TaskNotes Workflows is an optional companion plugin for TaskNotes. It lets you automate TaskNotes workflows with editable Markdown files in your vault.
Use it for things like:
- starting or stopping time tracking when task status changes
- clearing scheduled dates when work starts
- rolling overdue scheduled tasks forward
- raising priority as due dates approach
- copying parent task metadata into subtasks
- getting a reminder when blocked tasks need review
- Obsidian 1.8.0 or newer
- TaskNotes installed and enabled
Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release, place them in .obsidian/plugins/tasknotes-workflows/, then enable TaskNotes Workflows in Obsidian's Community plugins settings.
Workflow notes live in TaskNotes/Workflows/. Each workflow is a normal Markdown file: the frontmatter defines the automation, and the body explains what it does.
The plugin creates starter workflows disabled by default, so they are safe to inspect before use. Open TaskNotes/Views/workflows.base to review, edit, dry-run, and enable them.
Useful commands:
- Open workflows
- New workflow
- Reload workflows
- Maintain default workflow files
Run: <workflow name>for enabled workflows that include a manual trigger
The default set includes disabled examples for time tracking, status-triggered date cleanup, started timestamps, overdue review, scheduled-date rollover, due-date priority escalation, blocked-task review, folder movement, subtask inheritance, dependency inheritance, and parent-to-subtask mirroring.
Enable only the workflows that match your vault. Most templates are meant to be adjusted first, especially if you use custom status or priority names.
---
type: tasknotes-workflow
schemaVersion: 1
id: auto-start-time-tracking
name: Auto-start time tracking
enabled: true
triggers:
- id: status-active
type: tasknotes.event
event: task.status.changed
to: active
steps:
- id: start-time
type: time.start
input:
task: "{{trigger.after.path}}"
run:
mode: sequential
noOverlap: true
source: tasknotes-workflows
onError: stop
---Use the workflow Base as the primary UI. Workflow cards open a modal editor for definition fields, triggers, steps, and run policy. The modal renders typed fields from the step catalog, including TaskNotes catalog-backed status and priority options, a visual builder for canonical TaskNotes runtime task queries, and selected Obsidian file, workspace, and frontmatter actions.
The Markdown note remains the source of truth. Use the card's note action when direct YAML editing is useful.
See Workflow Schema and AI Agent Authoring Script for the full format.
npm install
npm run build:test
obsidian vault=test plugin:reload id=tasknotes-workflowsnpm run build:test copies main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to the local test vault by default.