Note Status & Colors
What every status icon and color means, and where to change how they appear.
Note Status & Colors
Every note carries one status. It is shown by the Garden mark in the note’s title bar — four squares, the same mark for every note. Its color and its squares say where the note stands: filled squares are planted, outlined ones are not yet (four outlined: only in your vault; four filled: live and identical; three filled: something to do). Click it and the menu opens with that status and what it means written in grey, followed by the actions that fit it. The same color appears in the panel badge, the panel’s top accent and the thin bar at the bottom of the note.
| Status | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Not connected | grey | No Standard Garden account is connected yet. Click the mark, then Connect to Garden. |
| Local | grey | Lives only in your vault. Never shared. |
| Queued | amber | Marked publish: true, waiting for its first upload. |
| Synced | green | Live, and identical to your local note. |
| Modified | sky blue, with a dot | Online, but you changed it locally since. Publish to update. |
| Outdated | orange, with a dot | A newer version exists online (edited on the web or another device). Pull it, or force-publish yours. |
| Unpublished (online) | red, with a dot | You set publish: false, but the note is still live. Unpublish it, or republish. |
| To download | orange | Online, but not in this vault (↓ N in the panel header). See Notes to download. |
The dot on the three last colored states means the note is waiting for you to do something, so the signal does not rest on color alone. What do these colors mean?, the last item of the mark’s menu, shows this table inside Obsidian.
A synced note’s visibility shows in its label and in the menu’s grey line: Synced (unlisted) is reachable only by its direct link, Synced (private) is visible only to you.
Settings
- Panel top status indicator — the accent at the top of the panel and the bar at the bottom of each note: Garden (animated organic gradient), Subtle (a thin line) or Disabled.
- Publish status badge location — title bar (default), status bar, ribbon, or hidden. Hold ⌥ Option (Mac) or Alt while the settings are open to reveal it.
Hovering the mark shows its label, for example Garden — Synced.