Configuration

Where settings live

Settings live in three places, by scope:

  • Plugin settings (Settings → Community plugins → Kanban Action Planner) — vault-wide defaults (property names, default statuses, date format) plus a central “Note types” list. Each note type’s shared config (statuses, colors, cards, relationships, estimate property + unit, archiving) is defined here once and applied by every board to its recognized notes — no need to reconfigure a type per board. When the Obsidian Starter Kit is present, its note types are synchronized into this list automatically; the Default entry covers notes with no recognized type. Click Configure next to a type to edit it.
  • Per-board configuration (Configure view — the Bases view options for the Kanban view) — settings for this board only, grouped into Columns, Cards, Swimlanes, Filters, and Calendar. Pickers for properties the board writes (status, order, grouping) list only your notes’ frontmatter properties; read-only pickers (card sort, panel sort, title) also offer formula.* and file.* columns. When the Obsidian Starter Kit is enabled, frontmatter pickers are further limited to your note types’ known properties.

The gear in the board’s top-right is a shortcut that opens the plugin’s Note types settings (note-type config — colors, cards, relationships, estimate, archiving, default swimlane grouping — lives there, not on the board).

Precedence (most specific wins): a view’s Configure-view setting → the note type’s shared config (Settings → Note types) → the global default. For example, swimlane grouping has a shared default per note type, and any single view can override it in Configure view → Swimlanes (which defaults to “Use note type default”).

Property names

The plugin reads and writes ordinary note properties (frontmatter). The defaults below are used today; per-view overrides may arrive in later releases.

Property Default What it does
Status status Its value places a card in a column. Auto-detected: a property named status, else any property whose name contains status.
Manual order manual_order Stores a card’s position within its column (a number). Written when you drag to reorder.
Estimate estimate The time a note is expected to take — a number of days by default. A note type can associate its own property and unit (days or minutes, e.g. a tasknotes-compatible time_estimate) in Configure → Estimate; minute values convert to days everywhere via Minutes per day (default 480 = an 8-hour workday). With a start date it gives a card its span on the timeline. Written when you resize a bar or via Set estimate… — always in the note’s own unit.
Milestones milestones List of <date> <label> entries rendered as diamond markers on the timeline. Set globally with Milestones property.
Contexts contexts Optional list of GTD-style contexts (@work, @home, …). Powers the @ context switcher in the toolbar (filter only — the plugin never writes it). Set globally with Contexts property; must not be a reserved filter word (parent, status, due, …).

The status property is auto-detected, but the columns are defined explicitly (see below), not inferred from your notes’ values.

One related global setting is not a property name: Minutes per day (default 480 = an 8-hour workday) defines how many minutes one day of work represents — it converts minute-based estimates into days for rollups, timeline bars, and calendar spans, and sizes the day component of every displayed duration (1d 2h).

Defining columns

Columns are defined, never guessed from the values present in notes (so a typo can’t create a stray column). A board takes its columns, in order of preference, from:

  1. the per-view Statuses (columns) list (view settings), then
  2. the Obsidian Starter Kit note type’s allowed status values (if installed), then
  3. the global Default statuses list (plugin settings, one per line).

A leading number sets order and is hidden in the header — e.g. 10 Todo, 20 Doing, 30 Done. Notes whose status isn’t a defined column go to the Unmapped column (shown first by default; a view option can move it last; hidden when empty). With no definition at all, every card sits in Unmapped.

Manual order

When you reorder cards, the plugin assigns a numeric manual_order. It uses fractional midpoints so a single move usually rewrites only the card you moved; a column is renumbered to whole numbers only when needed (e.g. when some cards have no order yet).

Note types and the Obsidian Starter Kit

The Obsidian Starter Kit is optional. If you use it, everything below configures itself — see Using this plugin with the Obsidian Starter Kit.

Board configuration (currently: colors) is grouped into a note type. When the Obsidian Starter Kit plugin is installed and recognizes your notes as a note type, the board uses that type as its note type — taking the status property and its allowed values from the Starter Kit and building columns in the defined order, including empty ones. The Starter Kit remains the source of truth for those facts; your color choices are stored locally in this plugin and keep working even if the Starter Kit is disabled.

You can also define your own note types without the Starter Kit (Settings → Note types → Add note type): give the type a name and recognition rules (by tag, folder, or path regex). The plugin recognizes notes from those rules — Starter Kit recognition is tried first when it’s installed, then your local rules. A note that matches no type (and notes when nothing is defined) uses the Default note type.

