Lab Management Tool – Obsidian Edition

Your unified workspace for your research workflow, lab maintenance and operations.

🧭 Overview

The Lab Management System combines the structured documentation of the Digital Lab Notebook with the operational framework of the Lab Operations Tools — creating one environment that links research workflow and lab organization.

Built entirely for Obsidian, it helps applied sciences labs manage projects, measurements, instruments upkeep, inventory, orders, installation and more while keeping all records queryable, traceable, and visually clear.

Whether you’re tracking measurements, maintaining instruments, or managing consumables, everything stays connected — in Markdown.

Key Features

🧪 Digital Lab Notebook

• Structured project folders linking measurements, data, and people.

• Metadata-based notes for experiments (date, researcher, sample, status).

• CSV previews and interactive plots (Plotly + DataviewJS).

• Dashboards summarizing projects, measurements, and tasks.

• Project Trackers that automatically compile all measurements within a project and track completion progress.

🔧 Lab Operations Module

• Instrument & Facility Maintenance: Track inspections, calibrations, and repairs with full service history and automated dashboards.

• Inventory & Ordering System: Manage consumables, stock levels, and supplier links. Flag low items and track orders until delivery.

• People & Responsibilities: Assign roles and visualize each person’s open workload across maintenance, orders, and issues.

• Operations Dashboard: Real-time overview of open work, upcoming tasks, and overdue items across all modules.

• Dataview KPIs & Analytics: Auto-generated summaries of task counts, workload balance, and maintenance performance.

• Polished Interface: Custom CSS snippets for clean, modern dashboards and consistent formatting in both light and dark themes.

Used Plugins

💠 Dataview / DataviewJS – drives dashboards, KPIs, and cross-links.
🗓️ Tasks – handles due dates, recurring actions, and workload.
📊 CSV Table & Plotly – visualize and analyze measurement data.
📅 Calendar / Advanced Tables (optional) – enhance scheduling and tabular editing.

All automation stays visible and editable within Markdown — no external database required.

💼 Ideal For

• Scientists managing research projects and daily lab work.

• Laboratory managers coordinating instruments, safety, and supplies.

• R&D teams needing structured documentation and operational traceability.

🚀 Free download 

The lab tools were developed alongside my book The Organized Lab: A Note-Taking System for Research Teams. They remain available free of charge to anyone who finds them useful — please email HeronSpecs to request access. If the tools resonate with you, the book goes deeper into the ideas behind them.