Bob Navigation Hotkeys

Bob Navigation Hotkeys adds keyboard commands for navigating and editing Bob notes.

Plugin facts¶

Registered commands¶

Ctrl+0 reuses an already open tab showing dash.md in any window before using the current tab or opening a new one, including a background tab Obsidian has not loaded yet. Pinned main-area tabs are preferred, followed by other main-area tabs, pinned sidebar tabs, and other sidebar tabs. When the current tab is a lower-ranked copy of dash.md, Ctrl+0 switches to the best-ranked tab and leaves that tab's scroll position untouched.

Task Card¶

Ctrl+Shift+P always opens the Task Card: a focused first screen with exact priority previews that closes on Esc, q, or Ctrl+[. There is no plugin setting, no activation date, and no filtered property list — the card is the only surface, and its actions open the existing stages and writers. On an inbox task every non-closing answer asks where the task goes before writing and moves there.

Ctrl+Shift+B is Ctrl+Shift+P then b: it opens the Task Card's Depends on stage for the task under the cursor, a dedicated Task Link's linked task, or a counted batch. Ctrl+Shift+Alt+B is Ctrl+Shift+P then ⇧B: it opens the Blocks stage for a task or Task Link, supports counted batches, and works from Depends-On and BLOCKS lines, where Ctrl+Shift+P on a BLOCKS line opens the owner's stage directly.

Any card gesture that writes closes the card. The card's Cancel action (x) closes the task as Cancelled with an optional reason kept in a first-child Cancel Log, pruning its links from today's open Pomodoros. The card level strip and priority notices render the shared signal-bar priority mark, falling back to Lucide signal icons without the ledger-tools namespace.

Navigation and counts¶

Ctrl+Shift+J/K navigates Ready, In Progress, and Next #task lines while skipping Blocked [?] tasks — except on an open current or future Pomodoro entry, where the same chord instead moves that Pomodoro and everything it owns down or up among adjacent future Pomodoros, keeping the current slot's time range with whichever entry is promoted there and refusing (with a notice, without jumping) to cross the current/history boundary or the last future Pomodoro. A N<Ctrl+Shift+J/K> count moves a current or future Pomodoro exactly N positions atomically, or jumps to the Nth circular navigation target elsewhere.

Normal-mode Enter on a link records a file-aware jump in a 100-entry session history shared with native jumps: Ctrl+O returns to the originating note and exact cursor, Ctrl+I goes forward without undoing the move, counts traverse multiple entries, new jumps replace the forward branch, and same-note heading/block and already-open tabs round-trip. Tab, insert, and visual Vim behavior is unchanged.

Pomodoro gestures¶

The same move keymap on a Pomodoro sub-bullet moves that bullet plus the next N siblings, each carrying its descendants, into another open Pomodoro in the same note — or into a new - [ ] () — NAME Pomodoro created directly below the current one from a typed, uppercased, em-dash-stripped picker name. Typing = creates a fresh destination with the source Pomodoro's normalized name when the source is named; typing =NAME peels every matching NAME component from a merged source into a new placeholder containing the selected bullet subtrees. Exact duplicate destination bullets merge away, and moving out a source's last owned content deletes that Pomodoro entry instead of leaving it behind. Nested #task lines under Pomodoro entries route to the Pomodoro move.

On a Pomodoro entry line itself the keymap opens a picker: Enter on another open Pomodoro keeps the existing whole-entry move/delete behavior, typing a new name renames the entry in place, and Ctrl+X on a highlighted open current/future Pomodoro merges entries in one undoable edit (a current timed entry survives and absorbs the selected future one; names combine survivor-first with + up to 48 characters). Any count is accepted but ignored since the operation is whole-entry.

Both pickers keep today's open Pomodoros first and offer recent themes for new destinations or renames when the Ledger Tools themes catalog is available. Recent rows keep catalog spelling; + components show their theme swatches, and typed near-duplicates show a like NAME hint. Ctrl+D hides a Recent suggestion and leaves a reversible hidden row; on a Today row it has no effect.