Colors

Colors are saved per note type, so all boards of the same note type share them. Each status can use an auto-assigned palette color, a chosen palette color, or a custom hex value. Column backgrounds are a translucent blend of the card color over your theme background, so they look right in both light and dark themes.

Swimlanes

A board can be split into horizontal lanes. The grouping is saved per note type (and can be overridden per view):

  • None — one plain board.
  • By note type — one lane per recognized Starter Kit note type.
  • By property — one lane per distinct value of a chosen property; lanes order by a numeric prefix the same way columns do. Cards missing the value collect in an Ungrouped lane (hidden when empty).

Dragging a card to another lane rewrites the grouping property to the target lane’s value (or clears it for Ungrouped). Note-type lanes are read-only — a note’s type comes from its tags/folder — so cross-lane drags there are ignored.

Relationships

Each relationship role reads a link-property (frontmatter wikilinks), configured per note type in Configure board → Relationships:

Role Default property Meaning
Parent parent Notes this note is a child of.
Sibling siblings Peer notes (mutual).
Child children Notes that are children of this.
Blocked by blocked_by Notes blocking this one.

Inverse relations are derived automatically (a declared child gives the target a parent, and so on). Setting a role’s property to None turns that role fully off: its badge never appears — no direct links, no inverse of an active opposite role, no heuristic. The Detect children by tag option adds a heuristic: a note carrying one of the listed tags that links to a card counts as that card’s child (this also keeps the child role active).

Every note resolves with its own type’s properties. On a mixed board, a task can name its parent in related_projects while a project names its goal in related_goals, and the whole chain resolves — badges, WBS tree, zoom, and filters included. Notes without a recognized type fall back to the board’s active note type.

Relationships are editable from the board: the card menu’s Relationships submenu adds and removes direct links, and the WBS re-parents by drag — every write lands in the owning note’s own role property. Inverse-derived and heuristic relations stay read-only (they live on the other note). A non-empty blocked by flags the card (red badge + edge) and powers the Blocked cards view filter and badge navigation; it never changes status on its own.

Archiving

Archiving moves a note out of the board into a folder, saved per note type in Configure board → Archiving:

  • Archive folder — destination path. Supports placeholders resolved at archive time:

    Placeholder Resolves to Example
    `` 4-digit year 2026
    `` 2-digit month 06
    `` 2-digit day 26
    `` 2-digit ISO week 26
    `` quarter (Q-prefix) Q2
    `` YYYY-MM-DD 2026-06-26
    `` YYYY-MM-DD-HHmmss 2026-06-26-143015
    `` a fresh unique id a1b2c3…

    Placeholders are case-insensitive. Leaving the folder blank disables archiving. Missing folders are created; a name clash gets a numeric suffix so nothing is overwritten.

  • Auto-archive on status — optional (off by default). Select one or more statuses; a card is archived the moment it transitions into any of them. Reordering within such a status does nothing.

Manual archiving is available from a card’s right-click menu (Archive). Moves go through Obsidian’s file manager, so wikilinks to the note are updated and stay valid.

Calendar mode

Calendar mode is toggled per view by the in-view Board / Calendar switch. It reads two date properties (their names are set in plugin settings) and writes them when you drag-schedule:

Property Default Role
Scheduled date date_scheduled The Unplanned tab + the calendar’s scheduled day.
Due date date_due The No deadline tab + the calendar’s due day.

Dates are parsed leniently (a YYYY-MM-DD or full date string, or a real date value) and written with the note type’s momentjs date format (default YYYY-MM-DD). The calendar’s default range (week/month/quarter/year) and the panel sort (manual order / name / a property) are view options. To narrow the calendar (grid and panel together), use the toolbar filter box — see the usage guide’s “Filtering” section.

The week the calendar grid starts on is set by First day of the week in the plugin settings (default Monday). This only affects the calendar display; the `` archive placeholder stays ISO week numbering.

Timeline mode

Timeline mode places each card by a start date plus an estimate — there is no end-date property. The start is your scheduled-date property and the milestone list defaults to milestones (Milestones property), both global settings. The estimate defaults to the global Estimate property (estimate, days), and each note type can override the property and unit (days or minutes) in its Configure → Estimate section; minute estimates convert to days via the global Minutes per day setting and always span at least one whole day on the chart. Per view, Configure view → Timeline only sets the Default range (Quarter by default). Estimates are written as plain numbers in the note’s own unit; fractional day values round up to whole days, minimum 1. Old per-view start/estimate/end/milestone keys in a .base file are simply ignored.

