Snowflake: Automatic Templates for Obsidian

An Obsidian plugin that automatically applies templates to new notes based on their folder location. Create consistent note structures with dynamic variables like dates, times, and unique IDs.

Features

• Automatic Templates: Assign templates to folders. New files get those templates automatically.
• Template Inheritance: Nested folders inherit templates from parent folders
• Dynamic Variables: Insert current date, time, note title, and unique IDs
• Smart Merging: Safely merges templates with existing content without data loss
• Manual Commands: Apply templates on-demand to existing notes
• Bulk Operations: Apply templates to all notes in a folder at once

Quick Start

1. Create a templates folder (default: "Templates")
2. Create template files in that folder (e.g., project-template.md, meeting-template.md)
3. Configure folder mappings in Settings → Snowflake
4. Create new notes in mapped folders to see templates applied automatically

Configuring Folder Mappings

1. Open Settings → Snowflake
2. Click "Add folder mapping"
3. Select a folder and its corresponding template
4. Notes created in that folder will now use the template

Template Inheritance

Templates inherit from parent folders automatically:

Projects/              → uses: project-template.md
  └── Web/             → uses: web-template.md
      └── Frontend/    → inherits both templates with smart merging

Manual Commands

Access via Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P):

• Apply template to current note: Applies the appropriate template based on the note's location
• Apply specific template: Choose any template to apply to the current note
• Apply templates to folder: Bulk apply templates to all notes in a selected folder
• Create new note in folder: Creates a new note in the selected folder and applies all mapped templates

Keyboard Shortcuts

You can assign keyboard shortcuts to any Snowflake command:

1. Go to Settings → Hotkeys
2. Search for "Snowflake"
3. Click the + icon next to any command
4. Press your desired key combination

Tip: Replace Obsidian's default "New note" behavior: Assign Cmd/Ctrl + N to "Snowflake: Create new note in folder." This gives you folder selection and automatic template application. The original Obsidian behavior can still be accessed via the Command Palette.

Advanced Features

Template Variables

Snowflake supports the following dynamic variables that are replaced when templates are applied:

• {{title}} - The filename without the .md extension
  • Example: "Meeting Notes.md" → "Meeting Notes"
• {{date}} - Current date (format customizable in settings)
  • Default format: YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., "2024-01-15")
• {{time}} - Current time (format customizable in settings)
  • Default format: HH:mm (e.g., "14:30")
• {{snowflake_id}} - A unique 10-character alphanumeric ID
  • Format: Mix of letters and numbers (e.g., "x8K2n5pQ7A")
  • Uses cryptographically secure random generation
  • Multiple instances in the same template receive the same ID

Example template with variables:

---
id: {{snowflake_id}}
created: {{date}} {{time}}
modified: {{date}} {{time}}
---

# {{title}}

Created on {{date}} at {{time}}

Custom Date/Time Formats

In settings, customize formats using moment.js syntax:

• Date: DD/MM/YYYY, MMM DD, YYYY, etc.
• Time: h:mm A, HH:mm:ss, etc.

Template Property Exclusions (Delete Lists)

Templates can exclude properties from parent templates using the delete property. This is useful when you want to remove inherited properties that don't apply to specific note types.

Basic Usage

Add a delete property to your template's frontmatter with an array of property names to exclude:

---
delete: [author, project]
category: personal
tags: [diary]
---

How It Works

1. Properties listed in delete are removed from the inherited template
2. Child templates can re-add excluded properties by defining them explicitly
3. The delete property itself is never included in the final note

Example Inheritance Chain

Consider this template hierarchy:

base-template.md (parent):

---
author: Team
project: Default Project
status: draft
tags: [base]
---

personal-template.md (child):

---
delete: [author, project]
category: personal
tags: [personal]
---

journal-template.md (grandchild):

---
author: Me  # Re-adds the author property
mood: neutral
tags: [journal]
---

When a note uses the journal template:

• project is excluded (removed by personal-template)
• author is included with value "Me" (re-added by journal-template)
• status is included (never excluded)
• All tags are concatenated: [base, personal, journal]

File Exclusion Patterns

Each folder mapping can have exclusion patterns to prevent templates from being applied to specific files or directories.

Pattern Types

Exact filename:

• README.md - excludes files named exactly "README.md"

Wildcard patterns:

• *.tmp - excludes all files ending with .tmp
• draft-* - excludes files starting with "draft-"
• test?.md - excludes files like "test1.md", "testA.md"

Directory patterns:

• Archive/ - excludes all files under the Archive directory
• Old/Backups/ - excludes all files under the nested Old/Backups directory

Recursive patterns:

• **/README.md - excludes README.md files in any subdirectory
• **/draft-* - excludes draft files at any depth

Examples

To exclude an entire subdirectory and some specific files:

Archive/
*.tmp
draft-notes.md

This will ignore:

• Everything under Projects/Archive/
• Any .tmp files
• Files named exactly draft-notes.md

Development

Built with TypeScript:

src/
├── main.ts                    # Plugin entry point
├── template-applicator.ts     # Core template logic
├── template-loader.ts         # Template file management
├── template-variables.ts      # Variable replacement
├── frontmatter-merger.ts      # YAML merging logic
├── commands.ts                # Command registration
└── ui/                        # Settings and modals

Development Setup

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/ali01/obsidian-snowflake.git
cd obsidian-snowflake
npm install

# Development (with watch)
npm run dev

# Production build
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

# Quality checks
npm run check

Compatibility

• Requires Obsidian v0.12.0 or higher
• Works with all themes and other plugins
• No external dependencies

Community

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file

Acknowledgments

• Built for the Obsidian community
• ID generation inspired by Nano ID

Author

Ali Yahya