View Notifications

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View notifications alert you when items match a view's filter. This is separate from task reminders, which alert you based on a task's due or scheduled date. Notifications are per-view: you enable them on any Bases view, and TaskNotes watches for matching items in the background.

Enabling Notifications on a View

Add notify: true to any view inside a .base file:

views:
  - type: tasknotesTaskList
    name: Urgent Tasks
    notify: true

Or use the Configure panel: open the gear menu on any Bases view, find the TaskNotes section, and toggle Notify on matches.

Once enabled, TaskNotes monitors the view's query in the background. When items match the filter, a toast notification appears and the status bar bell badge updates.

You can also fine-tune when notifications fire using notifyOn and notifyThreshold:

views:
  - type: tasknotesTaskList
    name: Urgent Tasks
    notify: true
    notifyOn: count_threshold
    notifyThreshold: 5

The Toast Indicator

When items match a notification-enabled view, a toast appears in the bottom-right corner of the Obsidian window. It shows:

• The total number of items needing attention, with a breakdown by time category (e.g., "3 overdue, 2 due today")
• An action button to open the Upcoming View
• A snooze dropdown with preset durations
• A dismiss button to hide the toast for this session

The toast persists until you dismiss it or snooze it. It does not auto-dismiss (following WCAG 2.2.4 accessibility guidelines for timed content).

Clicking the toast body or the action button opens the Upcoming View, where you can see all notification items organized by time category and take action on them.

Bell Badge and Status Bar

A bell icon appears in the Obsidian status bar. When there are active notification items, it shows a count badge. Click the bell to open the Upcoming View.

The status bar updates periodically (every 5 minutes by default) and also updates immediately when tasks change.

If notifications are snoozed, the bell badge is hidden until the snooze period expires.

Snooze

The toast snooze dropdown offers preset durations:

Snooze state is stored in localStorage (per-device, not synced). While snoozed:

• The toast does not reappear
• The status bar badge is hidden
• Background monitoring continues (so items are ready when snooze expires)

When the snooze period ends, the toast reappears if there are still matching items.

How the Watcher Works

The background monitoring system (BasesQueryWatcher) operates as follows:

1. Startup scan. On plugin load, scans all .base files in the vault for views with notify: true
2. Event-driven evaluation. Listens for task update events and metadata cache changes. When a change affects a file that could match a monitored query, the watcher re-evaluates
3. Relevance checking. Each monitored base keeps a cached set of matching file paths. When a file changes, the watcher checks in O(1) whether it is relevant before doing a full evaluation
4. Periodic rescan. Every 5 minutes, re-scans for new or modified .base files and re-evaluates queries
5. Debouncing. Rapid changes are debounced (1 second) to avoid evaluating the same query multiple times

This approach means notifications respond to changes within seconds, without continuously polling.

Notification Sync

TaskNotes can create real Markdown files that represent notification-enabled bases. This is handled by the BaseNotificationSyncService.

These "notification task" files:

• Live in your task folder alongside regular tasks
• Have type: base-notification in frontmatter
• Link back to the source .base file via a sourceBase wikilink
• Track the current matchCount from the base's query
• Are recognized as tasks by TaskNotes (they have isTask: true)

This means notification items can appear in your regular Bases views and be filtered, sorted, and grouped like any other task. The Upcoming View shows them with a special badge indicating they come from a view notification rather than a standalone task.

The sync runs on plugin load, after each base evaluation, and periodically. It creates, updates, and removes notification files as bases are added, changed, or have notify: true removed.

How It Differs from Reminders

Both systems can be active at the same time. A task can trigger a reminder (because its due date is approaching) and also appear in a notification (because it matches a view's filter).

Settings

These settings are in Settings > Features > Notifications:

Per-view settings are configured in the .base file YAML or through the Configure panel:

Related

• Notification Delivery for toast, bell icon, per-category behavior, snooze, and seen tracking
• Reminders for per-task date-driven alerts
• Upcoming View for the aggregated view that shows notification items
• Team & Attribution for assignee-aware notification filtering