WBS mode

The WBS reuses the properties you already have: the start date is your scheduled-date property, the estimate the same per-type estimate configuration the timeline uses (global days-based default, or the note type’s own property + unit), and the tree comes from your parent/children relationship link properties (each note resolved with its own type’s properties, so cross-type chains work on mixed boards). One new global setting: Progress property (default progress) — a number from 0 to 100 driving the per-node progress bars and their rollups. Progress and estimates are always written as plain numbers. There are no per-view WBS options; the collapsed nodes and panel state are remembered per view automatically.

Done state

Per note type, Configure board → Done state defines what “done” means: turn on Has a done state, then pick the property and value(s) that mark a note of that type as done. By default the property is the type’s status property, and you toggle the statuses that count (e.g. Completed and Done). Point it at another property to match its values instead (one per line, case-insensitive); with no values listed, a checkbox true counts as done. A done note reads as 100% complete in the WBS progress rollups — even without a progress number — so parents show real momentum as their children complete.

Creating notes (quick capture)

Configure board → Creating notes, per note type. Drives the Add card button in each column (see the usage guide).

Every field is empty = inherit, so a Starter Kit note type usually needs nothing here:

Setting Empty falls back to
Target folder The Starter Kit type’s associated folder → the folder the Base filters on → Obsidian’s default new-note folder
Template The Starter Kit type’s template → the template your Templater folder/file rules resolve → none
Name prefix / Name suffix The Starter Kit type’s note name prefix / suffix
Open the note after creating it On

The folder and the name prefix/suffix accept ,, ,, ,, ,.

Prefixes and suffixes keep their spaces ( (Task) is not the same as (Task)) — the Starter Kit recognizes note types by exactly that spelling — and are never added twice.

The template is applied before the card’s status, swimlane value, tags, and order are written, so the column you clicked always wins over a status a template asks for.

Automation rules

Per note type, Configure board → Automations defines rules of the form “when this happens to a note, do that”. Each rule has a trigger, and a list of actions that run in order:

Triggers

  • Enters a status / Leaves a status — toggle any of the type’s status values; the rule fires when a note transitions into (or out of) one of them, whether by drag, the card menu, the WBS status dot, a pane drop, a bulk edit, or triage. It fires once per actual transition — dropping a card back on its own column does nothing.
  • Enters a done state — fires when the note enters any of the type’s done values (see Done state) from a non-done one. Completed, Abandoned, Superseded — one rule covers them all, and moving between two done states does not re-fire it.
  • Is archived — fires just before the note moves to its archive folder (manual, bulk, or status-triggered), so property changes land on the archived note.
  • Property matches a condition — property = / ≠ / > / ≥ / < / ≤ value, or is set / is unset. Numbers compare numerically, everything else as case-insensitive text (ISO dates order correctly). The rule fires when the condition becomes true — editing progress from 40 to 100 fires a progress ≥ 100 rule once; nudging it from 100 to 110 doesn’t. Any edit source counts, including typing in the editor — as long as a board showing the note is open.

Actions

  • Set property — the value supports the archive placeholders (, , ,, ,, , ); plain numbers and true/false are written as numbers and booleans.
  • Remove property — deletes the property (e.g. clear date_due when a task is done).
  • Add tag / Remove tag — edits the frontmatter tags list (case-insensitive, # optional).
  • Move to folder — the same placeholder-driven move archiving uses: folders are created on demand, name collisions get a numeric suffix, links are preserved.

Automation writes never trigger other automation rules (no cascades). If a transition both auto-archives the note and matches rules, the property/tag actions run first and the archive decides the final folder — move actions on that rule are skipped.

Card title

The card heading is the note name by default. Per board, Configure view → Cards → Title property picks a property (or base formula) to show as the heading instead — useful when filenames are IDs or date-prefixed slugs and a title/name property carries the readable label. Cards whose note is missing the property (or has it empty) fall back to the note name. The chosen property is not repeated as a body field, and clicking the card still opens the note.

Setting Scope Default What it does
Title property Per board Note name Shows this property’s value as the card heading, in board and calendar.

Due countdown

A card can show a compact countdown to its due date (Today, In 3d, 2d overdue, in 2w, in 3mo — the unit auto-scales from days to weeks to months), color-coded by urgency (red overdue, amber today, orange soon, muted further out). It reuses the same Due date property as the overdue emphasis — no extra property to configure.

Setting Scope Default What it does
Show due countdown Per board Off Turns the badge on for this board (Configure view → Cards).
Due countdown position Global Title row Where the badge sits: Title row (right-aligned pill), Field chip, Top-right corner, or Footer row.
Due “soon” threshold (days) Global 7 Within how many days the badge turns warm (orange). Changes the color, not whether the badge shows.