LOG 202412262238 #log

diving into obsidian plugin dev (naturally, it's about logging) 🕒

so i just built my first obsidian plugin! it's a simple little thing that does exactly what i need - adds timestamps to my log entries in my daily note. kinda fitting that i'm writing about it here on log.johnf.work, right? logs all the way down 😅

why another plugin?

i've been going through this whole workflow transformation lately, moving all my task management out of obsidian and turning it into purely a notes/data archive. with over 3 million words of knowledge stashed away in my vault so far (yeah, i write a lot), i needed a way to track when my ideas actually happen throughout the day.

sure, there are other time-tracking plugins out there, but most of them are built around todos and tasks. i wanted something different - something that would just quietly keep track of when i'm jotting down thoughts in my daily notes, without turning them into a glorified task list.

building with claude

this was my first time building an obsidian plugin, and honestly? it went way smoother than expected. claude and i started with a comprehensive outline of what we wanted to build, bounced ideas back and forth until we had a clear vision, and then the actual implementation was surprisingly straightforward.

the development process was basically:
1. outline what we want
2. debate the best approach
3. write some code
4. test in prod (yeah, i know 😅)
5. obsess over edge cases

speaking of testing in prod - let me tell you about anxiety! when you're about to run your first plugin on a vault with 3+ million words of important notes... well, let's just say i made a backup first. we spent extra time reviewing edge cases and really making sure we understood what we were building before i hit that enable button for the first time.

the plugin itself

it's deceptively simple on the surface - it just adds timestamps when you create new heading entries (H2-H4 headers) in designated a section of your daily notes. but under the hood, it's doing some pretty cool stuff:

• watches for specific document patterns
• maintains context awareness about where you are in the document
• knows when to add timestamps (and more importantly, when not to)
• stays out of your way unless you need it

the whole thing is built around what Claude likes to call "contextual augmentation" - basically, the plugin should make your workflow better without you having to think about it. it's there when you need it, invisible when you don't.

what's next

right now we're in the final stages of getting it ready for the obsidian community plugins library. mostly just need to finish up documentation (always the fun part 😅) and submit the pull request. probably knock that out this weekend or next.

as for future features? honestly, the plugin does exactly what i need it to do right now. but i'm thinking about adding some configuration options so other people can adapt it to better fit their workflows. it's just a simple plugin, but sometimes those are the most useful ones.

unexpected doors

building this first plugin kind of opened my eyes to what's possible in the obsidian ecosystem. there's so much potential for interesting plugins, and the development process was way smoother than i expected. don't get me wrong - i'm not about to lock myself into just one ecosystem, but i definitely see more obsidian plugin development in my future.

next I think we'll explore methods to ingest meeting transcripts from Tactiq.io through a plugin directly into Obsidian.md, wish me luck 😉✌️