Templates

A Template is a page you keep as a pattern, such as a meeting agenda or a weekly review. Type /Template in any document to copy a Template's text in, with the date and the document's name filled in. A graph can also have a Journal Template, which each new day starts with.

Make a Template

A page is a Template when its frontmatter says template: true:

---
title: Weekly Review
template: true
---
- Review of [[{{date}}]]
  - What went well: {{cursor}}
  - [ ] Plan next week

To add the key, use Add frontmatter on the page and change template: false to template: true, or type it into the block yourself. The value must be true, not "true".

The page's name is the Template's name. Only the text below the frontmatter is copied, so a Template's own public, aliases or other keys never reach a copy. A journal entry cannot be a Template, and neither can a protected document (Protected Documents).

While the page is a Template, the variables EtherPK knows are coloured as you type them. A mistyped one, such as {{dat}}, stays plain.

Insert a Template

Type /Template and press Enter, then choose the Template from the list. Use the arrow keys and Enter, or click it. Each row shows the Template's first line, and the Journal Template is labelled. On a phone, the Commands button on the command bar types the / for you.

/Template is not offered in a page's frontmatter or inside a code block, and nothing is inserted if the cursor has moved into one by the time the Template is read.

Where the text lands:

• On an empty bullet, the Template's first block takes the bullet.
• On a bullet that already has text, the Template goes under it as child blocks. A Template that starts with a line of plain text goes after it instead, as Enter would.
• On an empty line outside any bullet, the Template starts at the margin.
• A Template of one plain line is typed in where the cursor is.

Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) removes the whole Template in one step, and what you type after it is a step of its own.

Inserted into a page that is itself a Template, the text is copied with its variables as written, so you can build one Template from another.

Variables

Variables are names in double braces. They are filled in when the Template is copied, never in the Template itself.

Variable	Gives
{{date}}	The date, as 2026-10-14
{{yesterday}}, {{tomorrow}}	The day before and the day after
{{time}}	The time, as 14:05
{{datetime}}	2026-10-14 14:05
{{title}}	The name of the document the Template is copied into
{{cursor}}	Where the cursor goes after the copy
{{date:DD/MM/YYYY}}, {{time:HH:mm:ss}}	The date or time in your own format

• Every variable gives plain text. Write a link around one to link it, for example [[{{date}}]] for the day's journal entry, or [[{{title}}]].
• In a journal entry, the date variables mean that entry's day. In any other document they mean today.
• A format can use YYYY, YY, MM (month), DD, HH, mm (minutes) and ss. Any other character is copied as written.
• A name EtherPK does not know is copied as written. To write double braces that are not a variable, put a backslash before them: \{{name}}.
• Only the first {{cursor}} counts. A {{cursor}} on a line of its own between bullets puts the cursor at the end of the line above.

The Journal Template

Choose a Template under Settings and Extensions → General → Journal Template. From then on, today and every later day open holding it, with that day's date in its variables. Nothing is saved until you type, so opening tomorrow to look at it creates nothing.

• Past days open empty.
• A day that is created another way holds only what that way writes: moving Quick Notes into a day, an AI agent writing to it, or an import.
• If you rename the Template, the setting follows it. If the page is deleted or stops being a Template, new days open empty and the setting says "Template not found".
• The setting is part of the graph, so everyone who shares a synced graph gets the same Journal Template.

What a Template is left out of

A Template's text is a pattern, so its tasks and links do not count as yours:

• Its tasks are not in the Tasks view or on Kanban Boards.
• Its links do not show in Backlinks, and The Graph View leaves it out.
• Its places are not on a Map View (Maps).

Search still finds a Template by its name and its text. When you rename a page, links to it inside Templates are updated too.

A Template is published only if it says public: true, like any page, and its variables then appear as written.

Templates from other apps

Importing A Knowledge Base brings templates across from Logseq, Obsidian and AS Notes, and sets the Journal Template from each app's own setting.

AI agents

The Headless Client's create_page and append_document tools take a template name and fill its variables in for the document they write. See Using AI Agents With Your Notes.