The Bob: Pomodoro themes command (no default hotkey) opens the themes manager, with Active, Hidden, Possible duplicates, and All views on Tab. Collision hints sit on top; rows carry today, hidden, pinned, exempt, hue, and reappeared badges. Ctrl+D hides or restores the selected theme, Enter offers rename, color, hide, and occurrences, and single keys (r/c/h/o with an empty filter, 1–8/a in the color list) jump straight there. Rename previews the one-commit rename before applying; occurrences lists daily notes and opens the entry. History and writes need the desktop app, where the Ledger Tools themes catalog is available.

The Bob: Relation labels command manages the relation-label vocabulary without a link gesture. Choose a label to hide or unhide it, or open the previewed rename flow. The relation-label stage also uses Ctrl+R to rename the selected existing label; it checks affected open editors before preview and write, and requires explicit confirmation before merging labels.

Task properties, dependencies, and moves¶

Ctrl+Shift+P edits scheduled, dependency, and priority task properties, with priority levels that roll scheduled dates, report the exact rolled ISO date/span and its distance from today, and offer date-picker re-roll suggestions. Choosing a scheduled date opens one combined Reason/Work summary review that records the optional reason as a nested entry under a Schedule Log child bullet — an empty reason on a task that already keeps a log records 🤷 no reason given, while a task with no log yet is left untouched. Choosing a priority level or the pinned roll suggestion writes immediately with its own deterministic reason. Giving a task a strictly future scheduled date removes its live links from today's open Pomodoro entries. N<Ctrl+Shift+P> edits the current task plus the next N real tasks; on a dedicated Task Link bullet the same keymap edits the linked task in its own note instead.

Dependency writes go through one managed ⛓️ DEPENDS ON: first-child line per task, committed in one undoable edit: adding an open prerequisite marks the dependent Blocked, raises the target to its lane, and removes the dependent's live links from today's open Pomodoros together with any emptied entry. Cleanup deletes an open Pomodoro entry it empties, while entries with prose children and untouched placeholders remain. Removing the last open prerequisite recovers the dependent immediately when it has no future scheduled date. Ctrl+D on the Depends-On row deletes that line, the [dependsOn::] field, and legacy dependency children in one writer transaction, with immediate recovery. Hand edits are mirrored once the cursor leaves the edited line; malformed lines are left alone. BLOCKED stage rows show 🔒 waits on N for one or more open prerequisites, otherwise 🔒 scheduled YYYY-MM-DD when a date blocks the task, otherwise 🔒 blocked. The Depends on value stage searches every open task in the vault, reachable from a task line, the Depends-On line itself, a chip, a Task Link, or the Edit task dependencies palette command. Blockquoted tasks refuse dependency edits. Answering the landed review row advances the walk once to the next remaining item.

Bare Ctrl+Shift+M moves the current task and focuses the destination note on the moved task; N<Ctrl+Shift+M> moves it plus the next N movable tasks. A move never advances the review walk, even from a landed row: the next ]s / [s resumes at the moved row's walk neighbour, with Ctrl+O returning to the post-removal source seam and Ctrl+I returning to the first moved task without undoing the move.

Project conversion and reversal keep Depends-On and inline dates on task lines. Promoting a task with real project tasks expands each live dedicated Pomodoro Task Link into one sibling link per new project task, while history, past dates, struck links, and prose rewrite one-to-one to ^prj. Project schedules propagate to task-level scheduled properties and Blocked status, and #prj_is_blocked follows ^prj's post-gesture status. Dependency additions and removals update the generated 🧱 BLOCKS mirrors, governed by dependencies.blocks_lines in the shared bob config file (default on; set it to false to stop navigation gestures from writing BLOCKS lines).

Create project note from task converts an open task in an area or project note. Its Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N shortcut from the original README is a custom vault binding, not a registered default or a plugin keydown handler. The same command on a project's ^prj task converts the note back into a parent-task block in the parent's ## Tasks section, carrying its tasks, section bullets, and project-task subtree, repointing #^prj links, then trashing the project note. If backlink rewriting fails, the restored task remains and the project note is kept with a notice.

