Loom View is a grid-based timeline visualization plugin for Obsidian. It maps time across the X-axis and categories (regions, projects, genres) across parallel horizontal lanes -- letting you see what was happening simultaneously across different dimensions.
- Regional Lanes: View events side-by-side in dedicated horizontal lanes (regions, plot threads, project tracks -- whatever you define).
- Entity Glow: Hover over any note to instantly highlight every other note sharing the same key-figures or connections, with thread lines drawn between them.
- Dual Date Engine:
- Year mode: Integer years with BCE/CE support (e.g.,
-500becomes500 BCE). Fictional calendars work too (e.g.,Era 450). - Date mode: Full dates (
2026-01-15) with Month, Week, and Day resolution. Auto-detected from your frontmatter.
- Year mode: Integer years with BCE/CE support (e.g.,
- Configurable Zoom: Year, Decade, Century (or custom increments) in year mode. Month, Week, Day in date mode.
- Era-Snap Bookmarks: Jump to key periods with one click. Supports both year bookmarks (
Bronze: -3000) and date bookmarks (Sprint 1: 2026-01-15). - Lane Filtering: Solo specific lanes for focused comparison.
- Data Scoping: Limit the view to specific folders and/or tags to keep it performant and relevant.
Note: Loom auto-detects whether your notes use integer years (e.g.
-44) or full dates (e.g.2026-01-15). You cannot mix both in the same view -- whichever format appears first in your scoped files determines the mode.
Loom View reads your Markdown frontmatter. For a note to appear on the Loom, it needs date and lane properties:
Year mode (historical, world-building):
region: [Europe]
year-start: -44
year-end: -44
key-figures: [Caesar]Date mode (journals, project tracking):
region: [Project Alpha]
year-start: 2026-01-15
year-end: 2026-02-01
key-figures: [Alice]The property names are fully configurable in Settings.
Go to Settings > Loom View to map your vault structure:
- Start/End Date Keys: Which frontmatter keys hold your dates (default:
year-start,year-end). - Date Format: How to parse date strings (default:
yyyy-MM-dd). Uses date-fns format tokens. - Lane Key & Order: Which key defines lanes and their display order.
- Connection Keys: Which keys to use for Entity Glow connections (e.g.,
key-figures, mentors). - Source Folders / Tags: Scope the view to specific parts of your vault.
- Era Bookmarks: Quick-jump points for navigation.
Open with the Command Palette: "Loom View: Open Loom View", or click the ribbon icon.
- Zoom: Use the top buttons to switch resolution (Year/Decade/Century or Month/Week/Day).
- Navigate: Scroll horizontally, or use Era-Snap bookmarks at the bottom to jump to specific periods.
- Filter: Click "Filter" to show/hide specific lanes.
- Connect: Hover any note to highlight all related notes (Entity Glow) and see thread lines between them.
- Open: Click any note block to open the source file.
- Historians: Compare the rise and fall of empires across continents simultaneously.
- World Builders: Track parallel plotlines across different fictional kingdoms or planets.
- Project Managers: Visualize sprints, milestones, and deliverables across teams on a shared timeline.
- Researchers: See which artists, scientists, or authors were active in the same period and who influenced whom.
MIT License.
