GTD Brain for Obsidian
Run Getting Things Done in your own Obsidian vault and keep it in sync with GTD Brain. The plugin lays out the classic GTD structure — Inbox, Next Actions grouped by context, Projects, Waiting For, Someday/Maybe — as plain Markdown notes, one note per card, plus a Weekly Review checklist. Edit a note, move it to another list folder, or create a new one, and the change lands on your GTD Brain board; capture from your phone or ChatGPT, and the note appears in your vault.
It is a free, open-source community plugin. Sign in with the same email code you use everywhere else — no API key, no password — and the vault becomes a GTD Brain account (or joins the one you already have).
What you’ll need
- Obsidian 1.6.6 or newer on desktop or mobile.
- An email address — signing in with a new one creates your GTD Brain account.
Where to get it
Free to install from github.com.
Step-by-step setup
Install the plugin
In Obsidian open Settings → Community plugins, turn off Restricted mode if it is on, click Browse, search for “GTD Brain”, then Install and Enable it.
Sign in with your email code
Run the command “GTD Brain: Sign in” (or open the plugin's settings and click Sign in). Enter your email, type the code we send you, and you are connected. New email, new account — nothing to set up on the web first.
Create the GTD vault structure
Run “GTD Brain: Set up GTD folders”. The plugin creates the GTD Brain folder with Inbox, Next Actions, Projects, Waiting For and Someday Maybe, the list overview notes, and a Weekly Review checklist. If you already had a board, every card arrives as a note in the right folder.
Work in Markdown, sync in the background
Type a new note in Inbox to capture, drag a note into Next Actions to clarify it (set its @context in the frontmatter), or into Waiting For with who you delegated it to. The plugin syncs on a timer and on “GTD Brain: Sync now”; every change is mirrored to the web, iOS, Android, and your AI assistants.
What you can do once installed
The vault is plain Markdown, so everything else in Obsidian works on it — Dataview, Bases, backlinks, daily notes. Things people do with it:
- Capture on the phone, clarify at the desk: inbox notes from the mobile app show up in the vault, ready to be moved into a list.
- Link an action to its project by setting project: [[Project name]] in the note's frontmatter.
- Keep the Waiting For list honest: the who and since fields render as a table in the Waiting For overview note.
- Run the Weekly Review checklist note top to bottom every Friday — it links to each list.
- Query the notes with Dataview or Bases: every card note carries list, context, kind, who and since as frontmatter.
Every capture lands on the same board as the web, iOS, and Android apps — instantly. And cards can be archived but never deleted, so nothing is ever lost to a stray keystroke.
Troubleshooting
I can't find the plugin in Community plugins.
Obsidian only lists plugins that passed community review. Until then, or on a vault that can't reach the directory, install it from the GitHub release: copy main.js, manifest.json and styles.css into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/gtd-brain/ and reload Obsidian.
A note I edited didn't change on the board.
Sync runs on the interval in the plugin settings and on “GTD Brain: Sync now”. Only the filename (the card title), the note body (the card notes) and the frontmatter fields context, project, who and since sync — other frontmatter is yours and stays local.
I deleted a note but the card is still on the board.
Deleting a note archives its card on the next sync; the card is not deleted — nothing ever is in GTD Brain. To bring it back, unarchive it on the web app and it returns to the vault.
Frequently asked questions
Does the plugin send my vault to GTD Brain?
Only the notes inside the GTD Brain folder, and only their title, body and the GTD frontmatter fields. Nothing outside that folder is read or sent. The plugin talks to api.minosin.com (GTD Brain's backend) for sign-in and sync and to nothing else; it is open source, so you can check.
Is it two-way?
Yes. Creating, editing, renaming or moving a note pushes the change to the board; changes made on the web, phone or by an AI assistant are pulled into the vault. When the same card changed in both places since the last sync, your note's edits win for the fields you changed and the board's for the rest.
Do I need a paid GTD Brain subscription?
No. The plugin and the sync are free. A GTD Brain subscription unlocks the AI features and the full mobile apps — the same one subscription that covers the web, iOS, and Android apps.
Do changes sync to my other devices?
Yes. The vault mirrors the same board as the web, iOS, and Android apps and every AI assistant you connected, so a note you move to Next Actions is on your phone before you switch apps.
Other connections
Connect ChatGPT · Connect Claude · Connect Claude Code · Connect Cursor · VS Code extension · Connect Telegram · Connect Gemini CLI · Connect Docker MCP Toolkit
New to GTD Brain? Get started free — or skip the web entirely: installing the Obsidian plugin and signing in creates your board.