u/SmetDenis

well.. About 5 months ago, I had some free time and built an OWUI extension to keep track of my session size and avoid accidentally exceeding the context window limit.

I always also had a concern that session performance might degrade once it exceeds 30-50% capacity (this is something I've noticed during my own testing with different models).

So, I put together a simple extension, published it, and completely forgot about it.

Recently, I discovered that the extension has been downloaded over 3,700 times. Whaaat? I was quite surprised, as I assumed such a niche tool wouldn't have much appeal.

So, I decided to update it.

Here is a brief overview of the plugin: Shows token counts, reasoning/cached breakdowns, context-window utilization, generation time, tokens/sec and message/chat cost below each AI response. Reads provider-reported usage across OpenAI (Chat & Responses API), Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama and llama.cpp, with an optional tiktoken fallback. Cost is shown when your provider/proxy reports it (OpenRouter, LiteLLM) and can optionally be estimated from models.dev prices.

https://openwebui.com/posts/token_usage_display_a94ea72f

Just wanted to share this in case anyone finds it useful. No rocket science or smart AI things, just a simple QoL improvement =)

If you rely on filesystem dates (ctime/mtime) for your notes, you've probably noticed they can't be trusted. Sync services (iCloud, Obsidian Sync, Syncthing, Dropbox, Git) rewrite files on every device - resetting modification times, overwriting creation dates, or making every note look "just modified." The OS doesn't care about your workflow; it tracks file operations, not when you actually wrote something.

I built a plugin that moves timestamps out of the filesystem and into frontmatter - where they belong, where they're portable, and where sync can't silently corrupt them.

Yeah... I'm aware of all existing alternatives, but they are a bit buggy and do not cover many of my requirements. That is why I decided to build my own. Fortunately, I have 10+ years of coding experience. I have also thoroughly reviewed the feedback on alternative solutions to understand user pain points and needs.

How it works: The plugin uses SHA-256 content hashing to detect real changes. If a sync service rewrites a file without changing its content, the hash matches and no timestamp is updated. No false updates, no sync loops.

Key features:

Auto-updates created and updated on every real edit
Optional viewed timestamp - records when you last opened a note, queryable via Dataview for spaced repetition or "what haven't I looked at?" dashboards
Configurable date format (date-fns syntax), timezone support, string or numeric (Unix) output
Gitignore-style file filters - include/exclude paths with globs, ! re-includes, comments
Smart new-file delay (default 5s) - plays nicely with Templater, Daily Notes, QuickAdd and etc
Hash tracking modes: body only, frontmatter only, or both - you control what counts as a "change"
Frontmatter key exclusion from change detection
Bulk operations with dry-run previews: populate timestamps from filesystem dates, rename keys across all files, reformat dates from one format to another
Pause/resume with countdown timer and status bar indicator
Works on desktop and Android

The default ISO 8601 format (yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss) works natively with Dataview for sorting and filtering. You can change it.

If your vault already has hundreds of notes without timestamps, the bulk populate tool reads filesystem ctime/mtime and writes them into frontmatter - with a preview table so you can review everything before committing. Fill missing only or overwrite all, your choice. Just in case, please create a backup for bulk operations!

Install manually from the latest release - community plugin submission is pending review.

Feedback and issues welcome: https://github.com/SmetDenis/obsidian-frontmatter-date-manager

Thank you :)

I've updated the Function to display Token Usage &amp; Costs

I've updated the Function to display Token Usage & Costs