devonthesofa_obsidian-note-status/wiki/Configuration Guide.md

Configuration Guide

Complete guide to customizing the Note Status plugin.

Settings Overview

Access via Settings → Note Status

Status Templates

Controls which predefined status sets are available.

Template Selection

☐ Colorful workflow (9 statuses with full lifecycle)
☐ Minimal workflow (4 essential statuses)
☐ Academic research (7 research-focused statuses)
☐ Project management (8 development statuses)

Impact: Enabled templates add their statuses to dropdown.

Template Details

Colorful Workflow - Complete content lifecycle:

💡 idea (#FFEB3B)        - Initial concepts and brainstorming
📝 draft (#E0E0E0)       - First draft creation
🔧 inProgress (#FFC107)  - Active development work
🖊️ editing (#2196F3)     - Review and editing phase
⏳ pending (#9C27B0)     - Waiting for external input
⏸ onHold (#9E9E9E)       - Temporarily paused
🔄 needsUpdate (#FF5722) - Requires updates/revision
✅ completed (#4CAF50)   - Finished and ready
📦 archived (#795548)    - Long-term storage

Minimal Workflow - Essential only:

📌 todo (#F44336)        - Needs attention
⚙️ inProgress (#2196F3)   - Currently working
👀 review (#9C27B0)      - Needs review
✓ done (#4CAF50)         - Completed

Academic Research - Research-focused:

🔍 research (#2196F3)    - Information gathering
📑 outline (#9E9E9E)     - Structure planning
✏️ draft (#FFC107)        - Writing phase
🔬 review (#9C27B0)      - Peer review stage
📝 revision (#FF5722)    - Revisions needed
📚 final (#4CAF50)       - Final version
🎓 published (#795548)   - Published work

Project Management - Development workflow:

🗓️ planning (#9E9E9E)      - Planning phase
📋 backlog (#E0E0E0)       - Backlog items
🚦 ready (#8BC34A)         - Ready to start
👨‍💻 inDevelopment (#2196F3) - Development phase
🧪 testing (#9C27B0)       - Testing phase
👁️ review (#FFC107)        - Code review
👍 approved (#4CAF50)      - Approved
🚀 live (#3F51B5)          - Production/live

User Interface Settings

Status Bar Configuration

✅ Show status bar
   Shows "Status: active" at bottom of editor

☐ Auto-hide status bar
   Hides when status is "unknown"
   Useful for clean interface when no status assigned

Custom Unknown Status:
   ✅ Show custom icon for unknown status
   📝 Custom unknown icon: [❓]
   Customize the icon displayed for notes without status

File Explorer Integration

✅ Show status icons in file explorer
   Displays status icons next to filenames

☐ Hide unknown status in file explorer
   Improves visual clarity by hiding ❓ icons
   Recommended for large vaults

Icon Position: [Before name | After name]
   Configure where status icons appear in the file tree
   Before name: Shows status before filename
   After name: Shows status after filename (default)

Status Pane Options

☐ Default to compact view
   Starts status pane in dense layout mode

✅ Exclude unassigned notes from status pane
   Skips files with "unknown" status
   CRITICAL for performance with large vaults (>5000 notes)

Status Behavior

Multiple Status Support

✅ Enable multiple statuses
   Allows notes to have multiple simultaneous statuses
   Changes dropdown behavior from replace to toggle

When Enabled:

• Clicking status toggles it on/off
• Notes can have combinations like ("active", "inProgress",....)
• Status bar shows all assigned statuses When Disabled:
• Clicking status replaces current status
• Notes have single status only
• Simpler workflow for basic usage

Status Tag Configuration

Status tag prefix: "obsidian-note-status"

Purpose: YAML frontmatter key for storing statuses Default: obsidian-note-status Custom example: project-status, task-state

Frontmatter examples:

# Default
---
obsidian-note-status:
    - active
---
# Custom prefix
---
project-status:
    - inProgress
    - testing
---

