dailynotes-panel

A VS Code extension for managing daily notes with built-in task tracking. It provides a sidebar panel that lists your daily notes in date order, and an "Open Tasks" panel that aggregates uncompleted tasks across all notes — grouped by project, using todo.txt conventions.

Features

• Daily Notes Panel — Lists all .md files matching yyyymmdd or yyyy-mm-dd format, sorted newest-first. Today's note gets a star icon.
• Calendar Panel (Grid) — Month grid calendar with:
  • Today highlighting
  • Underline marker when a note exists for a date
  • Quick actions (New, Today, prev/next month)
  • Click a day to open/create that daily note
• To Do Panel — Aggregates all uncompleted tasks from every daily note, grouped by +Project, sorted by priority. Click a task to jump to its source note.
• Task Rollover — When creating today's note, uncompleted tasks from the most recent previous note are automatically carried forward.
• Generate todo.md — Scans all daily notes and writes a todo.md with every task grouped by project, including dates and priority.
• Generate Sample Todo Data — Creates (or appends to) 2000-01-01.md with demo tasks and sample note text for quick walkthroughs.
• Insert Title from Filename — Converts the current filename into a heading at the cursor position (e.g., my-meeting-notes becomes # My Meeting Notes).
• Optional Autosave + Todo Processing — When enabled, autosaves dirty files every 10 seconds and on editor switch, then refreshes todo processing for changed daily-note files.
  • Autosave pauses while typing and resumes 5 seconds after the last change.

Task Syntax

Write tasks in your daily notes using markdown checkboxes with optional todo.txt-style priority, project, and context tags:

## Tasks

- [ ] (A) Fix critical login bug +Backend @work id:abc cd:2026-02-12 due:2026-02-20
- [ ] (B) Review design mockups +UI @work id:def cd:2026-02-12
- [x] (C) Update dependencies +Backend id:ghi cd:2026-02-12 dd:2026-02-14
- [ ] Buy groceries id:jkl cd:2026-02-12

Element	Syntax	Example
Priority	(A) through (Z)	(A) = highest
Project	+ProjectName	+Backend, +UI
Context	@context	@work, @phone
Completed	[x] or [X]	- [x] Done task
ID	id:<id>	id:abc
Create date	cd:<date>	cd:2026-02-12
Due date	due:<date>	due:2026-02-20
Done date	dd:<date>	dd:2026-02-14

Tasks can have multiple project and context tags.

Metadata Auto-Management

• The extension auto-adds id: and cd: to tasks when you save a daily note.
• cd: defaults to the date in the note filename.
• When a task is completed ([x]), the extension adds dd: using today’s date; if you un-complete it, dd: is removed.
• due: is user-managed (the extension does not add or change it).
• id:, cd:, due:, dd: are normalized to postfix tokens at the end of the task line on save (if you type them earlier in the line, they are moved to the end).
• Date token format matches your configured dailyNotes.dateFormat.

Commands

Command	Description
dailyNotes: Refresh Daily Notes	Refresh both the daily notes and open tasks panels
dailyNotes: Focus Daily Notes Panel	Focus the Daily Notes view
dailyNotes: Focus Calendar Panel	Focus the Calendar view
dailyNotes: Focus To Do Panel	Focus the To Do view
dailyNotes: Open Daily Note	Open today's note (creates it if it doesn't exist, with task rollover)
dailyNotes: Open Daily Note For Date	Create/open a daily note for a specific date (format matches your settings)
dailyNotes: Calendar - Go To Today	Jump the calendar to today and open/create today's note
dailyNotes: Insert Title from Filename	Insert the filename as a # Heading at the cursor
dailyNotes: Generate todo.md from All Notes	Scan all notes and write a grouped todo.md
dailyNotes: Generate Sample Todo Data	Create/append 2000-01-01.md with sample tasks for demos, then refresh todo processing

Command Details

dailyNotes: Generate Sample Todo Data

• Creates 2000-01-01.md in your configured dailyNotes.folder if it does not exist.
• Adds a sample note header and demo task list using priorities, projects, contexts, completed and uncompleted tasks.
• If 2000-01-01.md already exists, appends another generated sample block instead of overwriting.
• Reprocesses tasks and refreshes the Open Tasks tree so demo data appears immediately.