When promoting a task, an unchecked, ALL-CAPS direct child bullet becomes a title-cased ## section only when it has its own nested list items. The converter reuses a matching heading case-insensitively or appends a new one; it copies descendants as notes rather than #task lines. Other eligible child bullets become tasks. Managed Schedule Log and Work Log subtrees move under the new ^prj task in source order. If child content cannot be moved losslessly, the source task is kept and a notice explains the partial result. Task Card Depends on and Schedule edits on a ^prj with sub-projects cascade top-down with preimage-checked writes and report · N sub-projects Blocked / Ready again / not updated.

Alt+N commits Ready to Next or releases Next/In Progress to Ready on the current task plus the next N tasks (or the linked task plus the next N sibling Task Links), unlinking released tasks from today and reporting the NEXT/PENDING counts with the weekly-review hint when over the cap. Alt+[ / Alt+] on a Pomodoro Task Link toggles the linked task between Next and In Progress, asking once for an optional Work Log summary when moving back to Next.

Review walk¶

Ctrl+Alt+J/K walks the tiered freshness review queue PRE → NEW → PROJECTS → PENDING → NEXT → RECURRING → TICKLER → ROTTEN → POST vault-wide, wrapping with a notice. N]s / N[s jump N review-queue entries in one landing. ]s / [s (and Ctrl+Alt+J/K) away from the current review task first return to it with a Back to current review task toast; <C-o> goes back, and the next press steps from the task. [S / ]S jump to the first/last queue entries without wrapping.

Alt+F and Ctrl+Alt+F stamp the cursor task, or the target of a dedicated Task Link, through Ledger Tools' keepLine; a count also includes the next N targets. An exact due Ready keep counts once; uncounted keeps preserve the streak. A single counted ROTTEN or scheduled TICKLER keep first asks “Why keep it as written?” The prompt shows the streak separately from the number of keeps logged, previews the exact entry, and shows up to three earlier reasons. Enter stamps, increments the streak, and writes one dated entry under 🥀 **ROTTEN LOG** in one undo step. A blank reason logs 🤷 no reason given; Esc writes nothing and retains the walk position. Alt+F stays, while Ctrl+Alt+F advances after the write. If the note or local day changes while the prompt is open, the keep is refused. Multiple Rotten Log markers also refuse the write.

NEW, early/FRESH, Pending, Next, PROJECTS, recurring, checklist, closed, and unblock-tickler rows never ask for a keep reason or write a Rotten Log. Pending tasks retain their optional Work summary prompt. Generic human stamps clear the keep streak, independently of the logged history.

A single exact, due, at-limit source task opens the approved decay decision card before any keep-reason prompt and writes nothing. The card header shows 🥀 N keeps logged · last <date> — <reason> when the task has logged keeps, and its Keep row (say why · logs 🥀 · asks again next review) swaps the rows for the same in-card reason stage instead of closing: Enter commits the stamp, the increment, and one Rotten Log entry in one undo step, while Esc returns to the card's choices and a second Esc writes nothing. If the card is unavailable, the single keep uses the reason prompt and combined log write. Counted N<Alt+F> and Task Link sessions show one prompt when counted Rotten keeps or Pending/Next work are present. A mixed prompt puts Work summary first and Keep reason second; one Enter submits both, routing each answer only to its own log. The shared keep reason writes one entry per counted Rotten target. At-limit targets still skip unstamped and unlogged with N needs a decision; duplicate Task Links to the same source are handled once. If any prompt is open, the active note, each linked note, and the local day are rechecked before writing.