Strict Status Validation

☐ Strict status validation
   Only allows statuses defined in templates/custom
   ⚠️ WARNING: Removes unknown statuses when editing

Impact when enabled:

• Dropdown only shows defined statuses
• Unknown statuses automatically removed during edits
• Ensures consistency but may lose data

Use cases:

• Team environments with standardized workflows
• Clean data requirements
• Migration from other systems

Custom Status Management

Creating Custom Statuses

1. Navigate to Custom Statuses section
2. Click "Add Status"
3. Configure fields:

Name: [unique identifier]
Icon: [emoji or symbol]
Color: [CSS color value]
Description: [optional tooltip text]

Field Specifications

Name Field:

• Must be unique across all statuses
• Case-sensitive
• No spaces
• Used in frontmatter and commands

Icon Field:

• Emoji recommended: 🔥, ⭐, 🎯
• Unicode symbols: ◆, ▲, ●
• Text symbols: !, ?, +
• Fallback: ❓ if empty

Color Field:

• Hex format: #FF5722
• CSS variables: var(--text-success)
• Named colors: red, blue
• RGB/HSL: rgb(255, 87, 34)

Description Field:

• Optional tooltip text
• Shows on hover in dropdowns
• Useful for team workflows
• Example: "Waiting for client feedback"

Custom Status Examples

Personal Workflow:

urgent     🔥 #FF0000 "Requires immediate attention"
someday    💭 #9E9E9E "Future consideration"
waiting    ⏰ #FFC107 "Waiting for external input"
delegated  👥 #2196F3 "Assigned to someone else"

Content Creation:

brainstorm 💡 #FFEB3B "Initial idea development"
research   🔍 #9C27B0 "Gathering information"
outline    📋 #E0E0E0 "Structuring content"
writing    ✍️ #2196F3 "Active writing phase"
editing    ✏️ #FF9800 "Revision and editing"
published  🌟 #4CAF50 "Live and published"

Custom-Only Mode

☐ Use only custom statuses
   Ignores all template statuses
   Uses only custom-defined statuses

Use cases:

• Highly specialized workflows
• Team standardization
• Legacy system migration

Quick Status Commands

Configure which statuses get dedicated commands in Command Palette.

Command Generation

For each enabled status, creates:

• Set status to [status] - Direct assignment
• Toggle status [status] - Toggle on/off (if multiple statuses enabled)

Recommended Quick Commands

✅ active      - Most common work status
✅ completed   - Frequently used completion
✅ onHold      - Common pause state
☐ todo         - Redundant with "active"
☐ archived     - Infrequent use

Hotkey Assignment

1. Settings → Hotkeys
2. Search "note-status"
3. Assign keys to quick commands

Suggested hotkeys:

Ctrl+Shift+A  →  Set status to active
Ctrl+Shift+D  →  Set status to completed
Ctrl+Shift+H  →  Set status to onHold
Ctrl+Shift+S  →  Change status of current note

Advanced Configuration

Performance Tuning

Large Vault Settings (5000+ notes)

✅ Exclude unassigned notes from status pane
✅ Hide unknown status in file explorer
Items per page: 50 (reduce from default 100)

Memory Optimization

☐ Show status icons in file explorer (disable if slow)
☐ Auto-hide status bar (reduce DOM updates)

Template-Based Status Scoping

Overview

✅ Enable template-based filtering
   Scope statuses to specific note templates
   Organize status groups by note type

Template Configuration

1. Define note templates in your vault
2. Associate statuses with templates in settings
3. Filter status pane by template type

Example workflow:

Daily Notes Template → [active, completed, onHold]
Project Template → [planning, inProgress, testing, live]
Meeting Template → [scheduled, completed, followUp]

Status Pane Filtering

• Template dropdown filters notes by template type
• Combined filtering works with status and search filters
• Grouped view organizes by template and status

Import/Export Configuration

This feature is planned for future releases.