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Timelines Studio is a free, open-source app for creating customizable, interactive timelines for worldbuilding and history. Organize events, spans, and eras with tags and groups, link Markdown notes or MediaWiki sources directly to elements, and visualize timelines geographically with map view and coordinate support.
Local-first. Everything lives on your device as plain .timeline (JSON) and .md files: no account, no cloud, no lock-in.
Download the latest release for Windows and macOS.
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Features
- Events, spans & eras: pin dated moments and customize them with thumbnail images and icons, draw periods that can branch from or merge into other spans, and wrap stretches of time into named eras that wash across the whole canvas.
- Tags & groups: organize elements and filter the canvas to just what you're working on.
- Notes & sources: attach Markdown notes, sources, and MediaWiki content directly to timeline elements, and connect the notes folder to an existing vault (like Obsidian) to keep your research beside the timeline.
- Map view: give any event or span coordinates and watch your timeline unfold across geography.
- Spreadsheet view: flip the whole canvas into a sortable table to edit dates, rename entries, and bulk-fix details.
- Themes: browse a marketplace of 100+ community themes, set a different theme per timeline, or recolor the entire app.
- Local-first: everything is stored on your device as plain
.timelineand.mdfiles. Free and open source under GPL-3.0. - Web viewer: open any
.timelinefile in the browser at timelines.studio/viewer, and if the file lives in a GitHub repo, paste its link to get a shareable URL anyone can view without installing the app.
Translations
The interface is translatable. Locale files live in src/locales// as plain JSON,
and a language picker sits in App Settings under General, with English as the fallback.
See CONTRIBUTING-i18n.md to add a language.
Installing
Download the installer for your platform from the Releases page.
Data
Timelines are stored as .timeline JSON files and notes as .md files. By default these live in your system app data folder. You can point to a custom directory in app settings.
Setup
Prerequisites: Node.js LTS
1. Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/sreegjl/timelines.git
cd timelines
2. Install dependencies
npm installDevelopment
Start the app:
npm run electron:dev[!NOTE]
App performance is worse in dev mode. Use it to test changes, and build the app for regular use.
Building
Build the Electron app installer:
npm run electron:buildThe output installer will be in the release/ folder.
Support
Timelines is built and maintained by one developer. If it's useful to you, you can support development on Ko-fi. Thank you!