org-roam-timeline: A visual interface for org-roam dated nodes.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• Features ✨
• License

Org-Roam-Timeline creates an interactive, browser-based timeline of your org-roam notes, allowing you to visualize historical context, filter by tags, and seamlessly navigate between your timeline and your text editor.

It is designed for researchers, historians, and anyone who needs to see when their ideas happened, not just how they link together.

Installation

Use-package

Using use-package (Recommended). You should add something like this to your init.el, this are the keybindings that I find useful, but feel free to change them.

(use-package org-roam-timeline
       :after org-roam
       :bind (("C-c n p" . org-roam-timeline-open)       ; Open the Timeline View
              ("C-c n d" . org-roam-timeline-add-date)   ; Add/Edit Timeline Date
              ("C-c n s" . org-roam-timeline-show-node)  ; Force Show Node in Browser
     	      ("C-c n h" . org-roam-timeline-hide-node)  ; Force Hide Node in Browser
              ("C-c n t" . org-roam-timeline-tag-add)    ; Add Tag (Smart Completion)
	      ("C-c n z" . org-roam-timeline-zoom-date)  ; Focus the view on a specified date
     	 )
       
       ;; Default zoom range (years) when focusing a single point
       (org-roam-timeline-focus-window-years 5)

       ;; Start with connection lines enabled?
       (org-roam-timeline-show-links-on-start t)

       ;; Enable "Follow Me" mode by default? (Timeline tracks your cursor)
       (org-roam-timeline-follow-mode-on-start t)

       ;; Disable the minibuffer with note content in the UI
       (org-roam-timeline-preview-on-start nil)
       
       :config
       (message "Org-Roam Timeline loaded."))

Check other functions included that you could bind if you want complete control from emacs.

From source

Clone repo

org-roam-timeline is NOW ON MELPA, but you can also use it from the github repo:

git clone https://github.com/GerardoCendejas/org-roam-timeline.git

Emacs config

(use-package org-roam-timeline
       :after org-roam
       :load-path "~/.emacs.d/lisp/org-roam-timeline/"  ; Adjust path as needed
       :bind (("C-c n p" . org-roam-timeline-open)       ; Open the Timeline View
              ("C-c n d" . org-roam-timeline-add-date)   ; Add/Edit Timeline Date
              ("C-c n s" . org-roam-timeline-show-node)  ; Force Show Node in Browser
     	      ("C-c n h" . org-roam-timeline-hide-node)  ; Force Hide Node in Browser
              ("C-c n t" . org-roam-timeline-tag-add)    ; Add Tag (Smart Completion)
	      ("C-c n z" . org-roam-timeline-zoom-date)  ; Focus the view on a specified date
     	 )

	 ;; Other bindings

Customization

You can customize the appearance via M-x customize-group org-roam-timeline.

• org-roam-timeline-default-theme: Choose 'dark (default) or 'light.
• org-roam-timeline-focus-window-years: How many years +/- to show when focusing a point event.

Usage

Adding data to Notes

The timeline relies on two properties: TIMELINE_START and (optionally) TIMELINE_END.

• Run C-c n d (or M-x org-roam-timeline-add-date) inside any note.
• Enter a date (Formats: YYYY, YYYY-MM, or YYYY-MM-DD).
• If it's a range, answer "y" and enter the end date.

Adding Tags to Notes

Org-Roam Timeline uses tags to categorize and filter nodes, so I highly encourage the use of them for easier visual filtering.

• Run C-c n t (or M-x org-roam-timeline-tag-add) inside any note.
• Enter one or more tags (separated by colons, e.g., Event:Person:War), they should not have spaces.

Viewing the Timeline

• Run C-c n p (org-roam-timeline-open).
• Your default browser will open the visualization.

Navigation & Filtering

• Scroll: Mouse wheel to move forward and backward.
• Zoom: Ctrl + Mouse Wheel to zoom in/out.
• Focus: Click any node to "Focus". This dims other nodes but the ones connected to this.
• Follow Mode: If enabled, moving your cursor in Emacs will automatically pan the timeline to that node (if it has a date).
• Hard Block: In the sidebar, click the Eye Icon next to a tag to hide all nodes with that tag, even if they match other filters.

Features

• Bi-Directional Sync:
  • Emacs to Browser: Command org-roam-timeline-show-node instantly focuses and zooms to the node in the timeline.
  • Browser to Emacs: Clicking "Open in Emacs" jumps to the exact node in your buffer.
• Focus Mode: Selecting a node dims unrelated items and highlights only the direct connections (links).
• Visual Filtering:
  • Include: Left-click tags to filter the view.
  • Hard Block: Click the "Eye" icon to explicitly hide specific tags (e.g., exclude "Person" to see only "Events").
• Rich Tooltips: Hover over nodes to see color-coded tag pills and date ranges.
• Glassmorphism UI: A modern, dark-mode interface that fits focused research workflows.

FROM EMACS 🤯

You can manipulate these filters and behaviours without leaving your emacs.

• org-roam-timeline-show-node: show the present node.
• org-roam-timeline-hide-node: hide the present node.
• org-roam-timeline-toggle-follow: turn on/off the following behaviour (when org-roam-timeline show the node you are at in emacs).
• org-roam-timeline-toggle-preview: turn on/off the showing of note content in the ui.
• org-roam-timeline-filter-toggle: turn on/off wether to include nodes with some tag.
• org-roam-timeline-filter-block: force all nodes with that tag to hide, even if they have other of the include tags.
• org-roam-timeline-filter-reset: clear all the filters.
• org-roam-timeline-filter-hide-all: hide all nodes, from there, you decide what to see.

What can you use this for? Whether you are mapping historical data (events, wars, bibliography dates), project management (deliverables, deadlines, ideas) or tracking the evolution of your own mind (dating your dailies to see how your ideas changed over time), if you can give it a timestamp, org-roam-timeline will show it to you.

Licence

GPLv3