A powerful Grid view for Obsidian's Bases feature that displays data in interactive 2D grids (or matrices!) with advanced bucketing and drag-and-drop functionality.
What it does: Transform your notes into custom interactive 2D grids - perfect for project management, content calendars, budget tracking, and any data that fits a grid.
Key Features
- 🧩 Matrix from your metadata: Pick any two frontmatter fields to build a Rows × Columns grid
- 📎 Card details: Show chosen properties as pills, plus optional per-cell summaries (sum/avg/min/max)
- ✋ Drag → updates frontmatter: Move cards between cells to change their properties (only when it’s safe/reversible)
- 🪣 Powerful bucketing: Categorical, date buckets (Overdue/Today/This Week…), number ranges, and quantiles
- 🗂️ Multi-value aware: Tags/arrays can be Disallow, Primary, or Explode into multiple cells
- 🖼️ Card thumbnails: Show images from a frontmatter field or the first embedded image (remote optional)
- 📊 Count heatmap: Cells tint by how full they are so hotspots pop instantly
- 👁️ Hover preview: Peek note content without leaving the grid (if enabled)
Quick Start:
- Install plugin → Create/open
.basefile → Add Grid view - Pick row + column properties in the axis bar
- Choose bucketing strategies (Categorical/Date/Number)
- Drag cards between cells to reorganize data
Requirements: Obsidian 1.10.0+ with Bases enabled
- 2D Grid Layout: Display any two properties as rows and columns
- Interactive Cells: Click cells to drill down into specific combinations
- Sticky Axis Bar: Always-visible configuration summary with interactive controls
Choose how to group your data with four bucketing strategies:
- Groups by exact text values
- Supports drag-and-drop reordering
- Perfect for status, priority, category fields
- Groups dates into: Overdue, Today, This Week, Next Week, This Month, Later
- Automatically updates based on current date
- Great for deadline and schedule tracking
- Custom numeric ranges (e.g., "Low: 0-3", "Medium: 3-7", "High: 7+")
- Perfect for priority scores, budgets, ratings
- Automatic statistical distribution (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4)
- Data-driven grouping based on your actual values
- Ideal for analyzing distributions
Handle properties with arrays intelligently:
- Prevents drag-and-drop when arrays are present
- Ensures data integrity
- Items with multiple values appear in multiple cells
- Example:
tags: [work, urgent]appears in both "work" and "urgent" columns
- Uses only the first value for bucketing
- Other values are preserved but not displayed
- Safe Reordering: Move items between buckets with intelligent conflict resolution
- Multi-Value Aware: Different behaviors for Explode vs Primary modes
- Status Indicators: Clear feedback about when drag-and-drop is available
- Data Integrity: Prevents operations that could lose information
- Instant Previews: Hover over any card to see the full note content
- Obsidian Native: Uses Obsidian's built-in hover preview system
- Configurable: Toggle on/off in settings (enabled by default)
- Smart Debouncing: Prevents spam with 200ms delay
- Multiple Sources: Frontmatter field, first embedded image, or disabled
- Size Options: Small or medium thumbnails
- Remote Support: Optional loading of external URLs
- Smart Resolution: Automatic path resolution and error handling
- Cards: Full card layout with titles, metadata, and thumbnails
- Compact: Subtitle-only cards for dense displays
- Count Only: Numbers only for overview matrices
- Multiple Metrics: Count, Sum, Average, Min, Max
- Numeric Fields: Aggregate any numeric property
- Visual Indicators: Summary chips in cell headers
- Count-Based: Visual intensity based on cell population
- Customizable Strength: Adjust opacity (0-60%)
- Scale Options: Linear or logarithmic scaling
- Cell Sorting: Sort cards within cells by any property (ascending/descending)
- Card Fields: Customize which frontmatter fields appear on cards
- Max Cards: Limit visible cards per cell with overflow indicators
- Property Picker: Searchable dropdown to choose row/column properties
- Bucketing Controls: One-click access to bucketing configuration
- Multi-Mode Selector: Quick toggling between multi-value handling modes
- Real-time Updates: Changes take effect immediately without reloading
- Open Settings → Community plugins
- Browse and search for "Bases Grid View"
- Install and enable the plugin
- Download
main.js,styles.css, andmanifest.jsonfrom the latest release - Create folder:
VaultFolder/.obsidian/plugins/bases-grid-view/ - Copy files into the folder
- Reload Obsidian and enable in Community plugins
- Create or open a
.basefile in your vault - Add the Grid view from the view picker
- Configure row and column properties using the axis bar chips
- Choose bucketing strategies for each axis
- Set multi-value handling modes as needed
- Rows Property: Choose which frontmatter property defines row groupings
- Columns Property: Choose which frontmatter property defines column groupings