First-Open Demo Prompt

• The first time the Daily Notes panel is opened, the extension prompts you to run demo setup.
• If you choose Run Demo Now, it runs dailyNotes: Generate Sample Todo Data automatically.
• If you choose Later, nothing is changed.

Extension Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
dailyNotes.folder	string	""	Folder where daily notes are stored (relative to workspace root)
dailyNotes.dateFormat	enum	yyyy-mm-dd	Filename date format: yyyymmdd or yyyy-mm-dd
dailyNotes.autoSaveEnabled	boolean	false	Autosave dirty files every 10 seconds and on editor switch; process updated daily-note todos after autosaves

Demo Quick Start

1. Set dailyNotes.folder in VS Code settings.
2. Open the Daily Notes panel.
3. On first open, choose Run Demo Now (or run dailyNotes: Generate Sample Todo Data manually).
4. Open 2000-01-01.md and save once to let the extension add id:/cd:/dd: tokens and normalize any due: tokens to the end.
5. Run dailyNotes: Generate todo.md from All Notes to produce a grouped todo.md.
6. (Optional) Enable dailyNotes.autoSaveEnabled to autosave every 10 seconds and on editor switch with automatic todo refresh processing.
7. Use the Calendar view to click dates, create notes for specific days, and jump to today.

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+)
• VS Code (v1.95.0+)

Setup

git clone https://github.com/ravivyas84/dailynotes-panel.git
cd dailynotes-panel
npm install

Build

# Compile TypeScript to JavaScript (output in out/)
npm run compile

# Watch mode — recompiles on file changes
npm run watch

Test

# Run all unit tests
npm test

Tests use Jest with ts-jest. Test files live in src/__tests__/.

Run in VS Code (debug)

1. Open this project in VS Code
2. Press F5 (or Run > Start Debugging)
3. A new VS Code window opens with the extension loaded
4. Configure dailyNotes.folder in the new window's settings
5. Use the Daily Notes icon in the activity bar

Package

# Build a .vsix file for distribution
npm run package

This requires vsce (npm install -g @vscode/vsce).

To install the packaged extension:

code --install-extension dailynotes-panel-0.1.2.vsix

Project Structure

src/
├── extension.ts          # Extension entry point, commands, tree views
├── utils.ts              # Date parsing, filename utilities
├── taskParser.ts         # Task parsing, grouping, formatting
└── __tests__/
    ├── utils.test.ts     # Tests for date/filename utilities
    └── taskParser.test.ts # Tests for task parser

Providing Feedback

You can raise an issue on the GitHub repo.

Known Issues

• Today's note is not automatically selected in the panel when opened

Release Notes

0.1.2 (Current)

Note: 0.0.5 was skipped.

• Calendar month grid (webview) with today highlighting, month navigation, and “note exists” underline marker.
• Create/open notes for a specific date from the calendar or via command.
• Task metadata tokens: id:, cd:, due:, dd: with auto-management on save.
• todo.md now includes wiki links for note references ([[YYYY-MM-DD]]) and a generated-file header comment.
• Focus commands for Daily Notes / Calendar / To Do panels.
• Autosave now pauses while typing and resumes 5 seconds after inactivity.

0.1.1

• Improved demo onboarding and sample task generation.
• Added autosave todo-refresh wiring and better empty states. r

0.0.5 (Skipped)

Note: Version 0.0.5 was intentionally skipped.

• Migrated from moment.js to date-fns (smaller bundle)
• Added task parser with todo.txt-style syntax (priority, +project, @context)
• Added "Open Tasks" tree view panel grouped by project
• Added dailyNotes: Generate todo.md from All Notes command
• Added task rollover — uncompleted tasks carry forward to new daily notes
• Added unit tests (60 tests covering utils and task parser)
• Extracted pure logic into utils.ts and taskParser.ts for testability

0.0.4

Date: 2025-01-06

• Added an icon for the extension.

0.0.3

Date: 2025-01-04

• Showing a message when daily notes folder is not set

0.0.2

Date: 2024-12-15

• Fixed the readme file

0.0.1

Date: 2024-12-15

• First release