Daily Notes

A simple and lightweight daily notes plugin for Neovim that helps you maintain a daily journal with ease. This is an attempt to re-create Obsidian's daily notes functionality without any fluff.

Features

• 🗓️ Daily Note Management: Automatically create and open daily notes.
• 📁 Organized Structure: Notes are organized by year/month directories.
• 📝 Template Support: Use templates for new notes or copy from the previous day.
• 🧹 Selective Content Carryover: Keep headers from the previous day's note but leave the content blank for a fresh start using the ignored_headers option.
• ⏰ Customizable Timestamps: Quickly insert timestamps with a configurable format and keymaps.
• ⚡ Fast Navigation: Quickly navigate between previous/next day notes.
• 🛠️ Interactive Configuration: Configure the plugin interactively.
• 🎯 Directory-aware: Only active when working in your notes directory.

Installation

Using lazy.nvim

{
  "pankajgarkoti/daily-notes.nvim",
  config = function()
    require("daily-notes").setup({
      base_dir = "~/Documents/Notes",  -- Your notes directory
      journal_path = "Daily",          -- Subdirectory for daily notes
      template_path = "~/Documents/Notes/templates/daily.md", -- Optional template
      -- Example of ignoring a header
      ignored_headers = { "To-Do" },
    })
  end,
  keys = {
    { "<leader>dn", function() require("daily-notes").open_daily_note() end, desc = "Open daily note" },
    { "<leader>dk", function() require("daily-notes").open_adjacent_note(-1) end, desc = "Previous daily note" },
    { "<leader>dj", function() require("daily-notes").open_adjacent_note(1) end, desc = "Next daily note" },
    { "<leader>dm", function() require("daily-notes").create_tomorrow_note() end, desc = "Create tomorrow's note" },
    { "<leader>dc", function() require("daily-notes").configure_interactive() end, desc = "Configure daily notes" },
    { "<leader>ts", function() require("daily-notes").insert_timestamp() end, desc = "Insert timestamp" },
    { "<leader>T", function() require("daily-notes").insert_timestamp(true) end, desc = "Insert timestamp on new line" },
  },
  cmd = {
    "DailyNote",
    "DailyNotePrev",
    "DailyNoteNext",
    "DailyNoteTomorrow",
    "DailyNoteConfig",
    "DailyNoteTimestamp",
  },
}

Using packer.nvim

use {
  "pankajgarkoti/daily-notes.nvim",
  config = function()
    require("daily-notes").setup({
      -- your configuration here
    })
  end
}

Configuration

Default Configuration

{
  base_dir = "~/Desktop/notes",
  journal_path = "Journal",
  file_format = "%Y-%m-%d.md",
  dir_format = "%Y/%m",
  template_path = nil,
  -- Headers to keep when creating a new note from the previous day, but whose
  -- content should be cleared.
  ignored_headers = {},
  -- The format for timestamps, using os.date patterns.
  timestamp_format = "%H:%M:%S",
}

Configuration Options

• base_dir: The root directory where your notes are stored. The plugin only works when you're in this directory or its subdirectories.
• journal_path: Subdirectory within base_dir where daily notes will be stored.
• file_format: Format for daily note filenames using os.date patterns (default: YYYY-MM-DD.md).
• dir_format: Format for organizing notes into subdirectories using os.date patterns (default: YYYY/MM).
• template_path: Optional path to a template file. If provided, new notes will use this template when yesterday's note doesn't exist.
• ignored_headers: A list of top-level headers (e.g., { "Tasks" }) whose content should be cleared when creating a new note from the previous day. The headers themselves are kept.
• timestamp_format: The format for timestamps, using os.date patterns (default: %H:%M:%S).
• search_depth: The number of days to look back for a recent note to copy from when the previous day's note doesn't exist (default: 7).

Usage

Commands

• :DailyNote - Open today's daily note
• :DailyNotePrev - Open previous day's note
• :DailyNoteNext - Open next day's note
• :DailyNoteTomorrow - Create and open tomorrow's note
• :DailyNoteConfig - Interactive configuration
• :DailyNoteTimestamp - Insert a timestamp

Key Mappings

The plugin provides functions to insert timestamps, which you can map to your preferred keys. Here is the recommended setup for lazy.nvim:

-- In your lazy.nvim plugin spec
keys = {
  { "<leader>dn", function() require("daily-notes").open_daily_note() end, desc = "Open daily note" },
  { "<leader>dk", function() require("daily-notes").open_adjacent_note(-1) end, desc = "Previous daily note" },
  { "<leader>dj", function() require("daily-notes").open_adjacent_note(1) end, desc = "Next daily note" },
  { "<leader>dm", function() require("daily-notes").create_tomorrow_note() end, desc = "Create tomorrow's note" },
  { "<leader>dc", function() require("daily-notes").configure_interactive() end, desc = "Configure daily notes" },
  { "<leader>ts", function() require("daily-notes").insert_timestamp() end, desc = "Insert timestamp" },
  { "<leader>T", function() require("daily-notes").insert_timestamp(true) end, desc = "Insert timestamp on new line" },
}

This setup provides two keymaps for timestamps:

• <leader>ts: Inserts a timestamp at the current cursor position.
• <leader>T: Inserts a timestamp on a new line below the current one.

Directory Structure

The plugin creates a directory structure like this:

~/Documents/Notes/
├── Daily/
│   ├── 2024/
│   │   ├── 01/
│   │   │   ├── 2024-01-15.md
│   │   │   └── 2024-01-16.md
│   │   └── 02/
│   │       ├── 2024-02-01.md
│   │       └── 2024-02-02.md
│   └── templates/
│       └── daily.md

How It Works

1. Daily Note Creation: When you open a daily note, the plugin first checks if it exists. If not, it creates it by copying content from yesterday's note or from a template.

2. Directory Awareness: The plugin only works when you're in your configured notes directory, preventing accidental note creation elsewhere.

3. Navigation: Easily navigate between days using the previous/next commands, which automatically find and open notes based on the current file's date.

4. Template Support: Supports both yesterday-based copying and template-based note creation for consistency.

Requirements

• Neovim 0.7+
• No external dependencies

AI Disclaimer

This plugin was create entirely using CodeCompanion https://github.com/olimorris/codecompanion.nvim and Aider https://github.com/aider-chat/aider

The models used were:

• gemini-2.5-pro and gemini-2.5-flash with Aider - Generated most of the code and documentation
• claude-4-sonnet with CodeCompanion - Helped with more minute fixes and changes

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.