Note templates

Templates are ready-made notes for common tasks — a daily report, a bug-fix write-up, a feature plan, and more. Start a note from a template to skip the blank page and keep your notes consistent.

Inkdrop ships with a set of built-in templates, and you can add your own.

The Templates section on the sidebar

You'll find Templates in the sidebar, just below All Notes. Click it to browse every template available to you.

The list shows your own templates first, under a Custom section (which appears once you have at least one), followed by the built-in templates grouped by category.

Selecting a template here opens it for viewing or editing — it does not create a note. To create a note from a template, use the Create a new note picker described below.

Create a note from a template

When you create a note, Inkdrop opens the Create a new note picker, where you can start from a blank note or from a template.

1. Click in the upper-right corner of the note list, or press Command+N / Ctrl+N.
2. Type in the search field to filter the list, or use the Up / Down arrow keys to browse. The pane on the right previews the selected template.
3. Press Enter, or click a template, to create a note from it.

Your most recently used templates appear in a Recently used section at the top of the list, so the templates you rely on stay within easy reach.

Built-in templates

Inkdrop comes with templates for a range of everyday tech tasks, grouped by category:

You can't overwrite a built-in template, but you can build on one — edit it directly, and Inkdrop saves your changes as a new custom template (see below).

Create a custom template

A custom template is simply a note that lives in the built-in Templates notebook. Any note you put there becomes available in the Create a new note picker and the Templates section on the sidebar.

To create one from scratch:

1. Click Templates in the sidebar.
2. Press Command+N / Ctrl+N, or click .
   Because you're in the Templates section, Inkdrop creates a new template note directly — the picker is skipped.
3. Give it a title and write the content you want to reuse. It's saved as a template automatically.

Your custom templates show up under the Custom section in both the sidebar's Templates list and the Create a new note picker.

Customize a built-in template

To base your own template on one of the built-in ones, edit it directly — there's no need to copy it first:

1. Open the Templates section on the sidebar and select the built-in template you want to start from.
2. Edit its content.
   When you save, Inkdrop keeps the original built-in template intact and saves your changes as a new template under Custom.

Set tags and status

A template works like any other note: the tags and status you set on it in the editor — using the fields under the note's title — carry over to every note you create from it.

Alternatively, you can also declare them in the template's frontmatter (see below).

Configure a template with frontmatter

The name shown for a template comes from the title of the template note itself. For everything else — a description, a custom or dynamic title for the notes it creates, or the notebook they're filed into — add a _template block to the note's YAML frontmatter, the section between the --- lines at the top of the note. Every field is optional.

---
_template:
  title: "{{ 'now' | date: '%Y-%m-%d' }} - Daily Report"
  description: What I did today, what I plan for tomorrow, and any blockers.
  tags:
    - report
  notebook: Journal
  status: active
---

## What I worked on

1.

## Blockers

1.

Insert the current date and other dynamic values

Both the title and the body of a template can include placeholders that are filled in the moment a note is created:

• Current date — {{ 'now' | date: '%Y-%m-%d' }} inserts today's date (for example, 2026-07-16). Adjust the format string to change it — %H:%M for the time, %A for the weekday, and so on.
• Random ID — {% uuid %} inserts a random UUID.

See also

• Write notes
• Note statuses
• Organize notebooks