names can't be matched — the sidebar shows an error until you switch to a numeric format.
• Each row's summary line: times for single-day events (6–9 PM), date spans for multi-day events (Sep 4 – Sep 7; all-day spans shift back one day because all-day end dates are exclusive, e.g. Sep 4 – Sep 6 for an event through the 6th). Single-day all-day events show just the calendar name.
• Fetched days are cached for 5 minutes; switching between already-seen notes is instant. Auto-refresh re-checks the shown day every 15 minutes.

Settings

• Show reminders (on) — lists incomplete Apple Reminders due on the shown day under a "Reminders" heading. Turn it off to skip the extra Reminders permission prompt.
• Auto-refresh (minutes) — background re-fetch of the shown day. 0 disables it.
• Hide tab header when alone — hides this pane's tab strip when it is the only tab in its group, so it sits flush under other sidebar panes (e.g. the Calendar plugin). The header returns automatically if another tab joins the group.
• Daily Notes — required, not a setting. The note-date matcher is derived from Daily Notes' date-format setting; numeric formats only.
• Calendars — one toggle per macOS calendar, loaded live. Unchecked calendars are hidden immediately. New calendars appear checked.

Troubleshooting

• "Helper not found" — the binary isn't in the plugin's bin/ folder. Run npm run helper:build and copy bin/apple-calendar-helper there, then Retry.
• "Calendar access denied" — grant access under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Calendars, then Retry.
• "Reminders access denied" (shown under the Reminders heading) — same page, but under Reminders instead, then Retry.
• Sidebar shows "Daily Notes is required" — enable the Daily Notes core plugin with a numeric date format (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD). If it names your format instead (Daily Notes format "…" can't be matched), switch Daily Notes to a numeric format.
• Sidebar shows today instead of the note's day — the note name doesn't match Daily Notes' format. Switch Daily Notes to a numeric format.
• Clicked event doesn't open — the sidebar shows the reason in a notice. Recurring occurrences open their series (occurrences share one ID).
• Empty day — the sidebar stays blank. If you expected entries, hidden calendars are the usual suspect for events (check the Calendars toggles); for reminders, check "Show reminders" is on.

Helper CLI

The helper is also usable on its own for scripting:

./bin/apple-calendar-helper --days 7 --json
./bin/apple-calendar-helper --from 2026-09-04T00:00:00 --to 2026-09-05T00:00:00 --json
./bin/apple-calendar-helper --from 2026-09-04T00:00:00 --to 2026-09-05T00:00:00 --json --reminders
./bin/apple-calendar-helper calendars

calendars lists event calendars only; reminder lists aren't listed (there's no per-list toggle for reminders — just the on/off switch).