Foam supports note templates which let you customize the starting content of your notes instead of always starting from an empty note.
Foam supports two types of templates:
.md
files) - Simple templates with predefined content and variables.js
files) - Smart templates that can adapt based on context and make intelligent decisionsBoth types of templates are located in the special .foam/templates
directory of your workspace.
For simple templates:
Foam: Create New Template
command from the command palette.md
file in the .foam/templates
directoryFor smart templates:
.js
file in the .foam/templates
directory (see JavaScript Templates section below)To create a note from a template:
Foam: Create New Note From Template
command and follow the instructions. Don’t worry if you’ve not created a template yet! You’ll be prompted to create a new simple template if none exist.Foam: Create New Note
command, which uses the special default template (.foam/templates/new-note.md
or .foam/templates/new-note.js
, if it exists)The default template is used by the Foam: Create New Note
command. Foam will look for these templates in order:
.foam/templates/new-note.js
(JavaScript template).foam/templates/new-note.md
(Markdown template)Customize this template to contain content that you want included every time you create a note.
The daily note template is used when creating daily notes (e.g. by using Foam: Open Daily Note
). Foam will look for these templates in order:
.foam/templates/daily-note.js
(JavaScript template).foam/templates/daily-note.md
(Markdown template)For a simple markdown template, it is recommended to define the YAML Front-Matter similar to the following:
---
type: daily-note
---
JavaScript templates are a powerful way to create smart, context-aware note templates that can adapt based on the situation. Unlike static Markdown templates, JavaScript templates can make intelligent decisions about what content to include.
Use JavaScript templates when you want to:
A JavaScript template is a .js
file that exports a function returning note content, and optionally location:
// .foam/templates/daily-note.js
async function createNote({ trigger, foam, resolver, foamDate }) {
const today = dayjs();
// or you could use foamDate for day specific notes, see FOAM_DATE_* variables
// const day = dayjs(foamDate)
const formattedDay = today.format('YYYY-MM-DD');
// if you need a variable you can use the resolver
// const title = await resolver.resolveFromName('FOAM_TITLE');
console.log(
'Creating note for today: ' + formattedDay,
JSON.stringify(trigger)
);
let content = `# Daily Note - ${formattedDay}
## Today's focus
-
## Notes
-
`;
switch (today.day()) {
case 1: // Monday
content = `# Week Planning - ${formattedDay}
## This week's goals
- [ ] Goal 1
- [ ] Goal 2
## Focus areas
-
`;
break;
case 5: // Friday
content = `# Week Review - ${formattedDay}
## What went well
-
## What could be improved
-
## Next week's priorities
-
`;
break;
}
return {
content,
filepath: `/weekly-planning/${formattedDay}.md`,
};
}
Smart meeting notes:
async function createNote({ trigger, foam, resolver }) {
const title = (await resolver.resolveFromName('FOAM_TITLE')) || 'Meeting';
const today = dayjs();
// Detect meeting type from title
const isStandup = title.toLowerCase().includes('standup');
const isReview = title.toLowerCase().includes('review');
let template = `# ${title} - ${today.format('YYYY-MM-DD')}
`;
if (isStandup) {
template += `## What I did yesterday
-
## What I'm doing today
-
## Blockers
-
`;
} else if (isReview) {
template += `## What went well
-
## What could be improved
-
## Action items
- [ ]
`;
} else {
template += `## Agenda
-
## Notes
-
## Action items
- [ ]
`;
}
return {
content: template,
filepath: `/meetings/${title}.md`,
};
}
JavaScript templates must return an object with:
content
(required): The note content as a stringfilepath
(required): Custom file path for the note
onRelativePath
command configuration.return {
content: '# My Note\n\nContent here...',
filepath: 'custom-folder/my-note.md',
};
JavaScript templates run in a best-effort secured environment:
This increases the chances that templates stay safe while still being powerful enough for complex logic.
STILL - PLEASE BE AWARE YOU ARE EXECUTING CODE ON YOUR MACHINE. THIS SANDBOX IS NOT MEANT TO BE THE ULTIMATE SECURITY SOLUTION.
YOU MUST TRUST THE REPO CONTRIBUTORS
Markdown templates are a simple way to create notes
Use Markdown templates when you want to:
Markdown templates can use all the variables available in VS Code Snippets.
In addition, you can also use variables provided by Foam:
Name | Description |
---|---|
FOAM_SELECTED_TEXT |
Foam will fill it with selected text when creating a new note, if any text is selected. Selected text will be replaced with a wikilink to the new |
FOAM_TITLE |
The title of the note. If used, Foam will prompt you to enter a title for the note. |
FOAM_TITLE_SAFE |
The title of the note in a file system safe format. If used, Foam will prompt you to enter a title for the note unless FOAM_TITLE has already caused the prompt. |
FOAM_SLUG |
The sluggified title of the note (using the default github slug method). If used, Foam will prompt you to enter a title for the note unless FOAM_TITLE has already caused the prompt. |
FOAM_DATE_* |
FOAM_DATE_YEAR , FOAM_DATE_MONTH , FOAM_DATE_WEEK etc. Foam-specific versions of VS Code’s datetime snippet variables. Prefer these versions over VS Code’s. |
FOAM_DATE_*
variablesFoam defines its own set of datetime variables that have a similar behaviour as VS Code’s datetime snippet variables.
