Configuration

Open Settings → Community plugins → Update Time to access the settings tab.

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
Created property name	string	created	Front-matter key used to record the creation time. Change this if you prefer a different name (e.g. createdAt, date created). Leave the field empty to use the default. Renaming affects future writes only — existing notes are not migrated.
Updated property name	string	updated	Front-matter key used to record the last-update time. Same rules as above (leave empty to use the default; no migration of existing notes).
Save delay (seconds)	number	2	How long to wait after you stop typing before the plugin updates the front matter. The timer resets on every keystroke, so updates happen only once you pause. Raise it if you lose your cursor while editing (for example inside tables). See below.
Folders to exclude	string[]	[]	Any file whose path starts with one of these folder prefixes is skipped. Use this for templates, archives, plugin-managed folders, or any other location where you don’t want creation / update front-matter properties written.

Save delay

The plugin updates a note’s front matter shortly after you change it. Each update rewrites the file, which can momentarily refresh the editor — and in Live Preview tables that can move your cursor out of the cell you’re typing in.

To avoid this, the update is delayed until you stop typing. The Save delay is how many seconds of inactivity to wait first; the countdown restarts on every keystroke, so nothing is written while you’re actively typing. The plugin also skips the write entirely when nothing actually needs to change.

• Default is 2 seconds.
• If you still lose focus while editing (e.g. you pause often inside tables), increase it to 5 or more.
• 0 updates as soon as Obsidian reports the change (closest to the old behavior).

Property names

You can pick any valid YAML key. If you change a name after some notes already have front matter with the old name:

• The plugin will not rewrite the old property on those notes.
• The plugin will create the new property on the next write that matches its rules (debounce, file filters).
• You may end up with both keys on some notes for a while. Clean them up manually if needed, or leave them — they don’t cause errors.

If you leave the field empty (or fill it with only whitespace), the plugin uses the default (created or updated).

Folders to exclude

Paths are matched with path.startsWith(folder), so adding Templates excludes every file inside Templates/ (and any sibling folder whose name starts with Templates, e.g. Templates-archive/ — use trailing context carefully if that matters).

Each added folder is displayed below the input with a Remove button. Duplicates are filtered automatically.

Internal constants (not configurable)

These are currently hard-coded in the plugin. GitHub issues exist to make them user-configurable in a future release.

Constant	Value	Notes
Date format	yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm	Tracked in issue #3.
Debounce threshold	1 minute	Tracked in issue #4.

Storage

Settings are persisted by Obsidian as data.json inside the plugin folder (.obsidian/plugins/update-time/). No external storage is used.