Templates

Templates let you create new notes with pre-built structure. Instead of starting from a blank page every time, define templates for the kinds of notes you create regularly — meeting notes, project plans, book summaries, weekly reviews — and use them with a single shortcut.

Using templates

Open the template picker

Platform	Shortcut
macOS	Cmd+Shift+T
Windows	Ctrl+Shift+T

The template picker shows all available templates in your templates folder. Select one and Ariv creates a new note with that template’s content already filled in.

Tip

Templates also appear in the right sidebar panel, so you can browse and select them without memorizing the shortcut.

Setting up templates

Templates folder

Templates are regular Markdown files stored in a dedicated folder. By default, this is Templates - Ariv at the root of your vault. You can change the location with the files.templatesFolder setting.

Note

If the templates folder doesn’t exist, Ariv creates it automatically the first time you access templates.

Creating a template

To create a template, simply add a .md file to your templates folder. The file name becomes the template name in the picker (without the .md extension).

For example, a file named Meeting Notes.md in your templates folder will appear as “Meeting Notes” in the template picker.

There’s no special syntax or registration required. Any Markdown file in the templates folder is automatically available as a template.

Template variables

You can use dynamic placeholders in your templates that get replaced when a new note is created:

Variable	Replaced with
{{date}}	The current date

The date is formatted according to your chosen date format setting.

Example templates

Here are some templates to get you started. Create each as a .md file in your templates folder.

Meeting Notes

# Meeting: {{date}}

## Attendees
-

## Agenda
1.

## Discussion


## Action Items
- [ ]

## Next Steps

Project Plan

# Project:

## Overview


## Goals
- [ ]
- [ ]
- [ ]

## Timeline

| Phase | Target Date | Status |
| --- | --- | --- |
|  |  | Not started |

## Resources


## Notes

Book Notes

# Book:

**Author:**
**Started:** {{date}}
**Rating:** /5

## Summary


## Key Ideas
1.
2.
3.

## Quotes
>

## How This Applies

Weekly Review

# Weekly Review - {{date}}

## What went well


## What could improve


## Key learnings


## Next week's priorities
- [ ]
- [ ]
- [ ]

## Notes

Tips for effective templates

• Keep templates lightweight. A template should provide structure, not fill in content for you. Leave plenty of room to write.
• Use headings to create sections. They make it easy to navigate long notes and help Ariv’s search find specific parts of your notes.
• Include checkboxes for action items. Tasks written as - [ ] are automatically picked up by the Dashboard action items tracker.
• Add prompts as comments. If a section needs guidance, write a brief prompt (e.g., “What were the main takeaways?”) to remind your future self what to write.

Caution

Templates are copied into new notes at creation time. Editing a template after the fact does not update notes that were already created from it.

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Related: Daily Notes — Daily notes use their own template system | Dashboard — Action items from templates with checkboxes appear on the dashboard