O-Tie

Build and edit risk bowtie diagrams in Obsidian with an interactive visual editor.

What is O-Tie?

O-Tie is an Obsidian plugin for bowtie risk analysis — a visual method used in process safety, operations, and HSE work to show how a hazard can lead to a top event (loss of control), which threats can cause it, which consequences may follow, and which barriers prevent or reduce harm.

Instead of drawing bowties in a separate tool, you create and maintain them as .bowtie files inside your vault. O-Tie provides a dedicated editor with pan/zoom, barrier stacks, escalation factors, undo/redo, and PNG export. Changes auto-save as you edit.

Features

• Interactive bowtie editor with fan-in/fan-out layout
• Threats, prevention barriers, top event, mitigation barriers, consequences, and hazard
• Escalation factors and escalation barriers
• Per-barrier analysis stacks (type, effectiveness, criticality, and custom rows)
• Toolbar: add elements, undo/redo, fit, zoom, PNG export, help
• Inspector panel for label, notes, and delete
• Pan and zoom on the canvas
• Auto-save to .bowtie files

Bowtie structure

Threats → Prevention Barriers → Top Event → Mitigation Barriers → Consequences
                                      ↑
                                   Hazard

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins

1. Open Settings → Community plugins.
2. Turn off Restricted mode if needed.
3. Click Browse, search for O-Tie, and install.
4. Enable the plugin.

Manual installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Copy them into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/o-tie/.
3. Reload Obsidian and enable O-Tie under Settings → Community plugins.

Usage

1. Click the bowtie ribbon icon or run O-Tie: Create new bowtie.
2. Enter a name — a .bowtie file opens in the editor.
3. Edit on the diagram:
   • Toolbar: add threat, consequence, or barrier; fit; zoom; export; help
   • Double-click a node or title to rename
   • Click a node to inspect it in the bottom panel
   • Right-click for context menus
   • Hover nodes for quick add/delete buttons
   • Drag empty canvas space to pan; scroll to zoom
   • Delete removes the selected node
   • Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y for undo and redo
4. Changes save automatically.

Settings

Open Settings → O-Tie to configure:

• Default folder for new bowties
• Column gap, row gap, node width, and node height

Commands

Command	Description
Create new bowtie	Create a new .bowtie file
Open bowtie file	Open the active .bowtie file in the editor
Export bowtie as image	Export the diagram as PNG

File format

.bowtie files are JSON. Example:

{
  "name": "Defective Steamcracker",
  "hazard": "High pressure ethylene",
  "topEvent": "Loss of containment",
  "threats": [{ "label": "Corrosion", "preventionBarriers": [] }],
  "consequences": [{ "label": "Fire", "mitigationBarriers": [] }],
  "view": { "zoom": 1, "panX": 0, "panY": 0 }
}

See examples/steamcracker.bowtie.

Development

npm install
npm run dev    # watch mode
npm run build  # production build

To deploy a local build into a vault:

# Unix / macOS / Git Bash
OBSIDIAN_PLUGIN_DIR="/path/to/vault/.obsidian/plugins/o-tie" npm run deploy

# Windows PowerShell
$env:OBSIDIAN_VAULT_PATH = "C:\path\to\vault"
.\deploy.ps1

Third-party licenses

This plugin bundles html-to-image (MIT) for PNG export.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.