Timestamps

PodNotes: Capture Timestamp inserts the current episode’s playback time into an active Markdown editor. New installs use - {{linktime}} , including a final space, so captures are clickable links. Existing saved formats remain unchanged.

Settings

Capture timestamp format is the template used by timestamp and segment capture. Timestamp offset (s) subtracts a non-negative whole number of seconds from the playback time, with a minimum result of zero. Its default is 0. Blank or invalid setting input becomes 0. The offset also shifts the end of a recent segment capture.

The timestamp template supports four tags:

Tag	Value
{{time}}	Playback time as plain text.
{{linktime}}	Playback time as a Markdown episode link.
{{segment}}	Captured start and end times as plain text.
{{linksegment}}	Captured start and end times as a Markdown episode link.

Each tag defaults to HH:mm:ss and accepts a custom format after a colon, such as {{linktime:m:ss}}. During an ordinary timestamp capture, the segment tags produce a single time rather than a range. A missing link target produces plain text instead of a link.

Time formats

Time tags use the following tokens, rather than the full Moment.js format language:

Part	Tokens	Meaning
Hours	H, HH	Total elapsed hours, unpadded or padded to at least two digits.
Twelve-hour clock	h, hh	Hour on a twelve-hour clock, unpadded or padded.
Minutes	m, mm	Minute within the hour, unpadded or padded.
Seconds	s, ss	Second within the minute, unpadded or padded.
AM or PM	A, a	Uppercase or lowercase clock label.

A backslash escapes a literal character. {{time:H\h mm\m ss\s}} can render 0h 20m 37s. Square-bracket literal escaping is not supported for time tags. Date tags use a separate formatter.

Capturing timestamps

Capture needs a loaded episode, a non-empty Capture timestamp format, and an active editor. The episode can be paused. A missing episode or format produces this notice:

Play an episode and set a Capture timestamp format in settings to capture a timestamp.

The command inserts at the cursor and replaces selected text. In a Markdown table, pipes are escaped and newlines become spaces so the capture stays inside the cell.

Obsidian’s Hotkeys settings can assign a shortcut to PodNotes: Capture Timestamp. The mobile editor toolbar can include the same command. See Add a capture button.

The headset Media Session previoustrack action also captures a timestamp. It uses the active editor, or appends to the episode note when no editor is active. See Headset capture for its requirements and device limits.

Capturing segments

PodNotes: Capture Last 10 Seconds and PodNotes: Capture Last 20 Seconds insert a recent playback range. The range ends at the current playback time minus Timestamp offset (s). Its start is 10 or 20 seconds earlier, with both ends bounded at zero. A zero-length range produces the notice “Play more of the episode before capturing a segment”.

Segment commands use Capture timestamp format. A template containing {{segment}} or {{linksegment}} is used as a range template. Otherwise, {{time}} becomes {{segment}} and {{linktime}} becomes {{linksegment}}. A template without either kind of tag falls back to - {{linksegment}}. The default template therefore produces a linked range such as 00:01:55-00:02:05.

Opening a segment link seeks to its start, plays the episode, and pauses at its end. Segment capture does not extract an audio clip or create a separate media file.

PodNotes URI

Timestamp and resume links use the obsidian://podnotes handler. The handler accepts these query parameters:

Parameter	Required	Meaning
url	Yes	Podcast feed URL, vault media path, or protected private-feed placeholder.
episodeName	Yes	Episode title.
time	No	Start time parsed as a non-negative finite number of seconds.
endTime	No	Segment end parsed as a finite number of seconds greater than time. Requires a start time.
end	No	Accepted alias of endTime.
to	No	Accepted alias of endTime, after end in precedence.

An omitted or empty time resumes from saved progress. An unplayed or finished episode starts at zero. endTime takes precedence over end, which takes precedence over to.

Query values are percent-encoded. Current links encode spaces as %20 and literal plus signs as %2B. Older links using + for spaces are also tried during title and local-path lookup.

Feed targets must use a public HTTP or HTTPS URL. A protected private-feed placeholder resolves only through a saved subscription and its device-local secret. Local targets need a registered episode and a media file. See Sync and devices.

Episode lookup first tries the title, ignoring case and surrounding whitespace. Its fallback requires a unique match with the same normalized word set, ignoring punctuation, word order, and leading zeros in numeric words. Different words or episode numbers can prevent a match. Timestamp links do not guarantee recovery after every feed title change.