Project Dashboard

A small, read-only Obsidian plugin that turns native note properties into a project dashboard:

• a horizontal project timeline implemented as a custom Bases view, and
• a project-note summary rendered from the current note's own properties.

No writes, no network, no telemetry, no background polling. Notes stay ordinary Markdown, and the Base stays usable without the plugin.

What you get

• Timeline bars positioned from the native start and target properties, with manual progress fills, milestone markers, status colors, and distinct styling for proposed (striped) vs committed (solid) timing.
• A derived focus strip — Finish first, Hard deadline, Next milestone — computed from the notes, with +N counts and calm empty states. Nothing in the strip is configured by hand.
• A project-summary code block that renders the current note's properties (status, progress, dates, domain/focus links, outcome, done-when) as a compact header card.
• Non-fatal behavior for imperfect data: missing dates, invalid dates, out-of-range progress, and unknown enum values are reported, not invented.
• Light and dark theming through Obsidian variables, and usable narrow panes.

Screenshots are captured from the real Obsidian app (1.14.4) running the fictional demo vault; the repository also ships a deterministic Chromium-based harness for regenerating its own shots without the app.

Install

Manual install from a clone (no releases are published yet):

npm ci
npm run build
mkdir -p "<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/project-dashboard"
cp main.js manifest.json styles.css "<vault>/.obsidian/plugins/project-dashboard/"

Then enable Project Dashboard under Settings → Community plugins.

The committed main.js is the production bundle produced by npm run build; CI verifies it is up to date with the sources. If you prefer, rebuild it yourself.

Try the fictional demo vault

npm ci
npm run demo:install

Open demo-vault/ as a vault in Obsidian and open Dashboard.md. Everything in it is fictional, and four notes are intentionally malformed so the failure states are visible.

Use

1. Add frontmatter to notes following the canonical schema, or start from the restrained templates.

2. Copy bases/Projects.base into your vault (or build an equivalent Base) and switch the view layout to Project timeline.

3. Optional per view:

   Option	Values	Default
   Scale	Automatic, Weeks, Months	Automatic
   Show completed and cancelled	On / Off	Off

4. Add a project-summary code block at the top of a project note for the property-driven summary card (the project template includes it).

How failures render

The plugin never invents missing dates:

• One date or no dates → the note is listed under Needs dates with the missing field named.
• target before start → warning, no bar.
• Invalid progress → warning, safely clamped for rendering only.
• Unknown enum value → neutral fallback, with the invalid value named in a warning.
• Completed / cancelled → hidden unless "Show completed and cancelled" is on.

Privacy and safety

• Read-only: the plugin never writes to notes, frontmatter, or config.
• No network requests, telemetry, or polling of any kind.
• Minimal startup work: one Bases view registration and one code block processor.
• npm test includes policy tests that fail if any of the above changes.

Development

npm ci           # install dev dependencies
npm run check    # format, lint, typecheck, build, and the full test suite
npm run dev      # watch build for local plugin development
npm run screenshots  # regenerate docs/screenshots with headless Chrome

Documentation:

• Architecture
• Canonical schema
• Installation and removal
• Verification — automated checks, the visual harness, and the manual in-app checklist.

Limitations (v1)

Read-only by design: no drag-and-drop, no property editing from the timeline, no Kanban, no task automation, no reminders, no calendar/email integrations. Progress is supplied manually and never inferred from tasks. The plugin is developed and tested against desktop Obsidian 1.14.4; mobile is untested.

All screenshots in docs/screenshots/ use fictional demo data; see docs/verification.md for how they are produced and which checks ran automatically inside the app.

License

MIT