- Include Empty: Whether to show empty buckets (enabled by default)
- Cell Display: Choose between Cards, Compact, or Count-only display
- Max Cards: Limit cards shown per cell (default: 6)
- Enable Drag: Toggle drag-and-drop functionality (enabled by default)
- Show Count Chip: Display item count in cell headers (enabled by default)
- Enable Hover Preview: Toggle hover preview functionality (enabled by default)
- Bucketing: Click any bucketing chip to configure grouping strategy
- Multi-Value Mode: Click mode chips to change array handling
- Property Selection: Click property chips to choose different fields
- Card Fields: Select which frontmatter fields to display on cards
- Thumbnail Field: Choose which field contains image paths
- Cell Sorting: Sort cards within cells by any property (ascending/descending)
- Cell Summary: Display count, sum, average, min, or max for numeric fields
- Heatmap: Visual intensity based on cell population with customizable strength and scale
- Card Fields: Comma-separated list of frontmatter fields to display
- Compact Fields: Fields shown as subtitles in compact mode
- Compact Max Fields: Limit subtitle fields in compact mode (default: 2)
- Card Thumbnails: Off, frontmatter field, or first embedded image
- Thumbnail Size: Small or medium
- Allow Remote Thumbs: Enable loading of external image URLs
- Default Template: Path to note template for new cards
- Template Folder: Last-used folder for new notes
- Bucketing: Click any bucketing chip to configure grouping strategy
- Multi-Value Mode: Click mode chips to change array handling
- Property Selection: Click property chips to choose different fields
Rows: status (Categorical)
Columns: priority (Number Ranges: Low|1-3, Medium|4-6, High|7-10)
Multi-value: Primary
Track projects across completion status and priority levels.
Rows: publish_date (Date Relative)
Columns: category (Categorical)
Multi-value: Explode
Plan content across time periods with multi-category support.
Rows: department (Categorical)
Columns: budget (Number Quantiles)
Multi-value: Disallow
Cell Summary: Average
Heatmap: Enabled
Card Fields: project_name, manager
Analyze budget distributions across departments with visual heatmaps and project details.
Rows: status (Categorical: Draft, Editing, Review, Published)
Columns: word_count (Number Ranges: Short|0-1000, Medium|1000-5000, Long|5000+)
Cell Display: Cards with thumbnails
Hover Preview: Enabled
Cell Sorting: By last_modified (descending)
Track writing progress with visual previews and automatic organization.
- Obsidian: 1.10.0 or later (Bases feature required)
- Platform: Desktop and mobile supported
npm install
npm run dev # Watch mode
npm run build # Production buildsrc/
├── main.ts # Plugin entry point
├── bases/
│ ├── matrixView.ts # Main grid view component
│ ├── bucketEngine.ts # Bucketing logic
│ ├── bucketSpec.ts # Type definitions
│ ├── multiValue.ts # Multi-value handling
│ ├── valueCodec.ts # Data transformation
│ ├── axisState.ts # Configuration persistence
│ ├── thumbResolver.ts # Image thumbnail resolution
│ ├── frontmatterMerge.ts # Template merging utilities
│ └── cardConfig.ts # Card field configuration
└── ui/
├── axisBar.ts # Interactive axis configuration
├── bucketConfigModal.ts # Bucketing setup
├── propertyPickerModal.ts # Property selection
├── drilldownModal.ts # Cell detail view
├── cardFieldsPickerModal.ts # Card field selection
├── cardFieldsTemplateEditor.ts # Template editor
├── createNoteModal.ts # Note creation dialog
├── textPromptModal.ts # Text input prompts
└── filePickerModal.ts # File selection
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch
- Make your changes
- Add tests for new functionality
- Submit a pull request
MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.
- Issues: GitHub Issues
- Discussions: GitHub Discussions
- Documentation: Bases Documentation
- Buy me a coffee: If you find this plugin helpful, consider supporting its development at BuyMeACoffee
- Hover Preview: Native Obsidian hover previews with configurable toggle
- Card Thumbnails: Support for frontmatter images and embedded images
- Compact Mode: Dense card display with subtitle fields
- Cell Sorting: Sort cards within cells by any property
- Cell Summaries: Count, sum, average, min, max for numeric fields
- Heatmap Visualization: Visual intensity with strength and scale controls
- Enhanced Error Handling: Improved stability with file sync issues
- Advanced Card Customization: Configurable card fields and metadata display
- Template Support: Note creation with custom templates
- Improved UI: Enhanced axis bar and configuration controls
- Better Validation: File existence checks and error handling
- Initial release with basic grid functionality
- Categorical bucketing support
- Drag-and-drop reordering
- Multi-value array handling (Disallow/Explode/Primary)
- Interactive axis bar with live configuration
- Advanced bucketing: Date Relative, Number Ranges, Number Quantiles
- Comprehensive status indicators and user feedback