For example, FOAM_DATE_YEAR
has the same behaviour as VS Code’s CURRENT_YEAR
, FOAM_DATE_SECONDS_UNIX
has the same behaviour as CURRENT_SECONDS_UNIX
, etc.
By default, prefer using the FOAM_DATE_
versions. The datetime used to compute the values will be the same for both FOAM_DATE_
and VS Code’s variables, with the exception of the creation notes using the daily note template.
For more nitty-gritty details about the supported date formats, see here.
When referring to daily notes, you can use the relative snippets (/+1d
, /tomorrow
, etc.). In these cases, the new notes will be created with the daily note template, but the datetime used should be the relative datetime, not the current datetime.
By using the FOAM_DATE_
versions of the variables, the correct relative date will populate the variables, instead of the current datetime.
For example, given this daily note template (.foam/templates/daily-note.md
):
# $FOAM_DATE_YEAR-$FOAM_DATE_MONTH-$FOAM_DATE_DATE
## Here's what I'm going to do today
- Thing 1
- Thing 2
When the /tomorrow
snippet is used, FOAM_DATE_
variables will be populated with tomorrow’s date, as expected.
If instead you were to use the VS Code versions of these variables, they would be populated with today’s date, not tomorrow’s, causing unexpected behaviour.
When creating notes in any other scenario, the FOAM_DATE_
values are computed using the same datetime as the VS Code ones, so the FOAM_DATE_
versions can be used in all scenarios by default.
Markdown templates can also contain metadata about the templates themselves. The metadata is defined in YAML “Frontmatter” blocks within the templates.
Name | Description |
---|---|
filepath |
The filepath to use when creating the new note. If the filepath is a relative filepath, it is relative to the current workspace. |
name |
A human readable name to show in the template picker. |
description |
A human readable description to show in the template picker. |
Foam-specific variables (e.g. $FOAM_TITLE
) can be used within template metadata. However, VS Code snippet variables are (currently) not supported.
filepath
attributeIt is possible to vary the filepath
value based on the current date using the FOAM_DATE_*
variables. This is especially useful for the [daily-notes] template if you wish to organize by years, months, etc. Below is an example of a daily-note template metadata section that will create new daily notes under the journal/YEAR/MONTH-MONTH_NAME/
filepath. For example, when a note is created on November 15, 2022, a new file will be created at C:\Users\foam_user\foam_notes\journal\2022\11-Nov\2022-11-15-daily-note.md
. This method also respects the creation of daily notes relative to the current date (i.e. /+1d
).
---
type: daily-note
foam_template:
description: Daily Note
filepath: '/journal/$FOAM_DATE_YEAR/$FOAM_DATE_MONTH-$FOAM_DATE_MONTH_NAME_SHORT/$FOAM_DATE_YEAR-$FOAM_DATE_MONTH-$FOAM_DATE_DATE-daily-note.md'
---
# $FOAM_DATE_YEAR-$FOAM_DATE_MONTH-$FOAM_DATE_DATE Daily Notes
name
and description
attributesThese attributes provide a human readable name and description to be shown in the template picker (e.g. When a user uses the Foam: Create New Note From Template
command):
If your template already has a YAML Frontmatter block, you can add the Foam template metadata to it.
Foam only supports adding the template metadata to YAML Frontmatter blocks. If the existing Frontmatter block uses some other format (e.g. JSON), you will have to add the template metadata to its own YAML Frontmatter block.
Further, the template metadata must be provided as a YAML block mapping, with the attributes placed on the lines immediately following the foam_template
line:
---
existing_frontmatter: "Existing Frontmatter block"
foam_template: # this is a YAML "Block" mapping ("Flow" mappings aren't supported)
name: My Note Template # Attributes must be on the lines immediately following `foam_template`
description: This is my note template
filepath: `journal/$FOAM_TITLE.md`
---
This is the rest of the template
You can add the template metadata to its own YAML Frontmatter block at the start of the template:
---
foam_template:
name: My Note Template
description: This is my note template
filepath: 'journal/$FOAM_TITLE.md'
---
This is the rest of the template
If the note already has a Frontmatter block, a Foam-specific Frontmatter block can be added to the start of the template. The Foam-specific Frontmatter block must always be placed at the very beginning of the file, and only whitespace can separate the two Frontmatter blocks.
---
foam_template:
name: My Note Template
description: This is my note template
filepath: 'journal/$FOAM_TITLE.md'
---
---
existing_frontmatter: 'Existing Frontmatter block'
---
This is the rest of the template