On the exact PRE/POST row the walk just landed on, Ctrl+Enter completes through the cycler and advances within the group. Alt+F completes a checklist row in place; Ctrl+Alt+F completes and advances. On a landed RECURRING row both write nothing, show the recurring-tier notice, and stay; Ctrl+Enter completes and Ctrl+Shift+Enter links to Today, each advancing once. POST multi-row reviews advance with Ctrl+Enter or Ctrl+Alt+F, and the review closes on the last row. A resolving commit on a landed review row advances the walk once to the next remaining item. Every ]s landing on an eligible row ends its toast with the Alt+P roll preview (for example Alt+P roll P2 1/1 · 8–30d), naming the level, step or decay, and window the key would use. In the successor picker, Ctrl+Shift+Enter retargets the marked rows through the Block ID Prompt picker.

Alt+N, the Task Card property rows, and Ctrl+Shift+M moves stamp every rewritten open task through the ledger-tools stamper. The Task Card's Review every action sets or clears [refresh:: N] through the same namespace, reading lane intervals with the task's own refresh kept as the once-Ready return value.

Notes, tabs, and keyboard layers¶

The plugin opens and manages related notes and tabs, including pinned-tab preserving sibling closes, and registers the read-only obsidian://bob-goto-task and obsidian://bob-open-notes protocol handlers so external picks land the caret without writing the vault. Cmd+Enter on a reading task, Task Link, or managed embed opens its PDF in Highlights without vault writes; other targets keep Obsidian's new-tab behavior. In Vim normal mode, Z opens the image on the cursor line in a read-only viewer. Bare and counted ! only toggle transclusion markers and are refused on dependency lines with a notice pointing to Ctrl+Shift+P. Managed reference notes under ref/ with a nonempty source_pdf must be renamed with bob ref rename; ordinary file rename does not move their PDF, reading task, and links together.

Three keyboard layers are in play, and they are not the same thing:

• Registered palette commands with defaults are listed in the generated table above (Alt+N, Ctrl+0, Ctrl+Alt+J/K, Ctrl+Shift+M, Ctrl+Shift+B, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+B, Mod+Y, Alt+F, Ctrl+Alt+F). An absent hotkeys field means no registered default, not an absence of all keyboard behavior.
• Custom vault bindings live in the vault's .obsidian/hotkeys.json or obsidian_vimrc.md, not in this plugin. In particular, the vimrc maps Z to bob-navigation-hotkeys:zoom-image-on-line, and the vault binds bob-navigation-hotkeys:open-reference-pdf-in-highlights to Meta+Enter; that binding is custom vault configuration, not a registered plugin default. A registered default would lose to Obsidian's built-in Mod+Enter. Do not re-record the binding in Obsidian Settings on a Mac: Obsidian may save Mod, which would claim Ctrl+Enter on other platforms.
• Editor and Vim handlers act below the palette layer. The plugin maps \s in Vim normal mode to toggling the current tab pin (Bob Ledger Tools owns the distinct \p mapping for Pomodoro increments), and its editor/Vim-aware dispatch narrows capture-phase fallbacks to match the vault's bindings exactly.

Settings¶

This plugin adds no settings tab. It honors the shared bob config file (plan: lane caps, freshness: decay and intervals, and dependencies.blocks_lines for BLOCKS mirror writes) and per-note task_refresh frontmatter.

Related¶

• Task Card — property editing controls and scheduling input.
• BLOCKS dependency mirrors — reverse dependency rows.
• Go to task URI — open a note at a searched line.
• Open notes URI — open a batch of notes.
• Open reference PDF in Highlights — open reading PDFs.
• Zoom an image on the cursor line — inspect the image on the current line.
• Templater new-note trigger — device-local trigger handling.
• Cross-plugin APIs — navigation and successor interfaces.
• Task move — the move semantics behind Ctrl+Shift+M.
• Task dependencies — the Depends-On line and BLOCKS mirrors.
• Task status hooks — how lane changes reconcile.
• Projects — project notes and ^prj scheduling.
• Freshness — the review queue and stamp model.
• Plan — the NEXT/PENDING caps reported by lane toggles.
• Block ID Prompt — the Today-link picker this plugin retargets.
• Task Status Cycler — the completion gestures the walk hands off to.
• Bob Ledger Tools — the marks, chips, and freshness state this plugin renders through.